Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner CLEARED over string of rapes – and could walk free in MONTHS

MADELEINE McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has today been sensationally cleared of a string of rapes – meaning he could be freed in just months.

The paedophile – who is suspected of snatching three-year-old Maddie in 2007 – had been on trial in Germany for horrific sex attacks.

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Christian Brueckner had been on trial for horrific sex attacks[/caption]

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He could now walk free from prison in months[/caption]

PA:Press Association

Madeleine McCann vanished in 2007[/caption]

AFP

The Portugal apartment Maddie was taken from in 2007[/caption]

But the not guilty decision represents a possible blow to the McCann case.

It means a seven-year sentence from 2019 is now all that is keeping Brueckner behind bars.

Brueckner was today found not guilty of two counts of rape and two counts of indecent exposure.

Panicked prosecutors are already planning to mount an appeal in a bid to keep the monster behind bars.

But without a retrial – or charges finally being brought over Maddie – rapist Brueckner could be back on the streets on day release within just weeks.

Worryingly, the trial has also seen the credibility of key witnesses from the McCann case shot down in court by Brueckner’s lawyers, in a further blow.

However, Maddie cops have said the verdict will not impact their investigation into the snatched three-year-old.

Judge Ute Engemann handed down the verdict at Braunschweig Regional Court.

Engemann said: “On this case I announce a full acquittal.”

She said the witnesses had not been persuasive and had failed to remember all details.

A third count of rape had already been discontinued earlier in the trial.

Prosecutors have been preparing an appeal since July when a judge lifted the arrest warrant for Brueckner on the case – citing growing belief he may not be guilty.

Investigators are said to be furious with the way the court has approached the case and will ask Germany’s supreme court to send it for a retrial.

Without a new warrant – or Maddie or further charges being brought against him – he could be free from next September, in less than a year.

In all likelihood, Brueckner could be back on the streets before then as part of a day-release programme to prepare him for freedom.

This is despite psychiatrists rating him in the “top league of dangerousness” and prosecutors asking for a preventative detention order, had he been convicted.

During the trial Brueckner was accused of breaking into a groundfloor flat in Portugal – like the McCann’s – to abuse Irish Hazel Behan.

He was cleared of terrifying her he would “cut off her head”.

A masked sicko, now ruled not to have been Brueckner, raped the holiday rep at knifepoint while filming her, then asked: “You are afraid of me aren’t you?”

When she lied and said “no” he whipped the helpless holiday rep then chillingly demanded: “Are you afraid of me now?”

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 and hitting her with a whip, while filming, in Praia de Luz, the village Madeleine disappeared from.

He was also cleared of grabbing the wrist of a child on a beach and performing a sex act on himself, only six miles from Praia, just weeks before Maddie vanished.

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.

The defence argued none of the witnesses could be relied upon.

Christian Brueckner was charged with one count of rape, one count of rape and sex assault, one count of child molestation and indecent exposure and one count of public exhibitionism and indecency.

He was also charged with insulting behaviour and threats towards a prison guard.

The defendant denied all the charges against him.