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DEFIANT Madeleine McCann cops are prepared to charge prime suspect Christian Brueckner if that’s what it takes to keep him behind bars.
The paedophile, 47, was sensationally cleared of a string of rape and child abuse allegations in court today – putting him on the path to freedom in just months.
Dan Charity
PAProsecutor Hans Christian Wolters warned the clock was ticking on the McCann case.
He said: “We can’t hold a trial if he is not here.
“The only way to stop him leaving the country or going to a non-extradition country is to get an arrest warrant.
“We have less than one hear now on the Maddie case – the clock is ticking.”
But prosecutors say they will bring Maddie charges against the dangerous fiend if that’s what it takes to keep him behind bars.
In a bombshell revelation they also admitted for the first time holding a string of secret Maddie witnesses whose identities have been kept hidden.
Prosecutors were preparing to launch an immediate appeal – citing bias from the judges in the current case.
But if it fails – or is incomplete by Brueckner’s release date in September – they plan to move for Maddie charges NEXT YEAR, admitting it would be their only chance to keep him locked up.
Prosecutor Wolters told The Sun: “We hope we will get an appeal decision from the supreme court and get and get arrest warrant to keep him behind bars.
“But if that is not decided by next September we will try and get an arrest warrant for Maddie. That will be our only chance to keep him behind bars.
“I can’t say if we have enough right now – but it is a question we will answer next year because the investigation is still ongoing.”
“The verdict today has no impact on the Maddie case. They are totally separate,” he added.
He said: “We have witnesses no-one knows about for sure on the Maddie case.
“I’m sure we do because it’s a case and things are not the same.”
He added: “I can’t say which witnesses we have, but we have more witnesses than the two or three from the current case.”
“We have witnesses the public don’t know about,” he added.
Brueckner was today cleared of three counts of rape and two counts of indecent exposure meaning all that keeps him behind bars is a sentence from 2019 the runs out in September.
If he settles an outstanding £1,000 fine he will be released then.
It means under German law he could be back on the streets on day release within just weeks or months, despite a psychiatrist rating him as “top league of dangerousness”.
Previously it had been thought drifter Helge B was the only key witness for investigators – after he told them Brueckner said “she didn’t scream” when they discussed Maddie’s disappearance.
Former prison mate Laurentiu Codin became a surprise second witness when he told a court in Germany last week Brueckner allegedly confessed to taking a child in Portugal.
Madeleine McCann's disappearance
MADELEINE McCann vanished on May 3, 2007 - and cops believe Brueckner could have been behind her disappearance.
Almost 17 years on, no one has been charged in connection. These are the key dates
May 3, 2007 – Kate McCann finds Madeleine missing at 10pm
May 14, 2007 – Property developer Robert Murat is named an “arguido” or formal suspect
August 31, 2007 – The McCanns launch libel action against Tal e Qual – a newspaper that claimed the couple killed Madeleine
September 7, 2007 – Kate and Gerry McCann are made “arguidos”
September 9, 2007– Madeleine’s parents return to England with their two-year-old twins
October 2, 2007– Lead detective Goncalo Amaral is taken off the case after criticising British police in a newspaper interview
July 21, 2009 – Portuguese police lift the “arguido” status of both Robert Murat and the McCanns
May 12, 2011 – On Madeleine’s eighth birthday, Scotland Yard launches a review into the case
April 25, 2012 – Scotland Yard officers say they believe Madeleine McCann is still alive
July 4, 2013 – Two years into a review of the case, Scotland Yard launched its own investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance
October 24, 2013– Portuguese police reopen their case after new lines of inquiry are found
November 27, 2013 – Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for British and Portuguese police to work together
October 28, 2015 – Scotland Yard reduces the number of officers working on Madeleine’s disappearance
March 11, 2017 – The Home Office grants Operation Grange an extra £85,000 to continue from April until September
September 28, 2017 – British police are granted £154,000 to keep the probe going until March 2018
November 2017 – Cops moved the search to Bulgaria
May 2018 – Another round of funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
September 2018 – An extra six months of funding is requested from the Home Office
November 2018 – More funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
November 2018 – UK police re-examine a theory Madeleine left the apartment to look for her parents
June 2019 – Another round of funding, believed to be £300,000 of government cash is granted
June 2019 – Portuguese police are probing a “new clue and suspect” after talks with British officers
June 2020 – New prime suspect revealed as a German paedo Christian Brueckner
April 2022 – Brueckner formally made an “arguido”
May 2023 – Police search remote Algarve reservoir Brueckner called his “little paradise”
Mr Codin’s evidence IS being taken seriously by investigators who now plan to reinterview him.
Explaining the basis of the imminent appeal, prosecutor Wolters told The Sun: “We will make an appeal to the highest court in Germany, the supreme court. They have the power to order a retrial with new judges.
“We believe we have enough evidence Christian B is guilty and we believe the court will see the judges here have misinterpreted the evidence.”
Mr Wolters added: “We believe one of the judges was not open to the possibility of Brueckner being guilty – and they had made their minds up before the case even started.
“As soon as we had an indication of this we applied for that judge to be removed, but the request was declined.
“We think there is a case to show bias among the judges and we believe we can show that.
“We think we can win an appeal – we hope so.”
PA
AFPDuring the trial, Brueckner was accused of breaking into a ground floor falt in Portugal to abuse Irish Hazel Behan.
She was raped at knifepoint, and claimed Brueckner was her attacker.
But the defence claimed Hazel could not have known her attacker was Brueckner, as he was wearing a mask.
They claimed she wrongly identified him after seeing Maddie coverage.
Brueckner was also cleared of raping a woman aged up to 80.
He was also cleared of grabbing the wrist of a child on a beach and performing a sex act on himself.
He was cleared of performed a sex act on himself in front of a child on a park-swing years later in the same region.
Judge Ute Engemann told Braunschweig Regional Court, in Germany, the witnesses in the incurrent trial had been “inconsistent”.
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