Exclusive:
Christian Brueckner was cleared of rape charges this week in an unrelated trial after witnesses who testified against him were deemed ‘unreliable’
Madeleine McCann lawyers plan to use evidence dismissed by a judge in their race to prosecute the prime suspect over the tot’s disappearance.
Paedophile Christian Brueckner, 47, was cleared of rape charges this week in an unrelated trial after two ex-convicts who testified against him were deemed “unreliable”.
Helge Busching and Laurentiu Codin are also understood to be key witnesses in the McCann investigation. But McCann case prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “The ruling has no impact on the McCann case. It continues despite the court’s decision.”
His legal team plan to fight for a retrial of the rape case.
Busching, a people trafficker, told a German court Brueckner – already in jail for rape – had attacked women in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 and that he had seen videos of attacks.
He also claims Brueckner told him about the Madeleine kidnap, saying it was “strange she didn’t scream”. Brueckner’s former cellmate Codin also told the hearing Brueckner had “confessed” about abducting a child in Portugal.
He said: “He was looking for money. He said he didn’t find any, but took the child. He asked me if the DNA from a child can be taken from bones under the ground.”
Brueckner’s lawyer dismissed Codin as a “fantasist” and portrayed Busching as “unbelievable” claiming his aim was “solely to profit from the multi-million reward” in the McCann case.
After judge Uta Engemann threw the case out, McCann prosecutor Wolters admitted his team face a race against time to charge Brueckner before his seven-year jail sentence for the rape of an American woman ends next September.
It’s feared he will flee to a country that does not extradite to Germany. Prosecutors have now also launched an appeal against Brueckner’s verdict.
He vehemently denies any part in Madeleine’s disappearance in Praia da Luz in 2007. Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leics, have not commented.
