Five new charges have been laid against the main suspect in the mysterious disappearance and murder of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal, the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the German city of Braunschweig has announced.
'Maddie' disappeared at the age of three on 3 May 2007 from the holiday home her parents had rented in Praia da Luz, Portugal. Her body was never found.
For two years now, the main suspect has been Christan Brueckner, a 45-year-old German currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly American woman in her home in Praia da Luz in 2005.
He has now been indicted on three charges of rape and two of child sexual abuse, all in Portugal, between December 2000 and June 2017.
The McCann case is not among the new charges, the Daily Mail reported. According to the newspaper, they relate to the rape of two unknown women and of Irish travel guide Hazel Behan in 2004. One child abuse case dates back to April 2007 and happened on a beach close to where the British toddler disappeared a month later. The second case is from 2017.
The Spanish theolivepress.com reported on the authority of a source in the German police that Brueckner would appear in court in spring or early summer next year.
Brueckner denies any involvement in the McCann case.
