Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner had two ribs broken by prison guards after he threw yoghurt around his cell and blocked the toilet, according to a report.
Brueckner, 43, was seen for the first time in public on Monday since he was named by German police as the chief suspect in the three-year-old’s 2007 disappearance in the Algarve.
The convicted rapist and paedophile was rushed to hospital for treatment after he ‘threw a tantrum’ in his courthouse cell by smearing it with food and filling the toilet with loo roll.
He was due to appear before a judge in Braunschweig for a parole hearing on an unrelated drugs charge but 40 minutes after arriving he reacted furiously to being filmed and put in chains.
Convicted rapist and paedophile Christian Brueckner, 43, is loaded into an ambulance by paramedics on Monday after breaking two ribs before a court hearing
Brueckner is seen in public for the first time on Monday since he was named as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance by German police
Paramedics help Brueckner get into an ambulance outside the hospital in Braunschweig
Brueckner leaves the A&E with shackles around his ankles after being treated for two broken ribs
A source at the court told The Sun: ‘He got angry at being filmed and complained. He reacted angrily and when he refused to put the shackles on there was a more violent tussle and he hurt himself.’
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher told the paper that the guards were filming him via a monitor and asked them to stop.
‘They refused and an argument started. This carried on and they attacked my client with a baton after he refused to put the prison shackles on. He suffered serious injuries, two broken ribs.’ The lawyer said.
‘It was behaviour not expected from guards. I had to get a judge involved to ensure the footage was deleted.
‘Yes, he did dirty his cell but he was understandably angry at being filmed.’
Fulscher has filed a criminal complaint against the guards for allegedly beating his client.
The convicted rapist and paedophile was attending court in Braunschweig but ended up in hospital with a pair of suspected broken ribs
The court has claimed that Brueckner had ‘fallen over’ after arriving at the court from his prison in Kiel.
A prison guard is said to have told the paramedics who arrived that ‘someone had been rioting.’
He was pictured on Monday being escorted back out to a waiting ambulance for transportation back to custody after receiving treatment in A&E.
A court spokesman said: ‘The exact sequence of events is now the subject of investigation.
‘Against this background, we cannot comment on the details.’
Brueckner had been driven 186 miles from Kiel to Braunschweig for a parole hearing on his current 21-month drugs sentence.
He will have served two-thirds of his sentence in January and will be eligible for parole.
The criminal has been identified by German police as the prime suspect in Madeleine’s abduction in Portugal 13 years ago
Wearing a face mask, Brueckner was driven into the back of the court on Monday flanked by police officers.
Forty minutes later he was rushed out by paramedics after his ‘fall.’
The prosecution is opposing his parole because of the outstanding investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
The three-year-old was abducted from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the popular Algarve region.
German prosecutors say they have ‘concrete evidence’ that the toddler is dead and are convinced Brueckner was behind the infamous case.
They said Brueckner – who has previous convictions for child abuse and rape – was known to be in the Algarve the year that Madeleine disappeared.
Maddie McCann disappeared after she left in her family’s hotel room at a resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007
Detectives say phone data proves Brueckner was near the Praia da Luz resort when Madeleine vanished, but have not yet revealed a ‘smoking gun’ proving that he is the one who took her.
Asked last month whether forensic evidence can place Brueckner inside the flat where Madeleine vanished, he said: ‘I have an answer but we have decided not to divulge this information.
‘I can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as that would bring a thousand other questions and I cannot go into details.
‘But you have to believe me when I say we have more evidence.
‘Here in Germany our Public Ministry only divulges things when they are solid.’
But last week, Portuguese police accused German cops of having no evidence that Brueckner abducted Madeleine, according to a leaked memo.
Officers from the Policia Judiciaria said they were ‘shocked’ after being briefed on the German case against Brueckner, adding there is ‘no evidence, just speculation’.
Portuguese detectives believe the allegations against Brueckner are designed to ‘keep him in prison at all costs’, and accused their German counterparts of failing to conduct a serious investigation.
The extraordinary claims were contained in a memo prepared by Portuguese police after meeting with German BKA detectives and investigators from Scotland Yard.
A leaked copy of the memo was shown to The Sun, in which a Portuguese officer wrote: ‘There is no evidence, just speculation.
‘When reading the German case I was shocked. I never thought that the BKA would investigate so badly.
‘The meeting was to get the point of the situation, the BKA wants to investigate the other two cases of possible sexual harassment, so that the suspect does not leave prison until the end of the year and they will drop the suspect.
Christian Brueckner is driven into the court in Braunschweig on Monday after a 186 mile journey from his prison in Kiel
Wearing a white mask, Christian was driven into the back of the court on Monday flanked by police officers
German prosecutors say they have ‘concrete evidence’ that the toddler is dead and are convinced Brueckner was behind the infamous case
‘It is not a serious and objective investigation, but only just to keep the suspect in prison at all costs.’
Portuguese police have been accused of bungling the investigation, including pursuing the theory that Madeleine’s parents – Kate and Jerry – were responsible.
Goncalo Amaral was fired over his handling of the investigation, and successfully sued by the McCanns after pushing the theory they were responsible in a book.
Hans Christian Wolters, the prosecutor leading the German case, was forced to admit last month that the evidence they have gathered is not strong enough to see Brueckner charged.
He added that they are ‘one witness’ away from getting the evidence they need, but so far nobody has come forward.
Brueckner has previously said he is innocent of any crime relating to the four-year-old.