Braunschweig, Germany—The German convicted rapist and main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann was on Tuesday cleared of all charges in an unrelated sex crimes trial.
The case has been closely watched because the acquittal means 47-year-old Christian Brueckner could be released from jail as early as next year, according to court officials.
Brueckner is currently behind bars, serving a sentence for raping a 72-year-old US tourist in 2005 in Praia da Luz — the same Portuguese seaside resort where Madeleine went missing two years later.
Prosecutors in Brueckner’s latest trial had called for him to be jailed for a further 15 years, describing him as a “dangerous psychopathic sadist”.
However, the presiding judge Uta Engemann said Brueckner could “not be convicted of the acts he is accused of” and ruled: “The defendant is acquitted.”
Brueckner was revealed as a suspect in 2020 in a bombshell development in the “Maddie” investigation, one of the highest-profile missing persons cases in history.
German prosecutors have not charged him over Madeleine’s disappearance.
They have said they are certain that Madeleine is dead.
Two years ago, Brueckner was charged with five separate counts of rape and child sex abuse, allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
