German court clears McCann of suspect of unrelated sexual offenses

BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany (AP) — A German court on Tuesday acquitted a man who is also being investigated for unrelated sexual offenses in connection with the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann.

The Braunschweig regional court acquitted the 47-year-old German, identified by local media as Christian Brückner, of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual abuse.

However, Brückner will remain in prison for another year as he is still serving a seven-year sentence for rape in a separate case, dpa reported.

Brückner has been on trial since February for crimes he is said to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Defense lawyers had pointed to a lack of evidence and unreliable witnesses and suggested that he might not have been charged if he had not also been a suspect in the McCann case.

The prosecution had argued that he should be sentenced to 15 years in prison and placed in preventive detention after serving his sentence.

“The evidence we had was not enough to convict the defendant,” said presiding judge Uta Engemann, according to dpa, adding: “We were dealing with unreliable witnesses, some of whom deliberately lied to the court.”

Engemann argued that witnesses were influenced in their statements by the media coverage of Brückner, who, in their opinion, had been “stylized as a sex monster and child murderer.”

Prosecutors said they would appeal the verdict.

“We believe the decision is wrong, so we will appeal to the German Supreme Court so that the Supreme Court can review the verdict for errors,” said prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters.

Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is being investigated on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz, around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He denied any involvement in her disappearance.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted by the Braunschweig court in 2019 of raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.

The Braunschweig regional court is responsible, as Brückner had his last German residence in this Lower Saxony city.