Exclusive:
Christian Brueckner’s lawyer did not comment on why he has been moved to a super-max German prison dubbed the Alcatraz of The North where he can be watched 24/7 – but it is belived it comes after a scuffle with guards
Image: PA)
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has been moved to a new high-security prison dubbed the Alcatraz of The North.
Christian Brueckner, who German investigators believe murdered Madeleine in 2007, is now in solitary confinement at Oldenburg prison near Bremen, north west Germany.
Although the modern prison is a step up in comfort from his previous jails it is covered with CCTV cameras.
All the doors and windows within the walls are made from special reinforced safety glass so guards can keep an eye on prisoners at all times.
Escape is thought to be almost impossible at the high-tech facility which is surrounded by a 22ft wall – although one prisoner managed to flee after befriending a guard.
Get all the latest news straight to your inbox. Sign up to one of the Mirror’s newsletters
When contacted by The Mirror, Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fuelscher, declined to comment on why Brueckner had been transferred.
But it is believed it was in his best interests after he fell and broke his ribs in a scuffle with guards at a jail near Braunschweig.
There he had been housed at the grim Wolfenbüttel prison which is where the Nazis executed several hundred Second World War inmates by stringing them up or decapitating them.
(
Image:
PA)
(
Image:
Carabinieri Milano via Getty Ima)
He had previously been held in Kiel but was unhappy there because he was being bullied by other inmates for his link to the McCann case.
Madeleine was snatched from her bed at the holiday resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 when she was three.
Convicted paedophile Brueckner, 44, fled to Portugal in 1995 after completing a two-year sentence for abusing a child.
He is now serving a seven-year jail term for raping a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve in 2005.
German prosecutors are currently compiling evidence against Brueckner who last year became the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance – and believe she has been murdered.
In May the drifter made his first ever comment on the case, branding the investigation against him “scandalous” in a letter penned from his cell.
Brueckner said the public prosecutor had “brought shame to the legal system”.
He refuses to speak to police or investigators about the case.