Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner has been charged with a series of sex crimes – but none of them relates to the disappearance of the British toddler.
Convicted rapist Brueckner, 45, was named as the man responsible for Madeleine’s May 2007 abduction two years ago by German police in a fanfare which sparked worldwide media attention.
But since then no charges have come and the investigation has failed to positively link him, despite prosecutors giving the heart-breaking news they had ‘concrete evidence’ the little girl was dead and that Brueckner was the culprit.
Instead, German investigators today charged him with a string of other crimes.
These include the rapes of two unknown women in Portugal, the rape of Irish tour guide Hazel Behan in 2004, the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old German girl in April 2007 on a Portuguese beach – close to where Madeleine vanished just a month later – and a further sexual abuse case in 2017, again in Portugal.
The offences are said to have taken place between December 2000 and June 2017 when Brueckner was travelling between his native Germany and Portugal.
German prosecutors have named Christian Brueckner (left), who is currently in jail for rape, as the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann’s (right) disappearance. Convicted rapist Brueckner, 45, was named as the man responsible for the May 2007 abduction two years ago by German police, but has not been charged. Today, he was charged with a series of other sex crimes
The fact that Brueckner has not been charged over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from the holiday apartment of parents Kate and Gerry (pictured) in Praia da Luz will bring fresh heartache as they had hoped this would mark the end of the 15-year-mystery
The charges in relation to the rapes of the two unknown women come after police were told about a video recording of Brueckner allegedly attacking them.
Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth – two key witnesses and former friends of Brueckner’s – are said to have stolen the camera with the recording on it from the German’s house near Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
In the footage – which has disappeared – they describe how an elderly woman and a young girl are raped by a man who they identify as Brueckner, with the attacks taking place in his home.
The charges brought against Brueckner include a rape said to have taken place sometime between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006 on an unknown woman aged between 70-80 years old.
He is said to have tied the woman up and raped her in the bedroom of her holiday apartment and hit her with a whip while filming her ordeal.
On another day between the same dates he is accused of raping an unknown 14-year-old German girl at his home in Praia da Luz in the same way.
On June 16, 2004 at around 3am, the accused is said to have gone to Praia da Rocha in Portugal and entered the apartment of 20-year-old Irish woman Hazel Behan via the balcony.
On April 7, 2007 at around 3:30pm the accused is said to have been on a stretch of beach from Salema in Faro District in Portugal wearing only shoes and otherwise naked when he ambushed a ten-year-old German girl playing on the rocks and sexually assaulted her.
Ten years later, he is said to have carried out a similar attack at a children’s playground at Bartolomeu de Messines in Portugal where he was arrested by local police.
Under German law, German nationals accused of crimes in other countries can be tried in their home country.
Investigators believe the 45-year-old also killed Madeleine, then three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007. However, he has not been charged with her disappearance.
Brueckner, who has reportedly denied any involvement in the case, was identified as a suspect in the McCann case by Portuguese officials in June 2020.
But the fact that Brueckner has not been charged for Madeleine’s disappearance from the holiday apartment of parents Kate and Gerry in Praia da Luz will bring fresh heartache as they had hoped this would mark the end of the 15-year-mystery.
Madeleine went missing from this apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on holiday there with her family in 2007
When asked about the McCann case prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told MailOnline: ‘We hope that we can put all our energy into the McCann case once the other investigations have ended.
‘But we don’t know how it will end, for the time being it is still open, maybe we can bring a charge, maybe we can’t, but we are still hopeful.’
Brueckner is currently in Oldenburg jail serving seven years for the rape of an elderly American woman in her home in Praia da Luz in 2005.
He was convicted after DNA from a hair in her bed was matched to him. Brueckner and his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher have denied his involvement and insisted he was convicted after a bungled investigation.
Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, recently warned there’s no end in sight for the three-year-old’s probe
In a letter to a friend, seen by MailOnline, Brueckner said: ‘In the 2005 rape of the old lady, the offender was described as having dark eyes and incredibly strong. I got convicted but I never had dark eyes or looked like Dwayne Johnson.’
He added:’ There is absolutely no evidence that I committed this cruel crime. No DNA – just nothing. Things just appeared when there wasn’t anything before.
‘My hair from the 2005 case – 13 years it just happens to appear in the BKA (German police) laboratory. It was one of 15 hairs that were found but mysteriously no DNA was found on 13 but on two there was – mine and the old lady.
‘No more words are needed,’ he added.
Brueckner’s lawyer has now filed an appeal request in the German courts asking that the 2019 rape conviction be re-examined because the evidence used to convict him is weak.
He claims evidence in the new cases being investigated prove Brueckner could not have raped the pensioner as German authorities say that attack and the one on Behan were carried out by the same tattooed man.
But Mr Fulscher has pointed out his client has no tattoos and so therefore could not have carried out the rapes although he told MailOnline he was not hopefully of his appeal being granted.
He said: ‘Only a vanishingly small proportion of applications are successful.’