According to a report by CNN Portugal, the decision was communicated by the high court, leaving only the date of the trial to be decided.

These five cases were never investigated by the Portuguese authorities. Among them is the harassment of a ten-year-old British child on Salema beach, a month before Madeleine disappeared, but Bruckner will also be tried for engaging in sexual activity in the presence of several Portuguese children in a playground in Messines almost 20 years later.

This last case was opened in Portugal but ended up archived after Bruckner was extradited to Germany. In 2020, the Portuguese authorities tried to reopen it but were unable to do so. The case ended up being raised by the German police.

The main suspect in the Madeleine McCann case will also be tried for the rape of an Irish woman in Praia da Rocha, in Portimão, three years before the disappearance of the British child.

The 46-year-old suspect is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping a septuagenarian American woman in Praia da Luz.