Police 'Racing Against Time' in Madeleine McCann Case

The lead suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is currently serving time for another crime, and will be released from prison later this year—after which point, he says in a new interview, he plans to vanish himself. Meaning, as the Telegraph puts it, police are in a "race against time" to charge him in McCann's disappearance if they can. Christian Brueckner, a convicted pedophile, is serving seven years for raping an American tourist in the same Portugal resort town from which McCann went missing in 2007. German police are currently searching the area between the resort where the McCann family was staying and the house in which Brueckner lived at the time.

Brueckner wouldn't discuss the McCann case specifically in his interview with German broadcaster RTL, but he complained about his living conditions behind bars, and opined about the "nice steak and beer" he plans to have when he is released. The German national indicated plans to "disappear" and go into hiding in a country that has no extradition treaty with Germany, the Independent reports. "The fact is that I have been in prison for many years for something that I cannot have committed and that therefore, through the participation of the media, half the world considers me a cruel rapist," he said. The current search is expected to last until Friday, the Guardian reports. (More Madeleine McCann stories.)