Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on Christian Brückner being cleared of rape charges, his connection to the Madeleine McCann case

Transcript

Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on Christian Brückner being cleared of rape charges, his connection to the Madeleine McCann case · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Kevin Gray is the UK you're correspondent. Given the main
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: suspect and the Medline McCann case cleared over another one.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, an unrelated trial, but one that will impact, I
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  Speaker 2: think on investigations into the disappearance of Madeline McCann. So
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  Speaker 2: Christian Brookner is his name. He's forty seven. He's been
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  Speaker 2: acquitted of carrying out five offenses in Portugal between twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty seventeen. He is, however, already in prison serving a
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  Speaker 2: seven year jail term in Germany for rape. Now, Brooker's
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  Speaker 2: defense team argued he should be clear because of a
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  Speaker 2: lack of evidence, and indeed the presiding judge said there
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  Speaker 2: was insufficient evidence for a conviction and that some of
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  Speaker 2: the witnesses were unreliable. Now that's important because Ryan, what
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  Speaker 2: they're basically saying is that some of the potential witnesses
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  Speaker 2: in the Madeline McCann disappearance case also the same witnesses. So,
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  Speaker 2: in other words, there's a crossover here. And obviously, if
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  Speaker 2: the judge has found them unreliable in the first case,
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  Speaker 2: if it were to come to court about Madeline McCann,
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  Speaker 2: then it would be unlikely that he would change his mind.
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  Speaker 2: About the witnesses for that case, so it has got
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  Speaker 2: an impact. We also believe that Brokener will be in
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  Speaker 2: prison until the end of next September, and we believe
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  Speaker 2: that the Germans who are investigating, along with the Portuguese
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  Speaker 2: and the British detectives, are thinking their best way, their
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  Speaker 2: best hope of standing up a case against this man
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  Speaker 2: is if he's still in prison and they are able
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  Speaker 2: to detain him longer.
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  Speaker 1: So if they don't priss charges over Medal and mccairn,
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  Speaker 1: this guy could walk next September.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and that's the fear I think of many
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  Speaker 2: that said. Of course, let me be clear. You know,
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  Speaker 2: there is nothing that we know that distinctly links him
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  Speaker 2: to the Madeline McCann disappearance. But of course when she
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  Speaker 2: disappeared as a young girl from Portugal, he had already
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  Speaker 2: carried out. It was alleged these five offenses offenses of
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  Speaker 2: young people. However, as I said, he's been acquitted of
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  Speaker 2: those charges.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Thanks so much for that, Kevin Gray are UK.
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  Speaker 1: You're correspondent with.
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