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Police are reportedly hoping to indict Madeleine McCann’s prime suspect Christian Brueckner for the kidnapping and murder of the toddler before Christmas.
The news came when convicted rapist Brueckner, 45, was charged with a series of sex crimes, but none of them related to Madeleine’s disappearance.
According to The Sun, Brueckner remains the main suspect and ‘a concrete case’ is being built against him.
He was named by German police as the man responsible for Madeleine’s kidnapping in May 2007, two years ago, in a marching band that sparked worldwide media attention.
But no charges have been filed since then, and the investigation has not positively linked him, despite the heartbreaking news that prosecutors had the heartbreaking news that they had “concrete evidence” that the little girl was dead and that Brueckner was the culprit.
Instead, German investigators charged him with five offenses between 2000 and 2017, when Brueckner was traveling between his native Germany and Portugal.
In April 2007, the defendant is said to have ambushed a 10-year-old German girl on Salema beach – near where Madeleine disappeared just a month later – in the Faro district of Portugal, wearing only shoes and otherwise naked.
He allegedly forced her to watch him perform a sexual act.
German prosecutors have named Christian Brueckner (left), currently in prison for rape, as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann (right). Convicted rapist Brueckner, 45, was named by German police as the man responsible for the kidnapping in May 2007, but has not been charged. He was charged with a range of other sex crimes
The fact that Brueckner has not been charged in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance from parents Kate and Gerry’s holiday apartment (pictured) in Praia da Luz will bring new heartache, as they had hoped it would mark the end of the 15-year mystery
Ten years later, he is said to have committed a similar crime against a girl on a playground in Bartolomeu de Messines, Portugal. Prosecutors say the girl ran to her father for help and the suspect was arrested on the spot by Portuguese police.
Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, said the new charges came as a “complete surprise” to him and his client and that they were based on “dubious witnesses and video evidence that no one has been able to find.”
The charges related to the rapes of the two unknown women come after police were notified of a videotape of Brueckner allegedly attacking them.
Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth – two key witnesses and former friends of Brueckner – 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 images that have since disappeared, they describe how an older woman and a young girl are raped by a man they identify as Brueckner.
The charges against Brueckner include a rape allegedly committed sometime between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006 of an unknown woman between the ages of 70 and 80.
He allegedly tied up the woman and raped her in the bedroom of her vacation apartment and beat her with a whip while filming her ordeal.
On another day between the same dates, he is accused of similarly raping an unknown 14-year-old German-speaking girl at his home in Praia da Luz, allegedly tying her up and videotaping the act.
In June 2004, the defendant allegedly gained access at night through the balcony in Praia da Rocha to the apartment of a then 20-year-old woman from Ireland. The sleeping woman was then awakened with a knife by the masked suspect and raped.
The suspect would also have filmed large parts of the attack with a video camera he brought with him.
Under German law, German citizens accused of crimes in other countries can be tried in their own country.
Investigators believe the 45-year-old also murdered Madeleine, then three, after he kidnapped 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 in June 2020 by Portuguese officials.
But the fact that Brueckner has not been charged in Madeleine’s disappearance from parents Kate and Gerry’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz will cause new heartache, as they had hoped it would end the 15-year mystery.
Braunschweig’s prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the suspect is the same person under investigation in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance.
Specifically, the suspect is charged with three offenses of aggravated rape and two offenses of child sexual abuse, the prosecutor added. “The investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance continues,” it noted.
Madeleine disappeared from this apartment in the seaside town of Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 while on vacation with her family.
When asked about the McCann case, District Attorney Hans Christian Wolters told MailOnline: “We hope to put all our energies into the McCann case once the other investigations are completed.
“But we don’t know how it ends, it’s still open for now, maybe we can file a lawsuit, maybe not, but we still have hope.”
Brueckner’s lawyer Fulscher. responded to the string of new charges told MailOnline: “This comes as a complete surprise to me and my client.
The charges appear to be based on statements by two dubious witnesses and on video evidence that no one has been able to find.
‘These same two people also provided evidence in the McCann case and their testimony was not even shown to me.
‘Part of the evidence in the case of the rape’ [of the 20-year-old woman] is that the attacker had a large tattoo or birthmark on his leg and the prosecution is well aware that my client has neither.
“To file charges, the prosecutor must be satisfied that the information in the case is reliable and relevant, and we believe it is not. This is not a fair investigation.’
The case against Brueckner is expected to start next spring.
Brueckner is currently in Oldenburg Prison, serving seven years for the 2005 rape of an elderly American woman at her Praia da Luz home.
He was convicted after DNA from a hair in her bed was linked to him. Brueckner and his lawyer Fulscher have denied his involvement and have maintained that he was convicted after a failed investigation.
Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor investigating Madeleine’s disappearance, recently warned that there is no end in sight for the three-year-old’s investigation.
In a letter to a friend seen by MailOnline, Brueckner said: ‘In the 2005 rape of the old lady, the perpetrator was described as dark-eyed and incredibly strong. I was 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 appeared just when there was nothing.
‘My hair from the case 2005 – 13 years old comes across it by chance in the laboratory of the BKA (German police). It was one of 15 hairs that were found, but mysteriously no DNA was found on 13, but on two – mine and the old lady.
“No more words are needed,” he added.
Brueckner’s lawyer has now appealed to German courts requesting that the 2019 rape conviction be re-examined because the evidence used to convict him is weak.
He claims evidence in the new cases under investigation proves that Brueckner was unable to rape the pensioner, as German authorities say the attack and the one on Behan were carried out by the same tattooed man.
But Mr Fulscher has pointed out that his client has no tattoos and has therefore been unable to carry out the rapes, although he told MailOnline that he did not hope his appeal would be upheld.
He said, “Only a vanishingly small proportion of applications are successful.”
Earlier this year, on the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, her parents said it is “essential” to learn the truth about what happened to their daughter.
On the same day, the Metropolitan Police, which continues to handle the case as a missing persons investigation, said they are “committed” to uncovering the truth.
In July 2013, Scotland Yard launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine’s disappearance.