Madeleine McCann prime suspect charged with a series of sex crimes against children in Portugal

11 October 2022, 14:34 | Updated: 11 October 2022, 15:21

The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has been charged with several sexual offences he allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017, prosecutors have said.

"The accused is the same person against whom charges were brought in connection with the disappearance of the then 3-year-old British girl Madeleine Beth McCann," prosecutors from the German state of Braunschweig said in a statement.

"Specifically, the accused is charged with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of sexual abuse of children."

The investigation into Madeleine's disappearance is continuing irrespective of the charges brought, the prosecutor's office said.

Read more: Madeleine McCann breakthrough: 'Fibres from toddler's pyjamas found in suspect's van'

The prosecutor's office did not say if the charges were related to Madeleine, who disappeared in Portugal on May 3, 2007 aged 3. She and her siblings had been left asleep in the family's rented holiday flat while her parents, Kate and Gerry, went for dinner in a nearby tapas bar. The parents discovered her missing at 10pm that night.

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The case has been running for years - with Kate and Gerry even considered suspects at one point - and tragically, Madeleine has never been found.

German prosecutors sparked claims of a breakthrough in Madeleine's case in May this year when they hinted that evidence had been uncovered in the toddler's case, with reports suggesting threads from her pyjamas had been found in Christian Brueckner's campervan.

Brueckner, 45, was identified as a murder suspect by German prosecutors in June 2020 but has reportedly denied any involvement in the case and has not been charged.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told MailOnline: "The whole story about the traces of fibres is total nonsense. In the interview I said that we have found new evidence in the last two years.

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"However, there was nothing [that proves Brueckner's innocence] among them."

"Everything we have found confirms to us our working theory that we are not going in a senseless direction"...

Read more: Madeleine McCann suspect's lawyer blasts claims new forensic evidence has emerged

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In April, Brueckner was made an "arguido", a Portuguese legal designation which elevates a witness to the status of a named or formal suspect.

He has claimed to have an alibi, revealing he was having sex in his camper van with a woman at the time of Madeleine's disappearance.

He is serving a seven-year jail term for a brutal 2005 sex attack on a 72-year-old woman and his application for early release has been rejected by the German authorities.