Appeal against decision to clear Christian Brueckner of sex charges

German prosecutors have officially lodged an appeal against the decision to clear the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case of unrelated sex charges.

Convicted paedophile and rapist Christian Brueckner, 47, was acquitted last week of three rapes and two indecent exposures on children.

All the offences were said to have taken place in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017 – the same area where then three-year-old Madeleine vanished in 2007.

Brueckner was identified as the prime suspect for her 'abduction and murder' in June 2020 but since then no charges have followed but German officials insist 'he is the man'.

However, following his acquittal last week on the unrelated sex charges prosecutors are in a race against time to charge him as he could be freed as early as September next year meaning he could leave the country.

Prosecutors in Braunschweig filed their appeal on Tuesday – a week after the verdict – and a decision is expected by February at the latest and if a retrial is ordered it will keep him in jail and allow investigators more time to focus on Madeleine.

Any new proceedings will only go ahead if judges rule a mistake in the application of the law was made – no fresh witnesses will be called – but Brueckner's defence lawyers have already said they are confident it will not succeed.

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Speaking after last week's verdict Philip Marquort told MailOnline:'They will check and make sure that there were no legal mistakes, but the statistics are small, it would be no more than 10 per cent chance of succeeding.

'They just look at what was said and make sure that procedures were followed, there won't be any new witnesses.'

Brueckner has denied any involvement in the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine in Praia da Luz.

In one of the acquitted rape cases, Brueckner was accused of entering the holiday apartment of a woman aged between 70 and 80, tying her up and beating and sexually assaulting her.

He was also charged with entering a young Irish woman's apartment via her balcony while she was sleeping, threatening her with a knife and raping her several times.

In another case he was alleged to have exposed himself in front of a 10-year-old German girl on a beach and to an 11-year-old Portuguese girl at a playground.

But Brueckner's legal team raised concerns that cases against him were based on testimony rather than forensic evidence.

His main lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, suggested the German was only on trial because of his links to the Madeleine case, during his closing remarks.

Brueckner was jailed for seven years in 2019 after being convicted of raping a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve in 2005.