Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner freaked out in his court cell after being barred from smoking and then broke his ribs on a wooden bed when his legs were kicked away from him by prison guards, German media has reported.
Brueckner felt that he was being manipulated by the police officers, who had forbidden him to smoke, and was angry at being filmed and shackled ahead of a court hearing, the report says.
In retaliation, he covered the surveillance cameras in his cell with yogurt and blocked the toilet with paper, according to Bild.
When court officials entered the cell to arrest him, they handcuffed his hands to his belt, and told him to kneel down so that he could be shackled, Brueckner reportedly told his lawyer.
When he refused, the prison guards allegedly kicked his legs out from underneath him, causing him to fall on to a wooden bed, breaking two of his ribs.
The incident came the day before police searched a new property where Brueckner once lived in connection with the case, after receiving a tip-off from the public.
Convicted rapist and paedophile Christian Brueckner, 43, 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 as he is loaded into an ambulance by paramedics on after breaking two ribs before a court hearing
The convicted rapist and paedophile was rushed to hospital for treatment after the incident in court on Monday. Police are now also investigating the judicial officers involved in the incident.
His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher claims to have seen surveillance camera footage showing the subsequent firs aid treatment of his client that a constable filmed on her cell phone.
The district court’s president is said to have requested the footage be deleted, according to Bild.
As he was being loaded into the ambulance on Monday, Brueckner, 43, was seen for the first time in public since being named by German police as the chief suspect in the three-year-old’s 2007 disappearance in the Algarve.
He had been due to appear before a judge in Braunschweig for a parole hearing on an unrelated drugs charge, but sparked the incident around 40 minutes after arriving with his furious reaction to being filmed and put in chains.
The hearing – that began two hours late – was about the possibility that Brueckner’s remaining prison sentence that he is currently serving for drug trafficking in Keil will be suspended on probation.
Because Brueckner was sentenced to seven years for rape in a separate trial, Bild states that it is likely that he will be released on parole.
The convicted rapist and paedophile was attending court in Braunschweig but ended up in hospital with a pair of suspected broken ribs
On Tuesday, police in Germany searched a new property, local media said, months after McCann’s suspected kidnapper’s nearby allotment was dug up in a search for evidence.
Officers equipped with sniffer dogs and a mobile police station descended on a house near Hanover, where suspect Christian Brueckner once lived, after receiving a tip-off from a member of the public.
Authorities did not reveal the nature of the tip-off, but local newspaper Neue Presse said it was linked to the Madeleine case.
However, the current residents of the house were found to be ‘totally blameless’ and the eight-hour search has yet to lead to a breakthrough.
Prosecutors told Calenberger Online News that the search had backed up their ‘gut feeling’ that the tip-off was wrong, while adding that investigations were still ongoing.
Police use rakes to search an allotment in Hanover this year where bags of evidence were taken away from a vegetable garden once occupied by Brueckner
Speaking about Monday’s incident, 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.’
Fulscher told the paper that the guards were filming him via a monitor and were asked to stop by Brueckner.
‘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 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 at the time: ‘The exact sequence of events is now the subject of investigation. Against this background, we cannot comment on the details.’
Maddie McCann disappeared after she left in her family’s hotel room at a resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007
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.
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.
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
Pictured: The entrance to the ‘Justizvollzugsanstalt Kiel’ prison where Brueckner is being held
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.
‘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.