German court acquits McCann suspect of unrelated sexual offense charges

BRAUNSCHWEIG, Germany (AP) — A German court docket on Tuesday acquitted a person who can be beneath investigation within the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in a trial on fees of unrelated sexual offenses.

The Braunschweig state court docket acquitted the 47-year-old German nationwide, who has been recognized by native media as Christian Brueckner, of two counts of rape and two of sexual abuse.

Nonetheless, Brueckner will stay in jail one other yr as a result of he’s nonetheless serving a seven-year sentence for rape in a special case, German information company dpa reported.

Brueckner had been on trial since February over offenses he’s alleged to have dedicated in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Protection legal professionals had pointed to what they labeled an absence of proof and witnesses who weren’t credible, and prompt he may not have been charged if he hadn’t additionally been a suspect within the McCann case.

Prosecutors had argued he ought to be given a 15-year jail sentence and saved in preventive detention as soon as he has served it.

“The proof we had was not sufficient to convict the defendant,” presiding decide Uta Engemann mentioned, in keeping with dpa, including that “we had been coping with unreliable witnesses, a few of whom intentionally lied to the court docket.”

Engemann argued that witnesses had been influenced of their statements by the media’s reporting on Brueckner, who she mentioned had been “stylized as a intercourse monster and baby assassin.”

Prosecutors mentioned they might enchantment the ruling.

“We imagine that the choice is improper, so we are going to enchantment to the German supreme court docket in order that the supreme court docket can verify the decision for errors,” prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters mentioned.

Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, wherein he’s beneath investigation on suspicion of homicide. He spent a few years in Portugal, together with within the resort of Praia da Luz across the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.

He’s at present serving a seven-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2019 by the Braunschweig court docket for the rape of a 72-year-old American lady in Portugal in 2005.

The Braunschweig state court docket has jurisdiction as a result of Brueckner had his final German residence in that metropolis in Decrease Saxony.