Madeleine McCann Suspect Christian Brueckner Avoids Return to Jail After Verbally Abusing Prison Guards in 2023, German Court Rules

Christian Brueckner, the primary suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, won't go back to prison for verbally abusing a prison guard.

Instead, Brueckner, 49, was ordered to pay a €3,000 ($3,370 USD) fine by a court in Oldenburg, Germany, on Tuesday, October 13, after admitting that he had insulted a prison officer in October 2023 while he was serving a prison sentence.

Brueckner admitted during his appeal hearing at the Oldenburg Regional Court that he called a prison officer a "son of a b----" while he was incarcerated.

"In hindsight, I am very sorry for that," he said in a written statement read by his lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher.

The regional court ordered Brueckner to pay 150 daily rates of €20 ($22.45) each, plus the costs of the proceedings, according to a report. In Germany, the number of daily rates reflects the seriousness of the offense, and each rate is based on the defendant's income. "It's about an insult, nothing more and nothing less," the presiding judge said.

A lower court in Oldenburg had originally sentenced Brueckner to six weeks in prison on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. Brueckner and prosecutors appealed that ruling, which led to Tuesday's hearing, and Brueckner described the incident differently at his first trial.

At the time of the outburst, Brueckner was serving a seven-year sentence at Oldenburg's high-security prison, nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the North," for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal. He was released in September 2025 after completing that sentence, according to a report.

Fülscher read a statement from Brueckner explaining that he had been isolated for over a year and a half and had no access to television or radio. Brueckner said he lost control with a prison employee, and the court heard that he had complained to staff members about experiencing pain in the left side of his body.

This isn't the only time Brueckner has been found guilty of insulting a prison staff member. In May 2025, a court in Lehrte convicted him of insulting a female prison guard at the Sehnde prison near Hanover, where he called her a "laughing stock" and told her to "shut [her] gob." The court gave him probation and ordered him to write an apology, according to a report.

McCann was 3 years old when she disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on Thursday, May 3, 2007. Brueckner has never been charged in connection with her disappearance and has denied any involvement, but German prosecutors and London's Metropolitan Police have said he remains their prime suspect.

Brueckner also faces a hearing at Germany's Federal Court of Justice on Monday, January 11, 2027, where judges will consider whether to overturn his 2024 acquittal on five s-- offenses in Portugal. If the court rules for prosecutors, he could face a new trial. He's also facing at least six new charges in Germany, including allegedly injuring police officers.