Key Madeleine McCann witness says Met police ignored tipoff for nine years

German man says he first contacted Scotland Yard about suspect Christian Bruckner in 2008

The man who tipped off police about Christian Bruckner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has said his initial approach to the Metropolitan police in the year after she disappeared was ignored and he was only taken seriously when he contacted them again nine years later.

The German man, identified only as Helge B, said he had approached Scotland Yard in 2008, suspecting Bruckner's involvement in the child's abduction, but he heard nothing back from them. Publicity around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance in 2017 prompted him to contact them again, after which they acted on his information, he said.