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.
Christian Brückner stands next to his lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher prior to the verdict in his trial on five sex crimes at the courtroom of the District Court of Braunschweig, northern Germany, on Oct. 8, 2024.
Michael Matthey / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Engemann said Brückner’s labelling as a suspect in Madeleine’s case affected the trial, CBS News reported.
“It became clear during the proceedings that prejudgment by the media had played a significant role in shaping public perceptions and influencing witnesses,” she said as she announced Brückner’s acquittal. “The court’s ruling might be disappointing for those involved, but that’s how it works in a constitutional system.”
Madeleine, then three years old, went missing from a hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on vacation with her family in May 2007. Her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were dining with friends at a nearby tapas bar, leaving Madeleine and her two siblings asleep in their bedroom on the evening she vanished.
Her disappearance launched a cross-country investigation and resulted in an international media frenzy. Publicity for the case only increased when Gerry and Kate were named as formal suspects, or “arguidos” in Portuguese. The parents were questioned by police, who at the time believed they may have staged the abduction.
Gerry and Kate were cleared of suspicion in 2008. Portuguese police have since apologized to the parents for the way the family was treated during the investigation.
Madeleine’s case has been jointly investigated by Portuguese, British and German authorities.
She has never been found.
In June 2020, German police said Madeleine is assumed dead. British authorities continue to treat her disappearance as a missing person case.
Prosecutors for Brückner’s most recent trial said they plan to appeal the acquittal verdict. There is no legal connection between Brückner’s latest trial and Madeleine’s disappearance.
The BBC reported that some of the witnesses who provided what was deemed unreliable testimony were also potential witnesses in Madeleine’s case. District prosecutor Christian Wolters said the new verdict would have no influence on the investigation.
“The ruling has no direct impact on the Maddie (McCann) case because the findings of this court are not binding,” he said, adding he would explore the possibility of getting a new arrest warrant before Brückner’s release.
“But I can’t say if the evidence in the Maddie case will be enough for an arrest warrant.”
— With files from Reuters
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