Maddie suspect seen for the first time in four years
THE prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann appeared in public yesterday for the first time in four years as he went on trial in his native Germany.
Christian Brueckner, 47, is charged with raping two women and a child, and indecently assaulting two children.
The alleged offences all happened in Portugal, from where Madeleine vanished in 2007, but are unrelated to her case.
The court hearing yesterday was the first time the convicted rapist had been seen in public since he was named by German authorities in 2020 for being responsible for Madeleine’s abduction and presumed murder.
At the hearing in the city of Braunschweig, Brueckner remained impassive, looking straight ahead, his skin pasty after two years in solitary confinement.
The trial is unrelated to Madeleine’s disappearance in May 2007 from Praia da Luz, on the Algarve coast, while she was on holiday with parents Kate and Gerry
‘I have many aces up my sleeve’
McCann and her siblings. But the charges Brueckner face all allegedly took place between 2000 and 2017, when he lived in Portugal, close to where the McCann family were on holiday.
The trial was due to start yesterday but was postponed for a week after Brueckner’s lawyer successfully applied to have one of the ‘lay judges’ dismissed on grounds of bias and violent social media posts. Friedrich Fulscher told the court that child therapist Britta Thielen-Donckel should not be allowed on the panel as she had posted that former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro should be killed.
After the hearing, Mr Fulscher claimed: ‘I have many aces up my sleeve.’
It is hoped that if convicted on these charges, Brueckner will crack and reveal what happened to Madeleine. But sources close to him say he will remain silent.
Brueckner is currently serving a sevenyear sentence for raping an elderly US woman in the Algarve in 2005.