- A German court has acquitted Christian Bruckner, who is also being investigated in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, of unrelated sex crimes.
- Bruckner is currently serving a seven-year sentence for rape in a separate case.
- Bruckner has not been charged in the McCann case and is being investigated for murder.
A German court on Tuesday acquitted a man also being investigated in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in a trial on unrelated sex charges.
The Braunschweig cantonal court acquitted the 47-year-old German national, identified by local media as Christian Bruckner, of two counts of rape and two counts of sexual abuse.
However, according to German news agency dpa, Bruckner will remain in prison for another year as he is currently serving a seven-year sentence for rape in a separate case.
Witness Madeleine McCann claims kidnapping suspect admitted to crime while drunk
Bruckner has been on trial since February for crimes he allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. The defense team pointed to a lack of evidence and unreliable witnesses, suggesting that charges may not have been filed. If he hadn't become a suspect in the McCann case.
Prosecutors had sentenced him to 15 years in prison and argued that he should be kept in preventive detention after serving his sentence.
“The evidence we obtained was not sufficient to convict the defendant,” Presiding Judge Uta Engeman said, according to DPA, adding, “We were dealing with unreliable witnesses, some of whom were “Some of them intentionally lied,” he added.
Christian Bruckner (center) stands in the courtroom of the Braunschweig District Court before the start of his trial in Braunschweig, Germany, on October 8, 2024. (Michael Massey/DPA via AP)
Engemann claimed that the witnesses' statements were influenced by media coverage of Bruckner, who was “stylized as a sex monster and child murderer.”
Prosecutors said they would appeal the ruling.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “We believe this judgment is wrong and will appeal to the German Supreme Court so that the Supreme Court can check the judgment for errors.''
“At least from the defense's point of view, there can only be one outcome that corresponds to the factual and legal circumstances, and that is acquittal,” Bruckner's lawyer Friedrich Fülscher told reporters after the verdict. It was foreseeable.”
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Bruckner has not been charged in the McCann case and is being investigated for murder. He had been living in Portugal for many years, including at the resort of Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine disappeared in 2007. He denies any involvement in her disappearance.
He was convicted in 2019 by the Braunschweig court of raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005 and is currently serving a seven-year sentence.
As Brückner had his last German residence in the city in Lower Saxony, the Braunschweig cantonal court has jurisdiction.
