Suspect Madeleine McCann was cleared of rape charges in a separate trial in Germany
The main suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann, has been acquitted of rape and sexual abuse by a German court in an unrelated trial.
Christian Brückner, 47, was acquitted of committing five crimes in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for rape.
Brückner has not been charged in the case of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 and has never been found.
Brückner’s defense team had argued that he should be acquitted due to lack of evidence, although prosecutors asked the court in Braunschweig in northern Germany to impose an additional 15-year prison term.
According to prosecutors, Brückner’s current seven-year prison term, imposed by a court in Braunschweig in 2019 for raping an American pensioner, will end next September.
Presiding judge Uta Engemann said there was not enough evidence to convict and prosecutors said they would appeal Tuesday’s verdict.
Despite having lived for many years in the Algarve region of Portugal, Brückner moved back to Germany and was identified by German investigators as a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case in 2020. She was on vacation with her family in the Algarve when she disappeared. disappeared from their residence. Apartment in Praia da Luz
Brückner was brought to trial in Braunschweig because that was where he was last listed as living. Although unrelated to the McCann case, his latest rape trial attracted widespread international interest when it began in February.
However, over the summer, the court lifted an arrest warrant related to the case, which was seen by some observers as an early sign that Brückner could be acquitted.
Brückner himself did not give evidence during the trial, but his lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, said on Monday that the acquittal was “the only correct outcome of the case” because the two victims were rape , a teenager and an elderly woman, have never been identified. and unreliable witnesses.
A key witness previously told the trial that he broke into Brückner’s house in Portugal and found videos relating to the rape of a young girl and a woman between 70 and 80 years old.
An Irish woman, Hazel Behan, later told a court that she was raped when she was 20 by a masked man who broke into her apartment in Portugal in 2004. She refused to hide it. named during the trial and described that she had never forgotten Brückner’s bright eyes. , which she said was “bored into my skull”.
Ms Behan told the court she believed he was her attacker.
Prosecutors have previously said one of the rape charges should be dropped.
They have sought to ensure Brückner remains in preventive detention when his prison term ends next year.
However, Brückner’s defense lawyer said he also intended to challenge the 2019 rape conviction.
If you are affected by the issues raised in this article, you can find resources to help via BBC Action Line.
