In 2004, an Irish tourist was raped in a holiday apartment in Praia da Rocha in southern Portugal.
Three years later, in 2007, British Madeleine “Maddie” McCann was abducted from a holiday apartment about 30 miles away. She is believed to have been killed, but no body has been found.
Now the German newspaper Bild writes that the same man has the status of a suspect in both cases.
Claim they have found fibers
The suspect, 45-year-old Christian Brückner from Germany, denies having anything to do with any of these acts.
– Must be checked out
He has now agreed to be investigated, to remove the suspicion that he raped the Irish woman.
She is said to have explained in an interrogation that the man who raped her had a scar on her thigh, which was shaped like a cross, Bild writes.
These are Maddie suspects
Brückner says he has no such scars.
– If it is true that he does not have this, then he will have to be checked out of the case, his defender, Friedrich Fuelscher, says to Bild.
– Absolutely safe
German authorities have previously stated that they are “absolutely certain” that Brückner is the man who abducted and killed McCann. Nevertheless, they have not prosecuted him.
Suspect invokes sex alibi
The reason for this is that they spend time finding even more evidence, explained the German public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters. The Germans are investigating the case in cooperation with the Portuguese and British authorities.
Brückner is currently in prison after being convicted of raping an elderly German woman. He claims he has an alibi for the night McCann disappeared.
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