German suspect in McCann case charged in separate assaults

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors have charged a 45-year-old German man, who is also a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, with several sexual offenses he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. The suspect, identified by media as Christian Brueckner, who is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence for a rape he also committed in Portugal in 2005, was charged with three counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual abuse of children. Brueckner spent many years in Portugal, including around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance. The 3-year-old girl disappeared from an apartment in 2007 while her family vacationed in a seaside town in Portugal’s Algarve region.