German prosecutors said the 45-year-old suspect is charged with committing multiple offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was today charged with rape and child sexual abuse.
He is accused of five offences between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal, the public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig said.
The charges are unrelated to the McCann case for which he remains the prime suspect.
Investigators believe the 45-year-old killed Madeleine, then three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007.
Brueckner, who has reportedly denied any involvement in her disappearance, was identified as a murder suspect in the McCann case by Portuguese officials in June 2020.
Earlier today (Tues), prosecutors said they charged him with three counts of rape and two counts of child sexual abuse.
He is accused of raping a woman in her 70s in a holiday apartment in Portugal on an unknown date between 2000 and 2006.
Prosecutors also say Brueckner raped a 20-year-old Irish woman in Praia da Rocha in 2004.
He is also accused of orally raping a teenage girl in her home in Praia da Luz after tying her up and whipping her on an unknown date between 2000 and 2006.
He is accused of filming the abuse.
Brueckner also allegedly exposed himself to a 10-year-old German girl in Faro in 2007, and to a 11-year old Portuguese girl in Sao Bartolomeu de Messines in 2017.
The investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance continues irrespective of these charges, said prosecutors.
Brueckner is already serving a seven-year sentence for rape in Portugal in 2005.
Earlier this year, on the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, her parents said it is “essential” to learn the truth of what happened to their daughter.
On the same day, the Metropolitan Police, which continues to treat the case as a missing persons inquiry, said it is “committed” to finding the truth.
In July 2013, Scotland Yard launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine’s disappearance.
