Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner 'could walk free in months' - after arrest warrant lifted
3 July 2024, 20:07 | Updated: 3 July 2024, 20:20
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case could walk free in months after an order to keep him behind bars was overturned.
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Madeleine, who was three years old at the time, vanished on May 3, 2007, when her family were holidaying in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
In 2020, German police named Christian Brueckner as a prime suspect in the case - but he has not been charged in relation to the case.
The 47-year-old was served court documents last year, meaning he would have to be detained in custody while he went on trial for unrelated sex crimes.
But on Wednesday, judges lifted the arrest warrant in the current case - in which Brueckner has been accused of three counts of rape and two of sexual abuse of children - as there is "no urgent suspicion".
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Brueckner spent several years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz during the same period that Madeleine vanished.
He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
In the current trial, prosecutors had claimed that, at an unspecified time between 2000 and 2006, the suspect allegedly tied up and raped an elderly woman in her vacation apartment in Portugal.
He allegedly beat the victim several times with a whip and recorded it.
During the same time period, he is alleged to have tied a German-speaking girl aged at least 14 to a wooden post in the living room of his residence in Praia da Luz.
He is accused of beating her with a whip and forcing her to perform oral sex.
However, Brueckner's lawyers filed a motion during the trial to quash the arrest warrant because they no longer saw any reason for one after evidence in the alleged crimes had been taken in court.
The court ruled that there was no "strong suspicion" with regard to all charges.
A verdict in the ongoing trial is expected later in the year.
