German police have been approached by witnesses who claim that the case’s main suspect has confessed to his involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine.

The convicted peadophile is suspected of being involved in the toddler’s disappearance (Image: Getty)

Time is running out for German police as they continue to search a site in Portugal close to where British toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared 18 years ago. The search comes nearly exactly two years since the last major search of the area and is the most extensive search for the toddler since 2008.

At the forefront of the search team and investigators’ minds is German paedophile Christian Brueckner, who, according to some, has confessed to involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, something he denies. Brueckner is due to be released in September from a seven-year prison sentence after his conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist near where Madeleine vanished. Brueckner has been the official suspect in the British toddler’s disappearance since 2020, but has never been formally charged and maintains his innocence.

German investigators have until Friday to search the site (Image: Getty)

Following his release from prison for the sexual assault of a child, Brueckner is reported to have been in a bar with a friend watching 10th-anniversary coverage of Madeleine’s disappearance, when he confided that he “knew all about” what had happened.

The same year, he is reported to have told another acquaintance that Maddie “did not scream”, although the validity of the witness has been called into question.

Brueckner first came to the investigators’ attentions in 2013 when a German television’s version of Crimewatch, Aktenzeichen XY, focussed on the case, leading to a convincing tip off linking Brueckner to a photofit of a man spotted near the site where Madeleine had gone missing.

Journalist Jon Clarke, an expert in the case and author of My Search for Madeleine, believes that the German police’s handling of the case from there was bungled after Brueckner was given advanced warning of their desire to speak to him.

He said: “They messed up, they sent a policeman around to his house and told him he had to appear in a police station three days later to answer questions in the case of Madeleine McCann.

Madeleine’s disappearance sparked an international manhunt (Image: Getty)

“They actually wrote it on the letter, so he was completely warned, and in those three days who knows what happened?”

German police later admitted that this was not standard procedure and should never have happened.

German police continue to search for the toddler’s remains in Portugal using high-tech ground-penetrating radar equipment.

They have until Friday to find any significant evidence linked to the case before the search will be called off.