Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
The prime suspect in the abduction of Maddie McCann is to be kept behind bars after judges again denied his parole request.
Rapist Christian Brueckner, 45, has been refused early release by the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court.
They confirmed a decision by the lower Oldenburg Regional Court after Brueckner appealed the decision.
The lower court had found that Brueckner was still at “high risk” of committing further offences.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “His request was rejected on the grounds that he could not be given a positive social prognosis.
“In other words, the court has said it believes that the convict will commit further offences if released.”
The 45-year-old could have been eligible for parole under German law after serving half of his seven-year sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005.
But the higher court confirmed the earlier refusal and Brueckner will not be eligible for parole again until 2023.
Maddie McCann disappeared from a nearby apartment complex in 2007.
The public prosecutor’s office in Germany is investigating the convicted rapist under the suspicion that he could have kidnapped and killed Maddie.
Despite the Maddie inquiry, Brueckner had filed an application with the district court to be released on probation from his rape sentence.
Brueckner has been linked to a series of child abductions and murders in Portugal and Germany since he was named as the main suspect in the Madeline McCann case.
After being sentenced for drug trafficking in 2011 he was given a seven-year sentence for rape, including previous sentences, in December 2019 by the Braunschweig Regional Court.
German media reported in 2020 that Brueckner was under investigation for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old boy in Frankfurt whose testicles and buttocks were removed from his body.
He was named by the Frankfurter Neuer Presse as a potential suspect in the murder of Tristan Brubach in March 1998.
Brubach’s body was found in an underpass known as the Liederbach near the Frankfurt-Hochst train station in the city of Frankfurt in the German state of Hesse.
He had been beaten unconscious, strangled, raped and tortured, according to reports.
The cause of death was a long cut to his throat and his body had been mutilated, with both testicles and the flesh from the buttocks and thighs having been removed.
The removed body parts were never recovered.
Chief Prosecutor Noah Kruger told German daily newspaper Bild at the time: “We are checking whether there are any connections between the two cases. In itself, however, this is not unusual, but routine. The sequence of events and the e-fit from the Tristan case could be similar. ”