Madeleine McCann suspect faces new court case

Madeleine disappeared from a resort in Portugal when she was three-years-old (Image: PA)

The prime suspect in the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann could face another year in jail after being charged with verbally abusing his prison guards. Christian Brueckner, 48, is due to be released from Sehnde prison in Germany in September after serving a seven-year term for a case unrelated to the child's disappearance - the rape of an American pensioner that happened in the same Portuguese resort Madeleine disappeared from 18 years ago. However, Brueckner, a convicted rapist, will appear in court in October on charges of verbally abusing prison guards. This new case comes just weeks after he was convicted of a similar offence at another German jail, the Mirror reports.

Madeleine vanished while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, just days before her fourth birthday - sparking a Europe-wide police search that is still ongoing nearly a decade later. Despite prosecutors naming Brueckner as the main suspect in the long-running case back in June 2020, he has yet to face any formal charges. 

Brueckner is a convicted paedophile and will complete a seven-year prison term for rape this year (Image: Getty)

The 48-year-old was cleared of rape and sex offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017 last October, for which prosecutors had sought a further 15-year prison sentence, but he could face another 12 months behind bars if convicted of insulting prison staff.

Brueckner's lawyer Philipp Marquort claimed the charges were simply an attempt from prosecutors to "make sure he stays in jail".

"They're trying to do everything to get more time," he told The Mirror. "He's just accused of calling a member of the prison staff some names.

"I mean, give me a break. Nobody else would have been accused in this way than Mr Brueckner. With any other prisoner, they would just lock them up for two weeks in solitary confinement."

Mr Marquort also said he doesn't think prosecutors "have anything in the Maddie case", despite a lack of any high-profile suspects in the three-year-old's disappearance other than Brueckner, who has over a dozen convictions including for burglary, theft and sex offences.

Madeleine's parents left her and her twin two-year-old siblings in a room at the Portuguese resort while they ate dinner with friends nearby in May 2007, returning several times to check on them throughout the night.

Her mother Kate discovered that she was missing around an hour-and-a-half into the dinner, with the consequent large-scale investigation not pointing to Brueckner until years later.

Marking 18 years since their daughter's disappearance earlier this month, Kate and Gerry McCann said: "No matter how near or far she is, Madeleine continues to be right here with us, every day ... We miss her."