Madeleine McCann suspect cleared of rape charges in separate German trial

The primary suspect within the disappearance of three-year-old British woman Madeleine McCann, has been cleared by a German court docket of rape and sexual abuse in an unrelated trial.

Christian Brückner, 47, was acquitted of finishing up 5 offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. He’s already serving a seven-year jail time period in Germany for rape.

Brückner has not been charged within the case of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared in Portugal in 2007 and has by no means been discovered.

Brückner’s defence group had argued he ought to be cleared due to a scarcity of proof, though prosecutors had referred to as for the court docket in Braunschweig in northern Germany to impose an extra 15-year jail time period.

Brückner’s present seven-year jail time period, imposed by the court docket in Braunschweig in 2019 for raping an American pensioner, ends subsequent September in keeping with prosecutors.

Presiding Decide Uta Engemann stated there was inadequate proof for a conviction and among the witnesses have been unreliable.

District prosecutor Christian Wolters instructed the BBC they’d attraction in opposition to Tuesday’s verdict to the Federal Courtroom of Justice, and till then the decision was not legally binding.

Though he spent a few years within the Algarve area of Portugal, Brückner moved between there and his native Germany and was recognized as a suspect by German investigators within the Madeleine McCann case in 2020.

She had been on vacation along with her household within the Algarve when she vanished from their condominium in Praia da Luz. German prosecutors are satisfied she is now not alive.

Brückner was placed on trial in Braunschweig as that was the place he was final listed as dwelling. Though unrelated to the McCann case, his newest rape trial prompted widespread worldwide curiosity when it started in February.

Nevertheless, in the course of the summer time the court docket lifted an arrest warrant in reference to the case, which was seen by some observers as an early indication that Brückner may very well be acquitted.

Brückner himself didn’t give proof in the course of the trial, however his lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, stated on Monday that acquittal was “the one appropriate consequence of the case” as a result of two of the rape victims, a youngster and an aged girl, had by no means been recognized and the witnesses weren’t credible.

A key witness had earlier instructed the trial that he had damaged into Brückner’s residence in Portugal and located movies involving the rape of a lady and a lady aged 70 to 80.

An Irish girl, Hazel Behan, later instructed the court docket she had been raped when she was 20 by a masked man who broke into her flat in Portugal in 2004. She waived her anonymity for the trial and described how she had by no means forgotten Brückner’s brilliant eyes, which she stated had “bored into my cranium”.

Ms Behan instructed the court docket that she believed he was her attacker.

Prosecutors had beforehand stated one of many rape expenses ought to be dropped.

They’ve sought to make sure Brückner stays in preventive detention when his jail time period ends subsequent yr.

Nevertheless, Brückner’s defence lawyer has stated he additionally intends to problem the 2019 rape conviction.

His acquittal within the newest trial has raised questions in regards to the prosecutors’ separate case involving the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Legally there is no such thing as a connection between the 2. The choose made that clear when she delivered the acquittal, saying that the decision needed to be carried out on the idea of proof for the costs in query, and shouldn’t be influenced by different circumstances or by a public media debate.

Nevertheless, among the witnesses deemed unreliable by the choose have been potential witnesses within the McCann case as effectively, so Tuesday’s verdict could have additional repercussions.

The district prosecutor disagreed with the court docket’s characterisation of among the witnesses as unreliable and instructed the BBC the decision wouldn’t have an effect on their Madeleine McCann inquiry.

Their subsequent step is prone to depend upon their attraction to the federal court docket of justice.

If in case you have been affected by the problems raised on this article, sources of assist will be discovered through the BBC’s Motion Line.