Madeleine McCann would have turned 22 in May (Picture: PA Archive/PA Images)
Madeleine McCann’s disappearance could have links to an international paedophile network,a former investigator fears.
Maddie went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal’s Praia da Luz 18 years ago. Any searches for her,one as recently as this summer,have led investigators nowhere.
Now a former Belgian official,who led the investigation into the notorious murderer and paedophile Marc Dutroux,has revealed a theory over the disappearance.
Marc Verwilghen,who worked as the Belgian justice minister,told the Sun: ‘I have never had access to the Madeleine McCann files.
The prime suspect in the case,Christian Brueckner,has been locked up for an unrelated crime,but is due to be released tomorrow (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
‘All I can say is as soon as I heard about the case I had deja vu — because it reminded me straight away of Dutroux.
‘When you look at the case it is of course possible Madeleine was stolen to order. The alert that was sent looks like it must have come from Belgium police and it should have been taken seriously.
‘Dutroux investigators uncovered reports of possible paedophile rings operating in Belgium at that time but couldn’t finish their enquiry as this was focused on Dutroux,handling him as a lone actor.’
His comments come just days before the prime suspect in the case,is set to be released from a German prison after being jailed for the rape of an American woman in the same Algarve region where Maddie vanished.
Maddie was three years old when she vanished from a holiday apartment she was sleeping in with her twin siblings (Picture: Rex/Shutterstock)
Dutroux kidnapped,sexually assaulted and murdered girls in Belgium in the 1980s and 1990s before he was caught. The handling of his case led to widespread criticism of the police and Belgian leaders and protests,with the police accused of ignoring leads and tip-offs,including from Dutroux’s own mother.
Dutroux,who was jailed for life in 2004 and who had several accomplices,is accused of having sold children into slavery in other countries.
His former lawyer claimed that Dutroux told him he wanted to create an ‘underground city’ in an abandoned mine where he would lock up kidnapped children.
Verwilghen insisted that European peadophile networks ‘existed to make money.’
He continued: ‘These could be informal networks,one person dealing with another,but they existed.
Belgium’s former justice minister Marc Verwilghen,who was involved in the investigation into paedophile and murderer Dutroux,has put forward his own theory of what could have happened to Madeleine (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
‘The Dutroux case showed us the abduction of children took organisation and planning and more than one person to make this work.
‘Intelligence suggests a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken. Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie,took a photograph of her and sent it to Belgium. The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable and Maddie was taken.’
Brueckner,49,has refused to be interviewed by the Metropolitan Police after the force made an international letter of request to question the German national.
Christian Brueckner appeared in court in October last year charged with sexual crimes unrelated to the Maddie case(Picture: Reuters)
He has not been formally charged in relation to Madeleine’s case,and he has denied being involved.
Brueckner remains a suspect in the Met Police’s own investigation,the force confirmed.
A witness in the German investigation,Helge Busching,54,a former associate of Brueckner’s has said he fears revenge from him after his release from prison.
Busching’s comments were integral to the German investigation,which led to him being declared the prime suspect.
Fresh searches were carried out in the countryside in June a few miles from the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine was last seen
(Picture: James Manning/PA Wire)
Busching claimed his former associate revealed details about hisinvolvement,with Brueckner describing how Madeleine ‘wasn’t screaming.’
He told ITV about a conversation he had with Brueckner in 2008 at a Spanish festival,a year after Maddie vanished: ‘I was thinking,yeah,how you know this…yeah he have to do something with this.
‘He took Maddie out from this hotel. He is involved,sure.’
Busching said he left a voicemail for Scotland Yard that year,but it is thought his message got lost among 60,000 others,remaining buried until 2017.
Busching told the Sun he is ‘afraid’ of his impending release.
‘Christian knows I’m the only one who can pin the Madeleine McCann case on him. He will want me out of the way. Brueckner knows what he told me,he said.
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