Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner could face ‘triple trial’ over sex offences – World News
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann disappearance could face a “triple trial” on all the sexual offences he is being investigated over.
Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner was named last year as the man police think abducted her from her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Officers are also investigating his alleged involvement in three other cases.
Prosecutors have now revealed they are considering a trial covering all three of these sex crimes.
(Image: Carabinieri Milano via Getty Ima)
Chief prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “If there is sufficient suspicion in several cases, it must be examined whether a joint indictment would be appropriate.”
The first of the three offences is the rape of a woman in Praia da Rocha on the Algarve in Portugal in 2004.
Brueckner, 44, is also being investigated over the sexual assault of a girl in Portugal in 2007.
The third case involves the abuse of four children on the Algarve in 2017.
(Image: PA)
Any trial would be in the German city of Braunschweig where the inquiry is centred and where Brueckner used to run a kiosk.
Authorities in Germany said last week they believe Madeleine was killed in Portugal shortly after being abducted in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.
Prosecutors say phone records place Brueckner in the town at the time the British girl went missing.
(Image: PA)
It has previously been speculated she could have been taken to Germany.
Madeleine disappeared aged three while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leics.
The family, who cling to hope that she is still alive, marked the missing girl’s 18th birthday last week.
(Image: PA)
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German national Brueckner is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence in his homeland for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
When asked about the latest potential legal development, his lawyer declined to comment.
Brueckner, who has protested his innocence in the Madeleine case, has been in solitary confinement to protect him from attacks by other prisoners.
The accusations
Brueckner is being investigated over the rape of Irish woman Hazel Behan in an apartment on the Algarve in 2004.
The second case is a sex assault on a 10-year-old girl on a beach in Portugal in 2007.
The third is the abuse of four children at a festival in São Bartolomeu de Messines in 2017.
