The man who is suspected of kidnapping Madeleine McCann has been cleared of all charges at a rape trial in Germany.
Convicted paedophile Christian Brueckner, 47, has been on trial in Germany charged with three counts of rape and sexually abusing two children.
But after 31 days of hearing testimony, spread out over eight months, it took Judge Ute Engemann just 10 seconds to clear Brueckner.
She described the evidence as ‘insufficient’, and announced a ‘full acquittal’ had been ordered.
The victims said all the attacks took place near Praia da Luz, Portugal where Madeleine vanished in 2007 when she was just three-years-old.
She disappeared from the family’s holiday apartment after she was left sleeping along with her younger twin siblings while her parents ate at a tapas bar 120 metres away.
Brueckner has never been charged in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance and denies being involved.
German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead.
He’s currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.
The sentence sentence will run until September 2025, but his legal team are hoping he could be free by the spring.
Prosecutors struggled to set up video-lines for witnesses to give evidence remotely, meaning the prosecution case relied largely on the word of ex-cellmates, including known for previously lying in court.
They also failed to trace two women who were allegedly raped by Brueckner in the Algarve.
He was investigated by German and Portuguese police for three years before he was officially named as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2020.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Christian Riedemann, 54, previously told the court Brueckner is ‘extremely dangerous’, and added he has a ‘sexual preference disorder’ which also had ‘sadistic and paedophilic elements’.
He spent many years in Portugal, including at the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in May 2007.
In May, Madeleine’s parents shared a message to their daughter on her 21st birthday.
Kate and Gerry McCann said they are ‘still looking’ and still miss their toddler Madeleine, in a message to mark her 21st birthday today.
In a heartbreaking statement shared to their official campaign to find her, they said: ‘Happy 21st birthday Madeleine.
‘Still missing. Still missed. Still looking.’
They said her ‘absence still aches’ in a message posted to the same page, writing: ‘It’s 17 years since Madeleine was taken from us.
‘It’s hard to even say that number without shaking our heads in disbelief.
‘Whilst we are fortunate in many ways and able to live a relatively normal and enjoyable life now, the “living in limbo” is still very unsettling. And the absence still aches.’
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.
