Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner cleared of rape charges by German court
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has been cleared of rape charges by a German court meaning he may be out of jail as early as next year.
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has been cleared of rape charges by a German court.
The 47-year-old has been on trial accused of raping women and exposing himself to children in charges unrelated to Madeleine McCann's disappearance. He denies all involvement in her disappearance.
He had been before the Braunschweig state court facing three counts of rape and two of sexual abuse.
Brueckner's lawyer Friedrich Fülscher said on Monday that acquittal was "the only correct outcome of the case" as two of the rape victims, a teenager and an elderly woman, hadn't been identified by authorities.
A key witness had earlier told the court that he had broken into Brueckner's home in Portugal and allegedly discovered videos involving the rape of a girl and a woman aged between 70 to 80.
The Braunschweig state court acquitted the 47-year-old German national, who has been identified by local media as Christian Brueckner, of two counts of rape and two of sexual abuse.
However, Brueckner will remain in prison for another year because he is still serving a seven-year sentence for rape in a different case.
Brueckner had been on trial since February over offences he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Defence lawyers had pointed to what they labelled a lack of evidence and witnesses who weren’t credible and suggested he might not have been charged if he hadn’t also been a suspect in the McCann case.
Prosecutors had argued he should be given a 15-year prison sentence and kept in preventive detention once he had served it.
The verdict can be appealed.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder.
He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007, but has always rejected any involvement.
He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2019 by the Braunschweig court for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.
The Braunschweig state court has jurisdiction because Brueckner had his last German residence in that city in Lower Saxony.
