BRUNSWICK, Germany (Reuters) – A suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann was acquitted of unrelated sexual abuse charges by a court in the German city of Brunswick on Tuesday.
Christian Brueckner has been formally identified as a suspect in the case of “Maddie” McCann, who disappeared from her bedroom in 2007 during a family holiday in Portugal. He denies any involvement and charges have not been brought.
In the trial in Brunswick, Brueckner faced three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children committed between 2000 and 2017.
Prosecutors had argued for the German national to be handed a 15-year sentence while his lawyer had called for him to be acquitted.
Brueckner, in his 40s, is already serving a seven-year prison term in Germany for raping a woman in the part of Portugal’s Algarve region where McCann went missing.
(Reporting by Freerk Heinz, Reuters Television; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Friederike Heine)
