Worry. The main suspect in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal, German Christian Brückner, who was acquitted in September, should be allowed to leave Germany after a German appeals court lifted a court order preventing him from doing so.
The Celle (north) Court of Appeal “partially annulled one of the obligations imposed on Mr Brückner, according to which he had to reside in Germany,” a court spokesman confirmed to AFP on Sunday. German tabloid Bild revealed this change of heart on Sunday, October 28.
Released on September 17 after serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in 2005 in Portugal, Mr. Brückner was never charged in Maddie’s case due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
“Basically dangerous”
Deemed “fundamentally dangerous” by German prosecutors who were unable to prevent his release, he must wear an electronic bracelet, notify the court in advance of any change of domicile or residence in Germany and obtain its consent.
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Mr Brückner now sleeps in a tent in a park in Kiel, on the shores of the Baltic Sea in northern Germany, under the constant supervision of two police officers tasked with protecting him. He appealed to the Celle Court of Appeal to review the court’s decision.
After partial annulment of the decision, the court “will have to make another decision” on his domicile, the spokesman added.
Mr Brückner told British tabloid the Daily Mail that police wanted to detain him in Germany to “break him up”. “It turns out I don’t even need to stay in Germany. And once I’ve saved a little money, I’m leaving,” he told the tabloid.
According to the Daily Mail and Bild, Mr. Brückner launched a crowdfunding campaign on the “Gofundme” platform to raise funds for his disappearance before being deactivated by the platform.
Brückner was in Portugal at the time of the incident
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann, known as “Maddie” in Portugal in 2007 from holiday accommodation while her parents were eating at a nearby restaurant has never been clarified. In 2020, German investigators suddenly determined Mr. Brückner as their main suspect, claimed that they had insufficient concrete evidence to warrant an indictment.
At the time of the incident, the defendant lived on the Portuguese coast of the Algarve, near the McCann family’s holiday destination, and a mobile phone in his name was located near their accommodation on the night of the disappearance.
He was acquitted at the end of 2024 of a series of sex crimes against children committed in the same area between 2000 and 2017.
