Sources in Germany say the dossier handed to the UK’s Metropolitan Police “Operation Grange” officers includes bombshell evidence on the 49-year-old pedophile — including pictures and stories revealed by The Sun last year.

The exclusive pH๏τo shows Brueckner with a new beard and moustache as he cycled to an Aldi supermarket and a garden centre in Kiel, Germany, where he lives in a modified shipping container.

German police have been given orders to keep him safe from potential threats.

Last week they were criticised for losing track of him during 24-hour surveillance.

Plans to extradite Brueckner to the UK remain a “long way off”, but the dossier handover proves a significant gearshift by the Met.

It shows officers are taking claims around the German rapist incredibly seriously.

As it stands Operation Grange remains a missing person case — on the basis that Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, has never been found ᴅᴇᴀᴅ or alive.

Defendant Christian Brueckner is brought to the courtroom for a session of his trial at court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, on September 25, 2024.

To look at extraditing Brueckner the case would have to be promoted to murder.