STILL A DANGER.. STILL NO RELEASE
Madeleine main suspect bid for freedom blocked
MADELEINE McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner has had a second bid to be freed from jail rejected.
A high court agreed with judges at an earlier appeal hearing who had branded the German paedophile a danger to society and said he would reoffend if released.
The 45-year-old will stay behind bars until at least next May when another parole request can be considered.
Brueckner is serving a seven-year jail term for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz, the Algarve resort Madeleine vanished from in May 2007 at the age of three.
He became eligible for parole after reaching the halfway point in his sentence with time spent on remand.
But judges refused his initial request at a behind closed doors session on April 21 in Oldenburg.
OFFENCES
They concluded his “social prognosis” meant he had to be kept behind bars in the northern German city of Kiel.
And a Higher Regional Court in Oldenburg upheld that decision on Thursday.
Under German law once an inmate has served half their sentence, they can put in a request for freedom which authorities must consider.
Prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig are expected to charge Brueckner with fresh sex offences within weeks.
He is a suspect in the rape of an Irish holiday rep and allegedly indecently exposed himself to children in an Algarve playground.
His lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, refused to comment on the court’s decision.
Brueckner, who was living close to Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished during a family holiday, denies any involvement in her disappearance. He has said: “I wasn’t kidnapping anybody and of course I wasn’t killing anybody. ”
Her parents
Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leics, still believe their daughter is alive. They recently marked the 15th anniversary of her disappearance with a candlelight vigil.