Lawyers for McCann suspect seek acquittal in his German trial on unrelated sexual offense charges

BERLIN — Lawyers for a man who is also under investigation in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann called Monday for him to be acquitted in his trial on charges of unrelated sexual offenses.

Prosecutors last week urged the Braunschweig state court to convict the 47-year-old German national, who has been identified by local media as Christian Brueckner, of two counts of rape and two of sexual abuse. They argued that he should be given a 15-year-prison sentence and kept in preventive detention once he has served it, though they said he should be acquitted of a third rape charge.

However, the defendant's defense team said on Monday that an acquittal would be the right outcome. Lawyer Friedrich Fülscher told the court that “there was never a sufficient suspicion” against his client, the German dpa news agency reported.

Brueckner has been on trial since February over offenses he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Defense lawyers pointed to what they labeled a lack of evidence and witnesses who weren't credible, and Fülscher suggested he might not have been charged if he hadn't also been a suspect in the McCann case.

The suspect has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he is under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.

In July, the court lifted an arrest warrant in the cases at stake in the current trial, citing a lack of “urgent suspicion” against the defendant. But he has remained behind bars because of the sentence he is currently serving.