Madeleine McCann suspect acquitted of separate rape charges in German trial
Global News
Christian Brückner was acquitted of three counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual abuse of children between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.
Christian Brückner, the lead suspect in the unsolved disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, was acquitted Tuesday of rape and sexual assault stemming from a separate trial in German court.
Brückner, 47, was charged with three counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual abuse of children between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.
The district court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict Brückner. Judge Uta Engemann said some of the witness testimony throughout the trial is unreliable.
Brückner, a German native, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping a 72-year-old woman in 2005 in Portugal’s Algarve, the same area where Madeleine went missing two years later. He was convicted in 2019.
He could be released from jail next year, Reuters reported.
In 2022, Portuguese police named Brückner a formal suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance, though he has never been officially charged. German investigators declared Brückner a suspect two years earlier.
He has denied any involvement in the child’s disappearance.
Engemann said Brückner’s labelling as a suspect in Madeleine’s case affected the trial, CBS News reported.
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