Prosecutors investigating the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance may be facing a major setback after it was revealed the main witness allegedly lied.
Convicted rapist and paedophile Christian Brückner was named as the prime suspect for the abduction and murder of three-year-old Madeleine from a Portuguese resort in 2007.
Madeleine disappeared from the Praia da Luz resort while her parents were having dinner, and to this day there has been no trace of her whereabouts.
Brückner, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for rape, denies having anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance.
The current case against Brückner was built around key witness Helge Büsching's testimony, BILD reported.
Büsching is said to have claimed that Brückner confessed to him about his involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.
Büsching also told investigators about video cassettes that he claimed to have stolen from Brückner, German media reported.
He said the cassettes allegedly contained videos of sex crimes Brückner had committed, according to BILD.
However, it's now revealed Büsching changed his statement. After originally claiming that the videotapes were hidden in a caravan, neither the video cassettes nor the caravan were ever found.
In January 2023, Büsching's lawyer said he had instead left the cassettes in a finca (farmhouse) where he used to live, and not in a caravan.
Because of this contradiction, Büsching has been reported by Brückner's lawyer Friedrich Fülscher, BILD reported.
The lawyer believes that Büsching is not credible as a witness and told BILD: "The public prosecutor's office should have initiated an official investigation as soon as these circumstances became known. We are far beyond initial suspicion here."
According to Spiegel, investigators at the Federal Criminal Police Office informed Büsching could be prosecuted for "unsworn false statements".
The public prosecutor's office also relies on Büsching's statement about the video cassettes in a current indictment against Brückner.
It concerns several sexual crimes: the alleged rape of Irish woman Hazel Behan in Portugal, two cases of alleged child abuse and other rapes of senior women that are said to be seen on the videotapes, BILD reported.
