Madeleine McCann suspect acquitted of separate sexual offence charges

The main suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann has been cleared of multiple sexual offence charges in a separate case.

The Braunschweig state court in Germany 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 as 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 pointed to what they labelled a paucity of evidence and witnesses who weren’t credible, and suggested the defendant might not have been charged if he hadn’t also been a suspect in the McCann case.

Brueckner is still being investigated for the alleged murder of the British toddler, for which he was named the main suspect in 2020.

Madeleine went missing 17 years ago from her family’s hotel room in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Her parents had left her and her siblings there while they went for dinner nearby.

While her body has never been found, investigators say they are assuming that Madeleine is dead and have classed the case against Brueckner as a murder inquiry.

He spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.