Smirking Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner led from safe house by police

Smirking Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has been moved from his safe house a week after being released from jail.

Three police vans swept into a sleepy suburb in northern Germany yesterday afternoon and led the convicted paedophile from the ground floor apartment where he had been staying.

Wearing a green hoodie and trousers Brueckner flanked by officers as he was escorted into the back of a police vehicle which then sped away. Brueckner, 48, has been living in the town for nine days, having been released from Sehnde prison, near Hanover, on September 17, where he was serving a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of an American pensioner in Portugal

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He was later pictured tucking into a burger outside a motorway McDonald's and later caught on CCTV buying a mobile phone and appearing to show him laughing as he showed off his ankle tag.

He is said to have bragged to the shop owner, during a 90-minute conversation, that he had information that 'could bring the scandal of the century to an end' – which many have taken to refer to Maddie, the British toddler who disappeared while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz in 2007.

Local Facebook groups in the town had been awash with rumours that the paedophile was staying in their town.