HELGE Busching is a man sleeping with one eye open – for he is a former pal of paedophile and Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner… and helped put him behind bars.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Busching reveals the chilling reason he fears being a prime target when the violent rapist is freed from prison any day now – and why he is the only person who could pin the Maddie case on the monster paedophile.
PAMadeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007[/caption]
Helge Busching was the first person to give Brueckner’s name to the police
Dan CharityPrime suspect Christian Brueckner is set to be released from prison after serving time for other crimes[/caption]
Helge says he now fears he will be hunted down because of breaking his silencex/ITV
The informant – who sparked the German McCann investigation when he reported Brueckner to cops in 2017 – has left witness protection to flee abroad and stay hidden from Brueckner.
He says: “I’m afraid. Christian knows I’m the only one who can pin the Madeleine McCann case on him. He will want me out of the way.”
Helge added: “Brueckner knows what he told me.
“We were at a festival in Spain in 2008, a year after Madeleine vanished. I didn’t want him to be there – I didn’t want to speak to him.
“He came up to me and said, ‘We haven’t spoken for a long time. Why aren’t you in Portugal any more?’
“I said it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be – that there were too many police since Madeleine McCann. Then I said, ‘How did someone just take her from the apartment?’
“Christian looked at me and said, ‘She didn’t scream’.
“I don’t remember his eyes or his face – but we both knew exactly what he had said.
“I had already seen what he was capable of, and I knew he was telling me he had taken her.
“I didn’t want to drink or have fun at the festival after that. It was on my mind.
“Then I discovered Christian had left the festival in the night, even though that had not been his plan.
“It was clear he left in a rush because he almost ran over someone’s tent with his camper van.
“To me, he realised what he had said to me, and he panicked and decided to run away.”
‘I believed he killed her’
Helge says his past as a petty criminal made him reluctant to go straight to the cops, but he called Scotland Yard just weeks later after seeing Brueckner again.
He told The Sun: “Brueckner wanted some help moving something and needed to contact a friend of mine, but I didn’t want to speak to him.
“I realised I hated him and he needed to be reported.”
AFPBrueckner was identified as the prime Madeleine suspect in 2020[/caption]
Not known, clear with picture deskBrueckner has denied any involvement with Maddie’s disappearance[/caption]
GettyMaddie’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann[/caption]
Scotland Yard told a court last year they had no record of Helge Busching contacting them in 2008, but that does not mean it did not happen.
Helge says he tried to push Brueckner from his mind after speaking to cops, but was moved to ring the police again in 2017 after seeing the ten-year Maddie anniversary coverage in Germany.
The call would spark the investigation into Brueckner’s links to the Maddie case.
Helge confessed: “It is one of the biggest regrets of my life that I did not contact the police again sooner.
“It means Brueckner was a free man – that he got away with so much.
It is one of the biggest regrets of my life that I did not contact the police again sooner.
Helge Busching
“But when I saw the anniversary, I thought, ‘I can’t let him be a free man – I can’t let him get away with this. I need to do something. This cannot go on for the parents.
“I didn’t want to continue with him knowing I was a person he had confessed to. That is when I called Scotland Yard.”
Helge added: “I believe he took Madeleine McCann – I believe he killed her. He knows what happened.”
Recycling plant worker Helge echoed the worries of investigators currently trying to slap Brueckner with an electronic monitoring tag on his release, saying: “He will offend again.”
He says: “I know him. I know this man. I hate this man. It is a matter of time before he abuses another child or attacks another old woman.
AFPWitness Helge Busching fears Brueckner will come after him when he’s released from prison[/caption]
AlamyMaddie disappeared while on holiday with her family in Portugal[/caption]
AFPA police mug shot of Brueckner[/caption]
“And when this happens, whose fault will it be? If you ask me, the court that cleared him last year and set him free will have that on its hands.
“This man is dangerous, I am telling you. I know him, I have seen what he is capable of. It is disgraceful that he is coming out.”
Helge uncovered video of Brueckner brutally torturing and raping an elderly woman in 2005 in the same village Madeleine was snatched from, Praia da Luz.
He took the footage – but later left it in a camper van and again pushed it from his mind until he mentioned it as part of his 2017 tip-off to cops.
His testimony over the footage was crucial in convicting Brueckner of rape in 2019 after a hair found on the victim’s bed was found to match the paedophile’s DNA.
This man is dangerous. I know him. I have seen what he is capable of. He could do anything when he comes out.
Helge Busching
But after spending seven years behind bars for the sick attack, Brueckner’s sentence is coming to an end, and he is due to be released in the coming days.
Helge added: “I’m worried he wants revenge. He knows I put him behind bars, and I reported him for Madeleine.
“This man is dangerous. I know him. I have seen what he is capable of. He could do anything when he comes out.
“For years, everyone has been saying, ‘he will never come out, they will never let him out of prison,’ – but now look.
“I am hiding. I will never stop moving – never stay in the same place for too long in case it helps him track me down.”
‘I wanted to do the right thing’
Helge’s panic is so great that he is now unable to commit to returning to Germany to give evidence in any would-be McCann case.
He says: “I don’t know if it would even be safe for me to come back to Germany to give evidence in the McCann case. I have lost faith in the German legal system.”
PA:Press AssociationMaddie’s parents have never stopped searching for their missing daughter[/caption]
Darren FletcherBrueckner was convicted of rape in 2019[/caption]
Helge’s insistence that he cannot stay in Germany has seen him forced to make the decision to leave witness protection.
He is betting he will be safer outside German borders, where there is less chance Brueckner will find him, but where German cops cannot guard him.
He still has a panic alarm that links directly to local police and German federal officers from the Bundeskriminalamt or the BKA, Germany’s FBI, and agents continue to call him once a week to ensure his safety.
Helge remains furious over accusations that his account is not true after Brueckner’s lawyers have been working to discredit him since his 2019 testimony as part of his rape trial.
Helge says: “I am telling the truth – I have nothing to gain.
“I know I have stolen some things, I have sold some drugs. I am not perfect. But I am not a liar. I have never committed a violent crime, not like this man.
“Since I went to the police in 2017, my life has been destroyed. I have lost my friends, I have lost my family.
“I can’t live where I want to live. I can’t go to Germany, my home country.
“I have made no money from this. I gave one interview, and the German police have covered my travel costs – they helped me.
“Financially, I would have been better off never going to the police.
“But I wanted to do the right thing. I want this man to face justice. I want this whole thing to be over – I want peace for Madeleine’s parents.”
He added: “I might be a criminal – but I am not a liar.”
On Monday, Brueckner turned down a formal interview request from the Met Police regarding Maddie’s disappearance and detectives working on the case are powerless to force him to be interviewed.
There is also not enough evidence to persuade a German court to extradite him to the UK, where he could be tried.
Christian Brueckner has refused to speak to investigators about the McCann case.
He has used letters to protest his innocence, while his lawyers continue to argue their client had no involvement in the case.
But there is no doubt that the investigators will be on edge waiting for his release any day now.
What happened to Maddie still remains a mysteryCollect
Darren FletcherBrueckner could be out of prison in just days[/caption]