Brunswick, Germany — A German court has acquitted a man identified as the sole suspect in a nearly two-decade-old cold case. disappearance of little British girl Madeleine McCann for a number of unrelated sex offense charges, but Christian Brueckner will remain in a German prison for at least a year thanks to a previous conviction in another rape case.
Bruckner, a 47-year-old German national, was described as one of the main suspects in the 2007 disappearance of the British girl from a seaside resort in Portugal, and he remains under investigation by police from several countries in connection with this affair. On Tuesday, however, a district court in Braunschweig acquitted him of charges of sexual offenses unrelated to McCann’s disappearance – acts allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Brueckner faced three charges of rape and two counts of sexual abuse in the case decided Tuesday, in which prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison sentence as well as pretrial detention after his sentence. A three-judge panel, led by Uta Engemann, ruled in favor of the defense, which had argued there was not enough credible evidence to convict him of the charges against him.
Michael Matthey/Piscine/Reuters
Brueckner is already serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal. Despite Tuesday’s ruling, he will likely remain behind bars, serving his sentence, until September 2025.
The defendant’s lawyer, Friedrich Fuelscher, said the prosecution’s case before the Braunschweig district court lacked reliable witnesses, and he argued that Brueckner was only targeted because of his ties public with the high-profile McCann affair.
“It became clear during the proceedings that media bias played a significant role in shaping public perceptions and influencing witnesses,” Engemann said in delivering his judgment Tuesday, emphasizing that the judicial oath that she had lent committed her to guaranteeing legal proceedings for all accused parties.
“Even Christian Brueckner has the right to have a constitutional (fair) trial,” she said, adding: “The court’s decision might be disappointing for those involved, but that’s how it works in a constitutional system.”
Unlike in the United States, defendants such as Brueckner are not required to plead to any charges in the German legal system, nor are they required to testify or respond to the charges. Brueckner chose to remain silent during the Braunschweig trial.
Investigations into McCann’s kidnapping continue and no formal charges have ever been filed against Brueckner in the case. He has always denied any involvement in the disappearance of the little British girl from her parents’ holiday home in southern Portugal – a mystery that has remained unsolved for more than 17 years.
Police in Germany, Portugal and Britain have found little solid evidence after nearly two decades investigating McCann’s disappearance. New research carried out in mid-2023, around a reservoir not far from where she disappeared, seems brings no new ideas.
Brueckner was identified as a main suspect in the case in 2022, when German prosecutors said records showed he received a phone call on May 3, 2007, near the apartment in Praia da Luz where McCann had disappeared from. He was already under investigation for various crimes, including burglary and child abuse in Portugal.
