Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
A DANGEROUS sex offender accused of snatching British toddler Madeleine McCann has been charged with three more vicious rapes.
German paedophile Christian Brueckner, 45, has been accused of two further sex offences against children between December 2000 and June 2017 in Portugal.
Brueckner, who was made an official suspect in the Maddie case in April, will face trial for the five offences next year.
Public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, at the Regional Court of Braunschweig, told the Olive Press today that he will face the five charges in ‘the Spring or early summer’.
Wolters, whose department has been probing Brueckner over Maddie since 2018, added: “We are also certain that he killed the British toddler.”
The attacks he is accused of include one on Irish holiday rep, Hazel Behan, 39, who was ‘brutally raped’ by the suspect while holding a knife and a camera on June 16, 2004.
A press release stated that the accused entered her apartment in Praia da Rocha, in Portimao, at around 3am, via her balcony.
“The sleeping woman was then awakened by the masked suspect holding a knife and brutally raped.”
It added she had been tied to a table and gagged and that he had whipped her.
“The accused filmed large parts of the events with a video camera he had brought with him,” it continued.
The two other rapes took place between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006, the first on an ‘unknown woman aged between 70 and 80’.
The prosecutor claims the attack took place in the bedroom of her holiday apartment on the Algarve.
In the attack, Brueckner is accuses of tying up and raping the victim as well as hitting her with a whip. He is also said to have ‘recorded the entire event with a video camera’.
The second attack was on an unknown, German-speaking girl aged at least 14 in his rental house, just outside Praia da Luz.
The prosecutor announced that she was stripped naked and tied to a wooden pole, before being hit with a whip. “He brutally forced the girl to have oral sex and also videotaped this act,” read the indictment.
A fourth attack took place on April 7, 2007, just over three weeks before Madeleine McCann went missing from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz.
In the attack at around 3:30pm, the accused is said to have ambushed a ten-year-old German girl who was playing on the rocks beside Salema beach.
Wearing ‘only shoes and otherwise naked’, he grabbed the child’s wrist and began to perform a sex act.
“He asked the girl with a grin to look at his naked genitals in order to sexually arouse himself,” read the press release. “After he had ejaculated, he let go of the girl and fled.”
Finally on June 11, 2017, at around 2am he is said to have exposed himself to children in a playground in Sao Bartolomeu de Messines, near Faro.
Brueckner is accused of making eye contact with an 11-year-old girl who was on the swings before pulling down his pants and making a sex act. He was arrested on the spot by the Portuguese police.
The prosecutor’s office added there was a high risk of Brueckner escaping and repeating his criminal behaviour.
The more than 100-page indictment has been compiled after ‘several years of very intensive and complex investigations’ in several European countries.
It added that the accused is ‘a sex offender with multiple criminal records who has been convicted of, among other things, the sexual abuse of children.’
He is currently serving a 7-year prison sentence for the rape of American pensioner, Diana Menkes, 72, he committed in Praia da Luz, in 2005.
The indictment was filed with the juvenile chamber of the Braunschweig district court because the victims of some of the crimes were children or young people.
The press release concluded: “The investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance continues despite the indictment.
“In view of the ongoing investigations, no more detailed information on the results to date can be given at this point in time.”
Brueckner has denied any involvment in the Madeleine McCann case. His lawyer has also denied any involvement in the Hazel Behan rape, or the other crimes.
READ MORE:
- EXCLUSIVE: Italy link before German suspect Christian Brueckner is formally charged in Madeleine McCann case
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- LISTEN UP!: Definitive book on Madeleine McCann case now available as an audio book
