A suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been cleared of charges unrelated to sexual offenses
A German court has acquitted Christian Brueckner, who is also under investigation in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, in a trial over unrelated sexual offenses.
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In a trial on allegations of unrelated sexual offenses, a German court on Tuesday cleared a man who is also being investigated in connection with the disappearance of British infant Madeleine McCann in 2007.
The 47-year-old German national, known as Christian Brueckner in the local media, was found not guilty on two charges of sexual abuse and two counts of rape by the Braunschweig state court.
But according to German news agency dpa, Brueckner will stay behind bars for an additional year since he is still serving a seven-year term for rape in a separate case.
Brueckner had been on trial since February over offenses he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Defense lawyers had pointed to what they labeled a lack of evidence and witnesses who weren’t credible, and suggested he might not have been charged if he hadn’t also been a suspect in the McCann case.
Prosecutors had argued he should be given a 15-year prison sentence and kept in preventive detention once he has served it.
"The evidence we had was not enough to convict the defendant," presiding judge Uta Engemann said, according to dpa, adding that "we were dealing with unreliable witnesses, some of whom deliberately lied to the court."
Engemann argued that witnesses had been influenced in their statements by the media's reporting on Brueckner, who she said had been "stylized as a sex monster and child murderer."
Prosecutors said they would appeal the ruling.
"We believe that the decision is wrong, so we will appeal to the German supreme court so that the supreme court can check the verdict for mistakes," prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said.
Brueckner's lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, told reporters after the ruling that "it was foreseeable, at least from the point of view of the defense, that there can only be one outcome that corresponds to the factual and legal situation and that is the acquittal."
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2019 by the Braunschweig court for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.
The Braunschweig state court has jurisdiction because Brueckner had his last German residence in that city in Lower Saxony.
