The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann Trailer. Video / Netflix
Madeleine McCann disappearance prime suspect Christian Brueckner will not immediately face charges over a string of alleged rapes in a bombshell court ruling in Germany.
In a major setback for his alleged victims, any trial is likely to be extensively delayed.
According to the Sun, a court in Germany’s Braunschweig ruled that it could not hold the possible rape trial for the convicted paedophile saying it has no jurisdiction over the case.
The court on Thursday argued the region where it is located isn’t the last place Brueckner lived in Germany and so it isn’t responsible.
The court said that, as a result of its decision, it has lifted a new arrest warrant it issued for the suspect in November. It said in a statement that this has no influence on the suspect’s serving of his current sentence.
He was originally charged last year with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of sexual abuse of children in alleged crimes between 2000 and 2017.
The charges came off the back of evidence that was uncovered during the McCann investigation.
German news outlet Bild suggests another court in Germany will eventually take charge of the case. The fact that the arrest warrant is lifted does not mean Brueckner will be released.
He is currently serving a seven-year sentence other the rape of a pensioner in Praia da Luz, the same area in Portugal McCann went missing in 2007.
German prosecutors previously said he broke into the woman’s apartment in a mask, tied her and raped her before hitting her with a whip.
Portuguese police sources say Christian Brueckner refused to respond to questions put to him on their behalf by German officers.
He is also alleged to have sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl at his Praia da Luz home.
In a separate attack in 2004, he allegedly raped a 20-year-old Irish woman at knifepoint, filming the incident before the suspect escaped.
He is also accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl less than a month before McCann disappeared.
Brueckner and his alleged links to the McCann case
While Brueckner hasn’t been charged in relation to McCann’s disappearance, he remains under suspicion of her murder.
German police claim they have evidence he had been living in a campervan just kilometres away from the Ocean Club at the time she disappeared.
They claimed they have substantial evidence linking Brueckner to McCann, including a confession he allegedly made to a friend while drinking at a bar.
He has repeatedly denied any involvement with her disappearance.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters was interviewed on a show called Sabado in 2022, where he claimed investigators found fibres from Maddie’s pink pyjamas in Brueckner’s van.
German investigators claim to have found 'evidence' of missing Madeleine McCann in the van of prime suspect Christian Brueckner. Photo / Metropolitan Police / NZME
“It’s not forensic evidence but evidence and because of our evidence, we are sure he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann. We are sure he killed Madeleine,” he said.
It surfaced that evidence had been found in the yellow and white VW driven by Brueckner at the time.
A phone call made by Brueckner just 60 minutes before McCann disappeared placed him within kilometres of the Ocean Club complex. Wolters said the phone call connected to the mast belonging to the club.
Brueckner has since sent a letter from his prison cell saying he has no connection to the case.
“I wasn’t kidnapping anybody and, of course, I wasn’t killing anybody,” he wrote.
“I’ll go further, I’ll tell you I wasn’t attacking anybody after I was 18. I made some silly mistakes when I was younger but who hasn’t?”
Brueckner noted there was “no proof” against him and that German authorities were leaking information to portray him in a poor light.
“I know of about five open cases against me, all of them including raping and abusing. They have manipulated the truth in such an unprofessional way that I am laughing.
“I still have not lost my sense of humour. Even in this critical situation. This is what keeps me alive.”
