Madeleine McCann search latest: Neighbour recalls ‘angry’ suspect’s rows while police ramp up hunt for missing girl

Investigators are scouring a string of derelict farmhouses and outbuildings in a remote stretch of scrubland just over a mile from the resort of Praia da Luz, where the British toddler vanished in 2007.

The 120-acre area, off a dramatic clifftop path along the coast between Atalaia and Lagos, is said to have once been populated by a farming community, but has long-been abandoned because it is so arid.

Now up to 21 of these derelict structures are understood to be the focus of a fresh searches initiated by German investigators 18 years after Madeleine disappeared as they face a race against time to bring charges against their only suspect, Christian Brueckner.

Amy-Clare Martin reports from on the ground:

Journalists were able to enter one of the abandoned structures after police spent the morning clearing rubble and debris inside.

The small stone farm building in the remote area of scrubland is strewn with graffiti and there is evidence of old campfires outside.

It appeared police had cleared the floor inside the outbuilding. It is not known if they will return to carry out further searches at the site.

Reports had suggested ground radar will be brought in but crews have so far been using shovels, chainsaws and a digger to remove rubble as they clear multiple sites across the vast stretch of scrubland.

Speaking to German broadcaster RTL, Christian Brueckner said he planned to disappear after his release from prison.

He is due to be released in September as his seven-year term for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 comes to an end.

The 48-year-old said: “The fact is that I have been in prison for many years for something that I cannot have committed and that therefore, through the participation of the media, half the world considers me a cruel rapist.”

The fresh search for evidence in Atalaia is expected to be entering its final day on Thursday.

Portuguese police haven’t been told what intelligence German investigators are acting on, but unless they uncover anything significant by the end of Thursday they will pack up and head home, it is understood.

Kate and Gerry McCann, who last month marked the 18th anniversary of their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance, are not commenting during the “active police investigation”, the Find Madeleine Campaign said.

Now knowing the full extent of the allegations against him, a former neighbour of Christian Brueckner’s in Atalaia called for him be locked away for the rest of his life “because of what he has done”.

Brueckner, who denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, is due to be released from prison in September as his seven-year term for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 comes to an end.

The former neighbour told The Telegraph that “what’s been uncovered about him is quite despicable”.

Brueckner was also cleared by a German court last year of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

A British local, who has lived in Atalaia since the 1980s and used to be a neighbour of Christian Brueckner, said she believes it is the first time police have searched the area.

The resident, who used to ride her horse around the 120-acre remote area being searched by police, said the farmhouses and outbuildings on the site have been derelict since at least the 80s.

“It is the first time I’ve heard of Atalaia being searched,” she said. “I know the properties because I used go the up there all the time with my horse. I know exactly where they are. Whether he’d been up there or done anything, no clue.”

Christian Brueckner was an “angry” young man who could be heard having rows with his girlfriend, a neighbour has recalled, as police scour scrubland near the cottage where he used to live for signs of Madeleine McCann.

The British local, who has lived in the area since the 80s, said she would regularly say hello to the German, who rented a run-down cottage in Atalaia, just outside Praia da Luz, around the time of the British toddler’s disappearance in 2007.

German police are on their second day of search efforts in a string of derelict farm buildings up a hill less than a mile from the property, which is down a remote track with a few houses.

The neighbour, who did not want to be named, described Brueckner – who would have been in his late 20s at the time – as “quite angry” and she would hear him having rows with his girlfriend.

“If I was riding past and he’d be standing outside, we’d say hello, you know, how are you,” she told The Telegraph. “Nothing more. Then we found out he was a really nasty piece of work.”

Prime suspect in the case Christian Brueckner is in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.

He is due to be released from jail in September if no further charges are made.

In October last year, Brueckner was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.