The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann can be tried in Germany over rape and child sex abuse charges allegedly committed in Portugal, a court has ruled.
Christian Brueckner, 45, is in prison in Germany for raping a woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, and is suspected of further rapes and child sexual abuse committed in the area between 2000 and 2017.
Those charges were dropped in April when a state court in the northern city of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, ruled it had no jurisdiction to hear the case.
But in a huge blow to Brueckner, the higher regional court has now overruled that decision, paving the way for him to potentially stand trial.
Madeleine vanished while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, after they left her and her younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while they went out to dinner with friends.
Investigators believe Brueckner, a convicted sex offender, killed Madeleine, then aged three, after snatching her from the apartment.
He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine vanished there in 2007.
But he has still not been charged in relation to her abduction and denies any involvement in her disappearance.
In October, prosecutors in Braunschweig charged Brueckner in several separate cases involving sexual offences allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
The state court said Brueckner produced evidence he had lived in the neighbouring state of Saxony-Anhalt, where he was registered as the owner of a property that he kept after going abroad.
But the higher regional court has said his last domestic residence should be determined by a range of evidence, including previous statements indicating he lived within Lower Saxony.
Judges there must now decide whether to launch a new trial over those charges.
The decision comes after sources claimed the key witness in the case against Brueckner for Madeleine’s alleged murder is ‘wobbling’ and threatening to back out.
One close to the investigation told The Sun that Portuguese detectives nicknamed star witness Helge B ‘Helge Bullsh***er’.
Brueckner has reportedly written to old pals begging them to give evidence in his defence and tell any potential court hearing the case what a ‘good guy’ he is.
One former friend still in touch with those who knew him on the Algarve told the Mirror: ‘I know of two people who got the messages from Chris.
‘It really freaked them out. They hadn’t heard from him in years and then these letters suddenly arrived in the post from Germany.’
They added: ‘He was asking them to speak in his defence, about what a good guy he is. He said the German police and prosecutors have it in for him, that they are saying he is a monster.
‘It’s outrageous for Chris to ask for help because now we all know about his past. Back when we were hanging with him in the early 2000s it was all a secret. We didn’t know he was a paedophile.
‘But now he doesn’t stand a chance of anybody speaking up for him in court.’
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