Madeleine McCann Case: Met police neglected tipoff for nine years, says key witness

Helge B, the key witness in the Madeleine McCann case who tipped off the police about the main suspect, said the Metropolitan police ignored his initial approach and only took him seriously when he contacted them nine years later.

Helge hails from Germany. In 2008, he approached Scotland Yard about Christian Bruckner, the main suspect, and his involvement in a child abduction case. But he heard nothing back from them. In 2017, the publicity of Madeleine's 10th year of disappearance spurred him to approach the Metropolitan police again. However, this time, they acted on the information provided by him.

Helge told the German tabloid Bild that his connection with Bruckner ruined his life. People assumed they were partners in petty crimes back at Praia da Luz, the resort from where Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

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After being convicted of people smuggling, Helge came out of prison in Greece in 2017. When he approached the Metropolitan police about the case, two officers came to Athens and met him. Later, they took him to London and questioned him formally. In a statement, Helge said, "I called Scotland Yard in 2008, ringing the Maddie hotline. I told them I know someone who has something to do with it and gave them his name. They noted my details, and my telephone number, but nothing happened. Nothing! They never even rang me back. I thought to myself, I guess they'll be in touch at some point."

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In 2018, the German criminal police contacted him to be a witness in a trial. Subsequently, Bruckner was convicted of raping an elderly American woman in 2005, for which he was imprisoned in Germany. Helge told the cops about a video of the heinous crime reportedly made by Bruckner. He found the tape in 2007 in Bruckner's flat, where he went to steal some diesel with a friend. Helge also mentioned that he had seen other such videos, including one in which Bruckner was molesting a teenage girl tied to a pillar. When he left Portugal, he left the tapes in his caravan and did not know what happened to them.

In 2008, Helge met Brückner again in Órgiva, Spain. Helge tried to avoid talking to him. "It was difficult for me. After all, I knew what he had done and that he was immensely dangerous," he said.

The pair had some beers together. Helge started to talk about Maddie and said, "I don't understand how the little one could have disappeared even without a trace."In response, Brückner, drunk on two or three beers, replied, "She didn't scream."

Madeleine Beth McCann was three when she disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007 from Praia da Luz, Portugal. The Daily Telegraph described the disappearance as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history." Netflix released a documentary about the case, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, in 2019.

(With inputs from agencies)

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