Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner is cleared in rape trial
The prime suspect in the case of Maddie McCann has been cleared in a separate rape trial and could walk free in a matter of weeks.
World
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has today been sensationally cleared of a string of rapes - meaning he could be freed in just weeks.
The paedophile - who is suspected of snatching three-year-old Maddie in 2007 - had been on trial in Germany for horrific sex attacks.
But the not guilty decision represents a possible blow to the McCann case, The Sun reports.
It means a seven-year sentence from 2019 is now all that is keeping Brueckner behind bars.
Brueckner was on Tuesday found not guilty of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent exposure.
Panicked prosecutors are already planning to mount an appeal in a bid to keep the monster behind bars.
But without a retrial - or charges finally being brought over Maddie - rapist Brueckner could be back on the streets on day release within just weeks.
Worryingly, the trial has also seen the credibility of key witnesses from the McCann case shot down in court by Brueckner’s lawyers, in a further blow.
However, Maddie cops have said the verdict will not impact their investigation into the snatched three-year-old.
Judge Ute Engemann handed down the verdict at Braunschweig Regional Court.
Engemann said: “On this case I announce a full acquittal.”
The judge told the court key witness Helge B - who linked Brueckner to Maddie - had been “inconsistent” with his accounts in court.
She said they had not matched the statements he had given police.
Helge had told the court he was convinced that his former drifter pal snatched the British tot.
He committed crimes with the convicted rapist while the two lived in Portugal in the early 2000s.
And then he came forward in 2020 to claim Brueckner had taken Madeleine.
Helge claimed he had found horrific videos in Brueckner’s lair showing him raping an elderly woman and a girl as young as 13.
At the time, he did not report his findings to cops.
The judge also said Irish holiday rep Hazel Behan - one of Brueckner’s alleged victims - had contradicted herself in court with her account of how the suspect attacked her.
Behan came forward after she recognised him in photos after he was linked to Maddie’s disappearance.
She claims Brueckner — wearing a mask — tied her up and raped her three times in 2004 after climbing on to her balcony, also in the Algarve.
The rep - a mum-of-three - said she recognised Brueckner due to his “piercing blue eyes”.
The judge added: “The media had reported already about Madeleine McCann and this influenced the witnesses.
“In that case it was not possible to convict the defendant for objective reasons.”
She said the witnesses had not been persuasive and had failed to remember all details.
A third count of rape had already been discontinued earlier in the trial.
Prosecutors have been preparing an appeal since July when a judge lifted the arrest warrant for Brueckner on the case - citing growing belief he may not be guilty.
Investigators are said to be furious with the way the court has approached the case and will ask Germany’s supreme court to send it for a retrial.
Without a new warrant - or Maddie or further charges being brought against him - he could be free from next September, in less than a year.
In all likelihood, Brueckner could be back on the streets before then as part of a day-release programme to prepare him for freedom.
This is despite psychiatrists rating him in the “top league of dangerousness” and prosecutors asking for a preventative detention order, had he been convicted.
During the trial Brueckner was accused of breaking into a groundfloor flat in Portugal - like the McCann’s - to abuse Ms Behan.
A masked sicko, now ruled not to have been Brueckner, raped the holiday rep at knifepoint while filming her, then asked: “You are afraid of me aren’t you?”
When she lied and said “no” he whipped the helpless holiday rep then chillingly demanded: “Are you afraid of me now?”
The defence claimed Ms Behan could not have known her attacker was Brueckner, as he was wearing a mask.
They claimed she wrongly identified him after seeing Maddie coverage.
Brueckner was also cleared of raping a woman aged up to 80 and hitting her with a whip, while filming, in Praia de Luz, the village where Madeleine.
He was also cleared of grabbing the wrist of a child on a beach and performing a sex act on himself, only six miles from Praia, just weeks before Maddie vanished.
He was cleared of performed a sex act on himself in front of a child on a park-swing years later in the same region.
The defence argued none of the witnesses could be relied upon.
Brueckner had been charged with one count of rape, one count of rape and sex assault, one count of child molestation and indecent exposure and one count of public exhibitionism and indecency.
He was also charged with insulting behaviour and threats towards a prison guard.
The defendant denied all the charges against him.
This story first appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
Originally published as Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner is cleared in rape trial
Mayor brutally beheaded days into job
The newly elected mayor of a city besieged by violence has been beheaded days after taking office, with his head left on the bonnet of a car.
‘Mass exodus’: China’s $1 trillion problem
China has a major $1 trillion problem as its ultra-wealthy flee the country and the fed-up middle class left behind decide to simply ‘opt out’ of the economy.