Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MADDIE SUSPECT ‘WILL BE CHARGED WITH RAPE’
Brueckner faces new claim
THE Madeleine Mccann chief suspect could be charged with a rape on the Algarve three years before the toddler went missing there 14 years ago today, prosecutors say.
Hazel Behan claims Christian Brueckner raped her in a resort near Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished while on holiday with her family on May 3, 2007, just before her fourth birthday.
Now prosecutors in Germany, where Brueckner is serving seven years for raping a 72-year-old US woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, say they are confident of charging him over the earlier alleged rape by the end of this summer.
Hans Christian Wolters, leading the inquiry, said: “It may be that we can charge him in the next three months.
“There are parallels with the case of the American tourist, the attack on Hazel Behan and the abduction of Madeleine.
“In each case the person has come into the property by breaking and entering.”
Behan, 37, was a 20-year-old tour rep when she claims she was attacked in Praia da Rocha, a 30-minute drive from where Madeleine went missing.
Meanwhile, Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher claimed German prosecutors think they are “special” and “better” at solving crimes than the UK and Portuguese police who have been probing Madeleine’s disappearance since 2007.
He added: “Maybe that’s a bit typical for us Germans. We’ll see if that’s the case here but I personally don’t believe it.”
Madeleine’s parents said they will “never stop hoping” to find her as they prepared to mark today’s anniversary of her disappearance.