sex offenses
Charges against suspect in Maddie case
On May 3, 2007, then three-year-old Maddie McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. photo
© Luis Forra/LUSA/epa/dpa
He is said to be responsible for the mysterious disappearance of little Maddie McCann – but according to the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office, the 45-year-old has a lot more on his plate. Now he has been charged.
The Braunschweig public prosecutor has filed charges against the German suspect in the Maddie case for several sexual offences. The Lower Saxony judiciary announced on Tuesday that there were three cases of serious rape and two cases of sexual abuse of children.
The 45-year-old is said to have committed the crimes between the end of December 2000 and June 2017 in Portugal. He is currently serving a year in prison for the rape of an American woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2005.
The investigation into the Maddie case continues
It was there that on May 3, 2007, the then three-year-old Madeleine Beth McCann from Great Britain, also known as Maddie, disappeared from a holiday apartment. Since then there has been no trace of her. The mysterious case is always in the spotlight and makes headlines around the world.
In the meantime, mother Kate and father Gerry McCann were even under suspicion themselves. According to Tuesday’s information, the investigation into the girl’s disappearance continues despite the indictment. Details of the previous investigation results could not be given.
In addition to the investigations into the Maddie case, the 45-year-old is being investigated in other cases of sexual abuse and rape. He has now been charged because between December 28, 2000 and April 8, 2006 he is said to have tied up and raped an unknown woman aged between 70 and 80 in her holiday home in Portugal. At the same time, he is said to have tied an unknown German-speaking girl aged at least 14 naked to a wooden pole in Portugal, hit him with a whip and forced her to have oral sex.
In addition, the German is said to have brutally raped a 20-year-old woman from Ireland on June 16, 2004. Then he is said to have tied his victim to a table and raped and whipped him again. He is said to have recorded these acts on video. In addition, in April and June 2007, he allegedly showed himself naked to two girls aged ten and eleven and masturbated in front of them.
The indictment, which is more than 100 pages long, was preceded by several years of intensive and complex investigations in several European countries by the Federal Criminal Police Office, the public prosecutor said. The 45-year-old is a multiple-criminal sex offender who has been convicted of sexual abuse of children, among other things.
The suspect’s defense attorney, Friedrich Fülscher, told the German Press Agency that the allegations had been known for a long time and that nothing had changed in the situation. “I think the evidence is weak in all cases,” he said. The court must first decide whether to admit the indictment.