Hard drive found at suspect’s factory ‘contains evidence Madeleine McCann is dead’

A hard drive found at a disused factory bought by the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann investigation contains evidence she is dead, it has been claimed.

German prosecutors believe Christian Brueckner killed the three-year-old after she vanished during a family holiday in Praia De Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

The drive was discovered in 2016 at a disused factory which Brueckner bought for £20,000 in 2008, according to The Sun.

Investigators also found an insurance document which proves the suspect was at a music festival where he is said to have confessed to killing Madeleine.

Witness Helge B claims Brueckner told him she “didn’t scream” but questions about his credibility have always remained.

Children’s clothes and toys were said to have been located at the abandoned property alongside masks, chemicals and guns.

German police also discovered six USB sticks and two memory cards in a wallet. The evidence was detected by a dog in 2016.

In one, the suspect described drugging a mother and daughter outside a nursery school, while another spoke of abusing a four-year-old girl.

Skype conversations with other paedophiles were also discovered, including one where he said he wanted to “capture something small and use it for days”.

Child abuse images of four and five-year-old girls were also said to have been found during the searches, and police unearthed more than 75 swimming costumes, alongside toys and small bikes.

A Sat Nav also showed Brueckner had been in the Algarve in the years after Madeleine disappeared.

The claims will air in full in a Channel 4 documentary on Wednesday night.

Representatives of Brueckner were contacted for comment.

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