German court issues new arrest warrant for jailed Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner citing ‘urgent reason’ to believe he was behind three serious rapes and a case of child sex abuse
- Offenses involve abuse of girl on beach close to where Maddie disappeared
- Brueckner currently imprisoned for rape but release due in September 2025
- German proecutor says he is ‘100% sure’ Brueckner caused Maddie’s death
Authorities in Germany said Monday they have issued a new arrest warrant in separate cases for a German man who is also a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal 15 years ago.
The suspect, identified by media as Christian Brueckner, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.
His prison term is scheduled to end in September 2025.
Concerned that he might be released before standing trial again, prosecutors in the northern city of Braunschweig announced last month that they had charged the 45-year-old in five separate cases.
Madeleine McCann (right) suspect Christian Brueckner, 45, (left) has been issued an arrest warrant from German police related to five sex offenses
Brueckner has been charged with five sex attacks in the same area where Maddie vanished in 2007. He has been named as the chief suspect in her disappearance, but not charged
The cases involve sexual offenses allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
They include the rapes of two unknown women in Portugal, the rape of a 20-year-old Irish woman in 2004, the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old German girl in April 2007 on a Portuguese beach – close to where Madeleine vanished just a month later – and another sexual abuse case in 2017, again in Portugal.
The Braunschweig state court said it has approved an arrest warrant on the grounds that there is ‘urgent reason’ to believe he was behind three cases of serious rape and two cases of child sexual abuse.
The arrest warrant must still be approved by authorities in Italy, where he was arrested in 2018 before being extradited to Germany.
Christian Brueckner (left), was charged last month with a string of sex offences said to have taken place in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017. He is also suspected of kidnapping Maddie (right) from the same area in 2007, but has not been charged
Madeleine went missing from this apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on holiday there with her family in 2007
The court also said a decision on whether to send the case to trial – a necessary step in the German legal process – is still pending.
Due to its calendar of other cases, the opening of any trial cannot be expected before next year, it said.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he remains under investigation 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 has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Earlier this month, Brueckner claimed German police were trying to frame him for the multiple crimes in the hope he would crack and confess.
In a letter sent from prison obtained by The Mirror, the convicted rapist wrote: ‘There is no evidence at all that I committed any of these crimes. No DNA, nothing.
‘The prosecution are trying to trap me and hope that I will capitulate under the mental pressure.
‘They hope that I will just say “yes” to everything which will give me a chance to escape from this mental torture.’
Meanwhile, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said Maddie is dead and he is ‘100% sure’ Brueckner is the culprit.
He added investigators are working ‘solely’ on the investigation around Maddie, who went missing in 2007.
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