Suspect in 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann charged with sexual abuse of children

A German national who is suspected of kidnapping and possibly murdering three-year-old Madeleine McCann in 2007 has been charged with sex crimes against two unrelated children, authorities revealed this week. 

Christian Brueckner is accused of abusing two children in Portugal over a 17 year period, German prosecutors said this week. 

The offenses reportedly included six in total, with Brueckner having been charged with both rape and sex abuse. 

Christian Wolters, the state prosecutor in Braunschweig, Germany, told media that McCann's case "is ongoing separately from these charges. 

"Due to the ongoing investigation the prosecution cannot at the current time give any information on the status of that investigation," Wolters added. 

Brueckner is currently in prison on another, unrelated set of sex crimes for which he was convicted.