The suspect in the abduction of missing Madeleine McCann had a 'lock pick kit' for breaking into homes, according to police.
Christian Brueckner, who is currently in a German jail on drugs charges, is thought to have owned the kit that could twist the cogs to open any security door.
It is claimed he boasted about owning the tools to his pal, which could derail the long-held theory that little Madeleine's abductor clambered through a window before snatching her from her room in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
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German police and prosecutors working on the case say they are excited and "electrified" by the new lead, according to the Mirror.
Another line of enquiry they're working on is whether Christian Brueckner employed a chemical found at his job as a car mechanic to sedate Madeleine and move her out of apartment 5a without her making a peep.
The suspect has refuted any involvement with the abduction and has not commented on the latest allegations. A key witness who is under police protection in Germany, named Helge B, spoke about what the suspect told him as he was interviewed in a secret location.
The 52-year-old explained: “He came through the door.”
Helge B, who met the paedophile a year prior to Maddie's disappearance, told The Sun on Sunday that he found the kit at Christian B's home in the Algarve. Helge B, who is himself a criminal, had joined another pal Manfred Seyferth and decided to ransack the home.
He said: “I knew from Christian that he uses tools to break into holiday resorts, hotels and holiday homes to steal from tourists. There were passports on the table. There was all sorts of stuff lying around — cameras, suitcases, everything that tourists have with them. I also found a lock pick set.”
Likely thinking he could use it for his own petty crime, Helge B kept the kit and told German police: "You can use it to pick any lock, including security locks.”
The pair had been friends in Portugal before Helge B claims he became sickened by video footage he found of Brueckner that showed him raping an American pensioner and a teenage girl.
Busching, a German national, said he stole videotapes and a firearm from Brueckner’s home before Madeleine disappeared and saw the footage.
He said: “[The victim] said: ‘This borders on rape!’ And he just said: ‘Shut up.’ That's when I knew what kind of guy Brueckner was.”
Busching says he met Brueckner again at a music festival in Spain in 2008 where they discussed the Madeleine McCann case and the suspect allegedly told him "she didn't scream".
He told the German outlet Bild: “He asked me: ‘Don't you go to Portugal anymore and do business there?’ I said: ‘No, since the girl disappeared there, there have been too many police checks for me and I don't need that at all.’
“[The topic of Madeleine's disappearance] came up and I said: ‘Anyway, I don't understand how the little one could have disappeared without a trace.' Christian had drunk two or three beers, and he said: ‘She didn't scream.’
