Madeleine McCann disappearance: Christian Brueckner charged with sex offences

A suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been charged with several sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal around the time she went missing. Photo / Supplied

A suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been charged with several sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal around the time she went missing.

German prosecutors have charged Christian B, 45, with three counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual abuse of children, The Sun reports. The alleged offences span a 17-year period between 2000 and 2017.

The suspect, who was 30 at the time of McCann's disappearance, has twice been convicted of sex crimes against young girls.

He was named as an official suspect in the missing British girl's case in April.

McCann, from Leicestershire in the United Kingdom, went missing from her bed in a holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort town Praia da Luz on the evening of May 3, 2007. She was three years old.

Christian B is due to face trial on these new charges early next year.

German prosecutors say the alleged offences took place in Portugal between December 28, 2000, and June 11, 2017.

Christian B was 30 at the time of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Photo / Supplied

"The accused is the same person against whom charges were brought in connection with the disappearance of the then 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann," the Braunschweig prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Specifically, the accused is charged with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of sexual abuse of children."

The statement did not imply the charges were related to the McCann case.

Among the charges of which Christian B is accused is the rape of an elderly woman in her Portuguese holiday apartment in the early 2000s. German prosecutors say he broke into her apartment in a mask, tied her up and raped her before hitting her with a whip, recording the entire act on a video camera.