Before Christmas, police apparently want to file charges against Christian Brueckner, the main suspect in the death of Madeleine McCann.
The news broke while 45-year-old convicted rapist Brueckner was being investigated for a number of sex offences, none of which had anything to do with Madeleine’s abduction.
The Sun claims that Brueckner is still a key suspect and that ‘a solid case’ is being developed against him.
He was identified as the person in charge of stealing Madeleine in May 2007 by German police in a ceremony that garnered international media attention two years ago.
But despite prosecutors’ heartbreaking announcement that they had “clear proof” that the little child was dead and that Brueckner was the perpetrator, no charges have been filed since then, and the investigation has been unable to conclusively connect him.
Instead, when Brueckner was traveling between his own Germany and Portugal between 2000 and 2017, German police accused him of five offenses.
The defendant is accused of ambushing a 10-year-old German girl who was playing on the beach in Salema in the Faro neighborhood of Portugal in April 2007. She was only wearing shoes and was otherwise nude. This location is near to where Madeleine disappeared one month later.
He reportedly had her observe a sex act under duress.
He is alleged to have committed a similar offense against a girl in a playground in Bartolomeu de Messines, Portugal, ten years later. According to the prosecution, the victim called out to her father for assistance, and Portuguese police quickly apprehended the perpetrator.
The fresh accusations, according to Brueckner’s attorney Friedrich Fulscher, were a “total surprise” to him and his client and were based on “shady witnesses and video evidence that no one has been able to discover.”
The police were informed of a video footage of Brueckner allegedly assaulting the two unidentified ladies, which led to the accusations about the rapes of those victims.
Two important witnesses and former friends of Brueckner, Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth, are alleged to have stolen the camera with the recording from the German’s home close to Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
They tell how an old lady and a little child were raped by a guy they identify as Brueckner on the tape, which has since vanished.
One of the allegations against Brueckner is that she raped an unidentified lady who was between 70 and 80 years old somewhere between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006.
He is said to have tied the woman up and raped her in the bedroom of her holiday apartment and hit her with a whip while filming her ordeal.
On another day between the same dates he is accused of raping an unknown 14-year-old German-speaking girl at his home in Praia da Luz in a similar way, allegedly tying her up and videotaping the act.
At June 2004, the defendant reportedly used the balcony in Praia da Rocha to enter the residence of a 20-year-old Irish lady by night. The masked suspect then held the sleeping lady at knifepoint and raped her.
Additionally, it is claimed that the accused employed a portable video camera to record significant portions of the assault.
German citizens who are charged with crimes abroad may have their cases tried there under German law.
On May 3, 2007, the 45-year-old kidnapped Madeleine from a vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, and murdered her as well, according to investigators. Madeleine was three years old at the time. He has not, however, been accused of her disappearance.
Portuguese authorities named Brueckner as a suspect in the McCann case in June 2020; he has allegedly denied any connection with the case.
But parents Kate and Gerry had thought that Brueckner’s arrest would put an end to the 15-year mystery surrounding Madeleine’s disappearance from their vacation rental in Praia da Luz, so their disappointment at the news that he has not been prosecuted will only deepen.
The accused, according to a statement from the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office, is the same individual who is being looked at in relation to Madeleine’s disappearance.
The prosecutor’s office said, “Specifically, the accused is charged with three offenses of aggravated rape and two offenses of sexual abuse of minors.” It said, “The inquiry into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance continues.”
Hans Christian Wolters, the prosecutor, responded to a question concerning the McCann case by saying to MailOnline: “We hope that we can devote all of our focus into the McCann case after the other investigations have concluded.”
But we are still optimistic since the case is still open for the time being. Maybe we can bring a charge, maybe we can’t.
Brueckner’s attorney Fulscher responded to the rash of fresh accusations by telling MailOnline: “This has come as a great surprise to me and my client.”
The accusations seem to be supported by comments from two suspect witnesses and by video that no one has been able to locate.
These same two witnesses testified in the McCann case as well, but I was never even presented their testimony.
“The perpetrator in the rape case [of the 20-year-old lady] had a significant tattoo or birthmark on his leg, and the prosecution is well aware that my client has neither,” the defendant said.
The prosecutor must be persuaded that the evidence is credible and significant in order to file charges, and we don’t think it is. This inquiry is not impartial.
The prosecution of Brueckner is anticipated to begin in the coming spring.
Brueckner is presently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Oldenburg for the 2005 rape of an elderly American lady in her Praia da Luz home.
After DNA from a hair found in her bed was matched to him, he was found guilty. Insisting that he was found guilty after a botched inquiry, Brueckner and his attorney Fulscher have denied any complicity on their part.
Brueckner wrote: “In the 2005 rape of the elderly woman, the perpetrator was characterized as having dark eyes and being quite powerful in a letter to a friend that was obtained by MailOnline. I was found guilty, although I never had black eyes or had Dwayne Johnson’s looks.
There is simply no proof that I committed this heinous act, he continued. No DNA, nothing at all. Things suddenly materialized where none had existed previously.
‘My hair from the 2005 case – 13 years it simply occurs to arrive in the BKA (German police) laboratory. It was one of 15 hairs that were recovered but oddly no DNA was detected on 13 but on two there was – mine and the elderly woman.
He concluded, “No further words are necessary.
Now, Brueckner’s attorney has submitted an appeal request to the German courts, requesting that the 2019 rape conviction be reexamined due to insufficient supporting evidence.
The octogenarian could not have been raped, according to the evidence in the new instances under investigation, according to German investigators, who allege the tattooed guy who committed both the assault on Behan and the one on Brueckner.
Even while he told MailOnline he wasn’t optimistic that his appeal would be successful, Mr. Fulscher pointed out that his client doesn’t have any tattoos and so couldn’t have committed the rapes.
Only a vanishingly tiny percentage of applications are accepted, he said.
On the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance earlier this year, her parents said that finding the truth about what happened to their daughter was “important.”
The Metropolitan Police said that day that they are “dedicated” to learning the truth and that they are still treating the matter as a missing persons investigation.
Operation Grange, Scotland Yard’s own inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance, was started in July 2013.