Christian Brueckner
(Picture: AFP PHOTO/ ITALIAN CARABINIERI)The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been charged in Germany with several sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal.
Convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner is accused of committing five offences between 2000 and 2017, the public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig said, with the charges not related to the McCann case.
Investigators believe the 45-year-old killed Madeleine, then three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007.
Brueckner, who has reportedly denied any involvement in the case, was identified as a suspect in the McCann case by Portuguese officials in June 2020.
Prosecutors said the offences were allegedly committed between 2000 and 2017.
Prosecutors in Germany’s Braunschweig on Tuesday charged the German man with three counts of rape and two counts of child sexual abuse.
The convicted sex offender has been charged with the alleged rape of a woman in her 70s in her holiday apartment in Portugal at an unknown date between 2000 and 2006, and the alleged rape of a 20-year-old Irish woman in Praia da Rocha in 2004.
Brueckner is also alleged to have orally raped a teenage girl in her home in Praia da Luz after tying her up and whipping her on an unknown date between 2000 and 2006. He is claimed to have filmed the incidents.
He allegedly exposed himself to a 10-year-old German girl in Faro in 2007 and to a 11-year old Portuguese girl in Bartolomeu de Messines in 2017.
The previously convicted sex offender is currently serving a seven-year sentence for rape in Portugal in 2005.
The investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance is continuing irrespective of the charges brought, the prosecutor’s office said.
Three-year-old Madeleine vanished during a family holiday to Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007.
Earlier this year German investigators said they had new evidence against prime suspect in the case and convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, and in April he was officially declared a suspect by Portuguese officials as a 15-year legal deadline approached.
Last month Kate and Gerry McCann said they were “naturally disappointed” at losing their legal battle against a retired Portuguese detective who claimed they were somehow involved in their daughter going missing.
Lawyers for Maddie’s parents had argued that Portuguese authorities had breached their right to respect for a private and family life in the way the courts there dealt with their libel claims against Goncalo Amaral.
He claimed in a book, TV documentary and newspaper interview that the McCanns were involved in their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance.
In a judgment published on Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights rejected the couple’s arguments, finding that there was extensive publicity around the claims against them before Mr Amaral published his book in July 2008.
