The prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal was released from prison in northern Germany on Wednesday after serving a seven-year sentence in an unrelated rape case. Christian Brueckner, 48, who was convicted of the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal, was released under the condition that he be monitored with an electronic ankle tag. German prosecutors believe Brueckner is responsible for McCann’s disappearance from her family’s vacation rental home in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz. Brueckner, who lived in the southern Algarve region where Praia da Luz is located, has multiple prior convictions for sexual offenses, including against children, and a long record of petty crimes. Cellphone data placed him near the resort at the time of the 3-year-old’s disappearance, though he has denied any involvement in her disappearance. “The prosecutors’ statement says they haven’t gathered enough direct evidence to charge him,” legal consultant Mark Stephans told CBS News. Brueckner will likely remain the prime suspect in the case.
