Madeleine McCann suspect: Brückner faces a brand new unrelated fee

The top suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance faces a brand new unrelated fee, the BBC has been informed.

Christian Brückner is due in courtroom subsequent week accused of insulting a member of jail body of workers.

The actual main points of the allegation have no longer been made public.

If discovered to blame, it will probably lengthen his present prison time period this is because of result in September, consistent with a courtroom professional.

Brückner, 48, is in the back of bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American vacationer in Portugal in 2005. He hasn’t ever been charged within the McCann case and denies involvement.

Three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished from a vacation condominium in Praia da Luz, in Portugal’s Algarve area, in 2007.

It has turn out to be one of the most highest-profile, unsolved lacking particular person instances on this planet.

Brückner used to be no longer recognized as a suspect in her disappearance till 2020.

German investigators classed the case as a homicide inquiry.

However, no fees have ever been introduced in opposition to Brückner, within the McCann case, and the whole main points of the alleged proof have by no means been launched.

A convicted kid intercourse wrongdoer, Brückner is a German nationwide who has a historical past of intercourse, forgery, drug, and robbery offences.

A drifter, he lived in Portugal’s Algarve area, off and on, for years.

Now prosecutors are running in opposition to the clock as Brückner is scheduled to stroll unfastened in September 2025.

Investigators worry that Brückner, as a unfastened guy, will skip Germany and disappear.

A ruling, final yr, lead the way for his unlock when he used to be acquitted of 5 different intercourse offence allegations.

In October 2024, judges cleared Brückner of 3 counts of rape and two counts of kid intercourse abuse – fees relationship again to between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.

Prosecutors have introduced an attraction, however a choice on any attainable retrial might but take months.

Brückner is due in courtroom on Thursday morning in Lehrte, Lower Saxony, to stand the fee of insulting a jail body of workers member, a courtroom professional informed the BBC.

If discovered to blame, Brückner may face both a wonderful or as much as an extra yr in prison.

Interest in Brückner’s prison battles is still prime because of his identify being connected, by means of the government, to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters informed the BBC he used to be acutely aware of the approaching, unrelated trial at Lehrte District Court, however that it’s being treated by means of a distinct place of job.

He additionally reiterated there are nonetheless no plans to fee Brückner over the McCann case.

In 2020, Mr Wolters informed the BBC the general public would succeed in the similar conclusion as his staff had, about Brückner’s alleged involvement, in the event that they “knew the evidence we had”.

The BBC has approached Christian Brückner’s prison staff for remark.