German investigators make no secret of
their belief that this is the man
responsible for the murder of Meline
Macccan, but they can't prove it. And
because his sentence for raping a
pensioner is almost up, Christian
Brookner will be freed before the 17th
of September. With the clock ticking,
this was the last throw of the dice. In
June this year, a search of an area in
the Algarve where Brookner was living
around the time Meline vanished from her
family's holiday apartment in Pria
Deluj, but nothing significant was
found. Last year, the prosecutor was
remarkably open about his investigation
into Brookner's alleged links to the
little girl.
>> Christian Brookner is our prime suspect
and he's still the only suspect we have
in the Medie McCann case. We have
evidence that he killed Matlin McCann.
Um but um it's not the time for us to
put it on the table and to decide if we
could charge him or if we could u go for
an arrest warrant or something like that
in a med case. Maybe we'll um come to
this point in the next year.
>> A year later, without the evidence they
believe would stand up in court,
Christian Brookner will go free. He's
already been acquitted of unrelated rape
and sexual offenses in a trial last
year. In the 18 years since Meline was
taken, her parents have suffered the
heartache of her loss, as well as
enduring becoming suspects themselves
before being exonerated of any
involvement in her disappearance. In
recent years, they've remained silent.
While British, German, and Portuguese
police have cooperated to bring this
case to a conclusion. It now seems the
wait will go on. Christian Brookner may
be forced to wear an electronic tag to
track his movements when he does leave
prison. Ian Woods, News at 10.