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Mark Rowley has said the British police investigation into Madeleine McCann will explore extraditing the German national Christian Brückner to the UK to stand trial over the three-year-old’s disappearance.
Brückner was released from a German prison on Wednesday after serving a seven-year jail term for the rape of an elderly woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005, two years before Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her family in the same town.
British police have been formally involved since 2011 in supporting Portuguese and German efforts to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
British police regard Brückner, 49, as their main suspect, as do their European counter parts. He was released from jail after an investigation did not produce enough evidence to support a charge over Madeleine’s disappearance under German law.
Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said: “They’ve got to a particular point in their inquiry where the prosecutor doesn’t feel they’re able to prosecute. We’re now at a stage where he remains a suspect for us. We’re taking stock.
“The Germans have done everything they possibly can do within their law. He has a track record for very serious offences. He remains a suspect in our investigation into Madeleine McCann being missing.”
Asked if Brückner could be extradited to face trial in the UK, Rowley pointed out that an offence as serious as murder need not be tried in the country where the crime took place.
Rowley, who is Britain’s most senior police officer, said: “There are hundreds of questions. One of the reasons we are involved is that murder is in many situations extraterritorial and potentially a murder of a British subject can in certain circumstances be charged in the UK.
“There’s lots of maybes, so at the moment we are taking stock with the Germans and Portuguese.”
Brückner denies any blame for the disappearance of Madeleine, whose family are from Leicestershire. It emerged earlier this week that he had refused a request from the Met to interview him over the case.
The Met say they will continue to pursue any viable lines of enquiry and that their investigation is ongoing.
The former head of extradition at the Crown Prosecution Service, Nick Vamos, said: “Yes, it is feasible. The main obstacle is you need enough evidence to charge before you can extradite.”
Rowley oversaw British police efforts to resolve the case of Madeleine’s disappearance early in his career at the Met. He said a previous appeal involving British police had led to Brückner being identified as a suspect, which led to German police joining the investigation.
Privately the Met knows bringing Brückner before a British court would be unprecedented and difficult.
Rowley spoke to reporters to mark his third anniversary as commissioner. He said under his tenure the Met had carried out the biggest ever purge of corrupt and failing officers and staff in British policing history, ousting 1,400 people.
He said corrupt cliques still existed and more attention would turn to them as the legacy of bad officers was cleared out.
His comments came after revelations last week about Charing Cross police station, where allegations of excessive force, racism and misogyny came to light not as a result of the Met’s efforts, but because of a media investigation.
Nine officers have been suspended and others moved in what Rowley said was another sign of the force’s determination to root out wrongdoing.
