Detectives are trying to piece together the timeline around when Christian Brueckner was in the Portuguese resort of Praia De Luz

Maddy’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann(Image: Getty Images)

Police in Germany are in a race against time to track down former lovers, friends and work colleagues of the prime suspect in the Madeliene McCann investigation.

Detectives are trying to piece together the timeline around when Christian Brueckner was in the Portuguese resort of Praia De Luz. They think he was drifting around the area at the time when the then toddler went missing while on holiday with her parents and younger twin siblings.

But officers are believed to have just a few more weeks to save their case, as the Mirror reported last week. They fear their case could be scrapped by the New Year if they can’t come up with a fresh lead. Just a few days ago, the convicted paedophile’s lawyer claimed the German police’s investigation was “shaky”.

Brueckner is yet to be formally charged – but was named by cops as the prime suspect. He has a long criminal history, for both burglary and sex crimes, including against young girls. In the past quarter of a century, he’s been linked to several disappearances. One six-year-old boy in Portugal in 1996 and a five-year-old girl in Germany in 2015 are thought to be his victims.

Christian Brueckner is prime suspect(Image: REX/Shutterstock)

A source close to the case told the Sun: “For years he is thought to have been drifting around the island living in a van and they want to understand more about what he was doing during this time and who he was seeing. The big problem they have is that relations with Portuguese cops are at an all-time low.”

“Hardly any intelligence is now being shared. This has therefore left German cops with little choice but to work backwards and to try and trace as many friends, colleagues, former girlfriends and lovers of Christian B as possible. They might hold vital clues.”

Madeleine McCann has been missing since 2007(Image: PA)

Two years ago Nuray Oezgen spoke up to say she met Christian B while working in a bar in Hanover in 2012 and they eventually rented a place together. But just months into their relationship, she says he became aggressive. She added their relationship broke down when she realised he had an unhealthy obsession with schoolgirls.

The source added: “Christian B lived a very strange life in Germany and later in Praia De Luz. He used a lot of drugs and travelled around meeting women, many of whom went off with him consensually.

“So there’s a web of former partners and lovers who could hold really critical information about what he was getting up to. Officers desperately need new leads.”