The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case had a lock pick kit that he expertly used to gain entry to hotel rooms and tourist apartments, police have reportedly been told.
German Police are also reportedly investigating the possibility that Christian Brueckner used car paint solvent to sedate Madeleine. But investigators were said to be “electrified” when they heard claims that Brueckner boasted to pals about his skill with the burglary tool kit.
It has long been believed that Madelaine’s kidnapper climbed in through a window and snatched the then three-year-old from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007. But a former friend of the suspect claims that Brueckner “came through the door” using the lock pick.
And the friend, known as Helge B, claims to have given the kit to police after he took it from Brueckner’s home in the Algarve.
“You can use it to pick any lock, including security locks,” said Helge B. “I knew from Christian that he uses tools to break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists.”
Helge B – who claims he ransacked Brueckner’s home when he learned his ‘friend’ was in prison – told The Sun: “There were passports on the table. There was all sorts of stuff lying around — cameras, suitcases, everything that tourists have with them. I also found a lock pick set.”
A ‘police source’ reportedly told The Sun that the German detectives “were electrified by the discovery of the tool kit with the lock picks in it”. The source claimed: “This evidence is now very important to them. It confirmed a suspicion that they’d had for a long time — that Christian B entered the apartment through the door.”
The Sun also reports that police have also been told Brueckner had access to car paint solvent as he had been a mechanic. The detectives are now reportedly looking into a theory that Brueckner used solvents to render Madeleine unconscious, before opening the window from the inside to avoid inhaling the fumes.
