Madeleine McCann suspect could face trial in Portugal after judge's ruling

19 September 2023 , 22:21

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Christian Brueckner (Image: REX/Shutterstock)

Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner can be charged over alleged sex offences carried out in Portugal, a court has ruled.

The paedophile is being probed by a team of prosecutors and detectives over the British youngster’s 2007 disappearance in Portugal. He was already awaiting trial for a string of rapes and child sexual assaults allegedly committed in Portugal. Those charges were dramatically dropped in April after a German court ruling over who had jurisdiction in the case.

The charges had been filed by prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig because he previously lived there in 2016. But Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher argued that he was actually living in Neuwegersleben, Lower-Saxony. Braunschweig Regional Court ruled in favour of Brueckner, 46, saying it had no jurisdiction over the case.

Mr Fuelscher claimed the probe into Madeleine’s disappearance also needed to be shelved as a result of the judges’ decision. The decision was a devastating blow for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry and raised fears Brueckner could walk free. But yesterday the Higher Regional Court overturned the ruling, saying Braunschweig prosecutors have jurisdiction after all.

Madeleine McCann (PA)

It means he will now have to answer five Portuguese charges, which were first filed last October, and could stand trial. The sex crimes were all allegedly carried out in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017. They include the alleged rape of an Irish tour rep, who was attacked in her apartment Praia da Rocha in 2004.

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Brueckner is also accused with raping a teenage girl in his Praia da Luz home and raping an elderly woman in her holiday apartment. He also faces two child sex charges for allegedly exposing himself to girls in separate incidents in the Algarve ten years apart. The German has not been charged in the Madeleine case - which is ongoing - but remains the only suspect.

Brueckner denies any involvement in her disappearance. He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005. Madeleine was three when she disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz.

Kate and Gerry, from Rothley, Leics, were dining with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant at the time she vanished. The couple have refused to give up hope that their daughter will one day be found alive. Brueckner, who lived in a ramshackle Praia da Luz farmhouse in 2007, was named as a suspect in 2020.

The Mirror revealed last week how the German had written begging letters to ex-pals asking them to speak on his behalf in court. He moaned that prosecutors were making him out to be a “monster”.

Martin Fricker