Madeleine McCann kidnap suspect faces separate rape charge
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Debbie White
Monday December 20 2021, 11.00am, The Times
Madeleine McCann
Christian Brückner is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from a flat in the Algarve 14 years ago
The prime suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann may be charged with the 2004 rape of an Irish tour representative, according to officials in Germany.
Christian Brückner, 45, is suspected of attacking Hazel Behan, then 20, in her apartment in Praia da Rocha in the Algarve, a 30-minute drive from where Madeleine was abducted. The German news website Der Spiegel said that prosecutors were expected to “conclude the investigation” early next year.
A source claimed that the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office would charge Brückner with raping Behan in Portugal three years before Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007. Brückner denies involvement in her disappearance.
Behan, who has waived her right to anonymity, contacted British police after reading about an apparently similar sex attack by Brückner. His history emerged during an appeal for information by German detectives investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.
Brückner was jailed for seven years in Hanover for the 2005 rape of an American woman, aged 72, after DNA samples taken from a hair at the scene in Praia da Luz helped to convict him.
Prosecutors in Germany have not disclosed what evidence they have to connect the attacks. Brückner’s lawyer has declined to comment, according to reports.
In May, Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor leading the inquiry, said: “The case against the suspect Christian B for the [alleged] rape of Hazel Behan is in a good way . . . I am very hopeful for a charge on this case.
“We are building a picture of Christian B and the methods he uses to commit his crimes. There are parallels with the case of the American tourist who was raped, the attack on Hazel Behan, and the abduction and murder of Madeleine McCann. In each case the person has come into the person’s apartment or property by breaking and entering, often not through the door.”
Madeleine McCann’s parents, Kate and Gerry, appeal for information in 2012, showing how she might have aged
Behan was two weeks from her 21st birthday when she was subjected to a prolonged sexual assault in her apartment. “I thought that was it, my life was over,” she said.
The German legal system means that after any charge Wolters will have to convince a judge that a full trial should be held. It would take place before five judges, probably in the district court in Braunschweig, a city in Lower Saxony known as Brunswick in English, where Brückner spent much of his life in Germany.
He fled to Portugal as an 18-year-old to escape a two-year youth custody sentence for child sex offences, but returned later.