The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was today found not guilty on separate sex crimes charges, meaning he could be released from prison as early as next year.
Christian Brueckner, 47, was sensationally named as the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine in June 2020 by German police but no charges relating to the case have been brought.
He was however accused of three rapes and two child sex abuse cases between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal, close to the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz from where Madeleine vanished while on holiday with parents Kate and Gerry McCann.
In his closing remarks at the courthouse in Braunschweig yesterday, Brueckner’s main lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher hinted that convicted rapist and paedophile Brueckner was only on trial because of his link with Madeleine’s internationally recognised case.
Prosecutors had called for a 15-year sentence, but the court concurred with Fuelscher’s argument and Judge Ute Engemann this morning acquitted his client of all charges.
Brueckner showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered.
The ruling could have devastating consequences for German prosecutors who want to pin Madeleine’s disappearance on him, and they immediately lodged an appeal against the not-guilty verdict.
Upon delivering the ruling, Judge Engemann made a lengthy statement explaining why Brueckner was acquitted and slammed German prosecutors for naming him in relation to the Madeline McCann saga.
‘We as judges have sworn an oath, and it is to serve the truth only. We take this very seriously but we cannot wrap people in cotton wool.
‘This oath means that we don’t have to cater to the views of the media, the defence and the prosecution, or the table of regulars-in-a-pub.’
She went on: ‘Everyone had heard about (Brueckner) in the Maddie McCann case and they all knew that Brueckner since 2020 was always named by the public prosecution office.
‘When in the media, a person is here described as a sex monster and a pervert, then it influences the witness. When massive third-party suggestions are made in this way, then the testimonies in court are almost worthless for the legal chamber.’
On Monday after closing speeches, Brueckner declined to speak, but he has protested his innocence in series of extraordinary letters to .
Ahead of the decision, prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters had told he would be making announcement on their ‘next steps’ in the Mccann investigation but he refused to expand.
‘We consider the judgement to be wrong in substance and will therefore appeal so that the Federal Court of Justice will review the decision again for legal errors,’ Wolters said as soon as the verdict was delivered.
Brueckner is currently serving a rape sentence that runs until September 2025, according to Wolters, though Fuelscher has said the defendant could be free as soon as the spring.
Three-year-old Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve region in May 2007 while her parents dined at a nearby tapas bar.
Despite a huge international manhunt and global media attention, no trace of her has been found, but investigations are continuing in the ‘Maddie’ case, prosecutor Wolters has declared.
‘At present, I am unable to say when we will be able to conclude these investigations and with what result,’ he said.
The charges of which Brueckner was acquitted today came about as a result of investigations into the ‘Maddie’ case, according to prosecutors.
In one of the cases, prosecutors had accused Brueckner of entering the holiday apartment of a woman aged between 70 and 80, tying her up and beating and sexually assaulting her.
In another case, he had been accused of entering a young Irish woman’s apartment via her balcony while she was sleeping, threatening her with a knife and raping her several times.
He had also been accused of exposing himself in front of a 10-year-old German girl on a beach and to an 11-year-old Portuguese girl at a playground.
But the defence raised serious doubts about the cases against Brueckner, which were based on testimonies but not forensic evidence.
Irish tour guide Hazel Behan earlier in the trial gave a harrowing account of her ordeal, allegedly at Brueckner’s hands, on the Algarve.
Ms Behan, 40, who waived her anonymity said she had returned to her flat in Praia da Roche, in Portugal, in June 2004, after a row with her then-boyfriend when she was just 20.
Appearing in court last May, she described how she got into bed fully clothed and then fell asleep, only to wake moments later when she heard her name being called.
Ms Behan said: ‘I thought it was my boyfriend who had come to apologise. After a short space of time I said to myself in my head, ”He doesn’t have a key so how did he get in?”
‘I had such a fear which I have never experienced and it felt as if all the blood in my body went to my feet.
‘I turned and saw a man fully dressed in black from head to toe, with a knife and the first thing he did was put his knee into my back and a hand over my mouth.
‘He pulled my head and said in English: ”Don’t f***ing scream or I will kill you”, so that’s why I didn’t. It was all very quick.
‘He pulled my head back and said in English: ”Don’t look at me”, and then I smelt a fruity smell. I knew it was condoms, so I knew it was going to happen.’
Ms Behan, from Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland, added: ‘I have had three children, but I have never felt a pain like that and I felt it would last forever.’
But Mr Fuelscher said in his closing speech his client was innocent of the attack.
‘Hazel Behan was raped in the most brutal way. I have already pointed out that the defence has no doubts about this,’ Mr Fuelscher said.
‘Only one question is important here and now, can it be established beyond doubt that the defendant was the one who committed the offence?
‘At the end of this hearing, the answer to me is clearly no.’
Last week prosecutor Ute Lindemann argued Brueckner should be jailed for 15 years – labelling him a ‘sadistic psychopath’.
But in July the prosecution was dealt a significant blow after the current trial judge ruled that evidence against him in the current trial was ‘insufficient’.
Illustrating his argument that Brueckner was innocent, Mr Fuelscher highlighted how Ms Behan said her attacker was ‘left-handed’ when Brueckner is the opposite and although she said her attacker had a ‘German accent’, this was ‘purely circumstantial’.
He pointed out how Ms Behan’s description of the height of her attacker ‘was way off the mark’.
Mr Fuelscher also highlighted how his client had ‘no abnormalities on his leg’ despite Ms Behan saying the man who attacked her had a ‘scar, birthmark or tattoo on his upper thigh’.
Notebooks seized from Brueckner detailing his sexual fantasies were used as evidence. But, despite their disturbing content, they provided no direct link to the alleged crimes.
The defence was also critical of the German police’s investigation of the case describing it as ‘ one-sided’ and he had been left ‘shocked’ by it.
Mr Fuelscher said:’ We have heard BKA officers (German police) openly admit that they did not question witnesses critically so that no contradictions would arise.
‘This is simply scandalous and casts a very bad light on the federal authorities, especially as the BKA is highly trusted in terms of competence by the judiciary and general public.’
During the trial, Brueckner’s former cellmate Laurentiu Codin told the court that he had ‘confessed’ to him he had once abducted a child in Portugal.
Codin told the hearing: ‘He was looking for money. He said he didn’t find any money but found a kid and took the child.
‘He said that two hours later, there were police and dogs all over the place, so he then went away, out of the area.
‘He said that he took the child in Portugal in his car, and in the time when the police and dogs were at the house, he drove away and he was gone.
‘He asked me if the DNA from a child can be taken from bones under the ground.’
Also key to the case – and that of Madeleine’s disappearance – were two super witnesses Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth, former partners in crime with Brueckner.
They claimed to have found a video in Brueckner’s home in Portugal showing him masked and raping two women. But the clip has never been discovered and defence lawyers questioned its existence.
Busching also claimed that Brueckner told him at a festival in Spain a year after Madeleine vanished that it was ‘strange she didn’t scream’ which investigators also claim is vital to the case.
Met officer Mark Draycott testified to the court in May how Busching had contacted them and he had been quizzed in great secrecy in Athens about his claims after he was released from a Greek prison for people trafficking.
But Mr Fuelscher portrayed Busching and Seyferth as ‘unbelievable’ witnesses and said their sole aim was to put ‘Bruckner in prison’, describing their evidence as ‘lies’.
Busching and Seyferth had also both testified in the 2019 trial which sent Brueckner to jail but Mr Fulscher said their testimony was ‘now full of contradictions’.
He pointed out how witnesses they had said had seen ‘the rape video’ denied having ever set eyes on it and Mr Fulscher said Busching’s aim was ‘solely to profit from the multi-million reward’ in the Madeleine case.