Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner in court again as cops fight early release

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has appeared in a German court to answer new criminal charges.

Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner spoke only to confirm his name and nationality at Lehtre District Court as he was hauled before judges for insulting prison staff - a criminal offence in Germany. If found guilty he could face another 12 months behind bars.

He is currently serving the final months of an unrelated rape conviction but is exepected to be released in February next year, leaving German investigators into Maddie's disappearance in a race against time to charge him. Items found on property owned by Brueckner have allegedly led prosecutors to believe he killed Madeleine shortly after her disappearance.

Appearing in a grey jacket and T-shirt, the court heard Brueckner is accused of snapping at prison guards in Sehnde prison during a meeting to discuss his solitary confinement. He allegedly branded jail workers "a laughing stock" but later penned a letter of apology to the team claiming he had "woke up on the wrong side of the bed" that morning,

A massive Europe-wide hunt for Madeleine was launched after she vanished on May 3, 2007, aged three.

Her parents, Kate and Gerry, left her and her two-year-old twin siblings alone in their accommodation while they went to dinner with friends 55 metres away, coming back to check on them throughout the night.

Kate discovered her daughter was missing one and a half hours after she went to dinner, sparking an investigation that did not lead to Brueckner until years later.

After a dog ran onto his property in 2016 and came across what looked like a grave, police were able to uncover his dead dog, along with a wallet, six USB sticks, and two memory cards.

This prompted 100 officers to launch a search of the factory after they saw the disturbing contents of the hard drives, in which there were records of .

He described drugging a mum and daughter outside a pre-school and abusing a four-year-old girl, and kept records of conversations with other paedophiles.

In one message, he told someone he wanted to "capture something small and use it for days".

In October last year a German court cleared Brueckner of a series of other unrelated sexual assualt charges, opening the way for him to begin plotting his release from prison.

Brueckner had faced three rape charges and two counts of sexual abuse , for which prosecutors had sought a further 15-year prison sentence as well as preventive detention after his current jail sentence. A panel of three judges, led by Uta Engemann, ruled in favour of the defense, which had argued there was insufficient credible evidence to convict him on the charges.