Madeleine McCann Suspect Christian Brueckner Could Face New Sexual Assault Trial as Prosecutors Seek to Reverse 2024 Acquittal

Christian Brueckner, the German suspect who was investigated in connection with the 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann, may face a new r--e trial.

Prosecutors in Germany are seeking to reverse Brueckner’s October 2024 acquittal relating to a number of sexual offenses. Germany’s highest criminal court in Leipzig has a hearing on its appeal scheduled for Monday, January 11, 2027.

In October 2024, a German court in Braunschweig acquitted Brueckner of five s-- crimes he allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017, which included three r--- cases as well as two other instances of child sexual abuse. After about eight months of trial, the judges found insufficient evidence to prove his guilt. Germany’s Federal Prosecutor General has appealed the Braunschweig court’s decision regarding four of the allegations, and two women from the case are also appealing the verdict, according to a report.

One of the charges prosecutors are appealing involves Hazel Behan, an Irish woman who accused Brueckner of r----- her at her holiday apartment in Portugal in 2004. In their appeal, prosecutors argued that the court made errors in analyzing all circumstantial evidence relating to Brueckner. Prosecutors also pointed out that the court deemed certain testimony by some of the witnesses unreliable, yet those same witnesses’ testimony helped convict Brueckner of the 2005 r--- in 2019.

In January, the Federal Court of Justice will review the lower court’s decision. Its judges are looking into possible legal errors the lower court may have made in its analysis of the evidence that led to the acquittal.

If the judges find errors in the lower court's evaluation of the evidence, they can reverse the acquittal and send the case back for retrial by another chamber, according to a report. Prosecutors have cited Göttingen as a preferred location for a retrial, should the court grant one.

Alternatively, the judges could allow the acquittal to stand. Due to the large amount of public interest in this case from outside Germany, the Federal Court of Justice plans on holding the hearing in a borrowed room at the Federal Administrative Court. Brueckner, who is 49, hasn’t been convicted of these charges, so he remains presumed innocent.

Madeleine was 3 years old when she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007.

Although Brueckner has never faced charges for Madeleine’s disappearance and has denied any involvement, he continues to be the prime suspect for both German prosecutors and London’s Metropolitan Police, whose investigation is known as Operation Grange. German prosecutors have stated that they believe Brueckner abducted and murdered Madeleine, but they don’t have sufficient evidence to bring charges against him.

Brueckner was released from a prison in Germany in September 2025 after completing a seven-year sentence for the 2005 r--- of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz. Since being released from prison, Brueckner has been subject to supervision, including electronic monitoring.

On Thursday, October 15, Brueckner went before a judge in Oldenburg, Germany, as part of another case involving a verbal attack against a correctional officer in October 2023. Brueckner is currently facing at least six additional charges, including allegedly injuring police officers, according to a report.