A court in Braunschweig has issued an arrest warrant for 45-year-old Christian Brickner, who is also considered a suspect in the disappearance. Madeline McCann – in five cases of sexual abuse of minors, according to the German media.

These five cases do not include the disappearance of Briton Madeleine McCann, whose traces were lost in 2007 in Portugal, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel.

The arrest warrant is intended to ensure that the 45-year-old German is not released after serving his sentence. Brickner was convicted of child molestation and drug dealing and as of 2019 is serving a 7-year prison sentence for raping an American woman in the Algarve, Portugal, the same area where little Madeleine went missing.

According to the newspaper Braunschweiger Zeitung, the five new cases in which Brikner is accused involve sexual assaults on minors that took place between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.

Christian Brickner, 45, has denied involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from a hotel room in Praia da Luz, a popular tourist resort in the Algarve, Portugal, where the family of the then 3-year-old girl was vacationing.

^{According to REUTERS, APE-MPE}