As of: February 16, 2024, 7:47 a.m
By: Martina Lippl
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In the Maddie case, Christian B. is suspected.
The 47-year-old is now charged with other sex crimes.
The start of the trial is imminent.
Braunschweig – The criminal Christian B. is currently in prison for rape.
The 47-year-old must answer for five further sexual offenses before the Braunschweig regional court.
B. is said to have raped women and abused girls.
The process begins on Friday (February 16, 2024) and will last several months.
The accused – Christian B. – is also considered a suspect in the case of the missing Maddie.
Criminal trial against Maddie suspect starts on February 16th
British girl Madeleine McCann has been missing since May 2007.
There is no trace of the then three-year-old.
Who kidnapped Maddie from her holiday apartment in Portugal?
What happened to the child?
New clues kept emerging and fueled wild speculation.
There is no sign of life from Maddie.
Her body has not yet been found either.
Then it became known in July 2020: The Braunschweig public prosecutor's office is investigating Christian B. He is considered the main suspect.
So far there have been no charges against him in the Maddie case.
Charges against Christian B. before the Braunschweig Regional Court
Christian B. is now on trial for five other crimes.
The accused is said to have committed the crimes between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.
In a more than 100-page indictment, the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office accuses the 47-year-old of rape and sexual abuse of children.
Rape of an unidentified woman aged between 70 and 80 in her holiday home in Portugal between 2000 and 2006
Rape of a 14-year-old girl in her home in Praia da Luz between 2000 and 2006
Rape of a young woman after breaking into her home in 2004
Sexual abuse of a child on the beach in 2007
Sexual abuse of a child on a playground in 2017
The public prosecutor's office brings into play preventive detention for Maddie suspects
“According to the files, the defendant must expect a prison sentence of up to 15 years,” said senior public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters in advance to the
dpa
news agency .
Subsequent preventive detention may also be considered.
Of course, it depends on how the evidence is taken as to whether all allegations can be confirmed and proven.
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In the case of sexual abuse in 2017, the frightened girl alerted her father, whereupon the accused was caught on site by police officers.
Christian B.'s lawyer hopes for an acquittal for his client
“We want acquittals,” said public defender Friedrich Fülscher from Kiel to the
dpa
.
This applies to all charges.
The lawyer left it open whether his client would speak out in court or whether he planned to remain silent.
“At the moment I do not assume that there will be any substantive submissions,” the
BBC
quoted the lawyer as saying in an email response.
The interest of the British press in the trial against Christian B. is great.
Media regularly report on the Maddie McCann case.
This is also what the criminal trial against Christian B is about.
There is currently no trial in the Maddie case.
The last large-scale search operation in Portugal in 2023 apparently brought little movement to the case.
Although new allegations against the main suspect have recently emerged.
That's why one detail is particularly explosive: Christian B.'s current prison sentence would have been served in 2025, according to previous information from the public prosecutor's office.
Whether the suspect remains in prison will probably be decided in the criminal trial.
Criminal trial in Braunschweig drags on for months
So far, 29 appointments have been scheduled until the end of June.
The court said it would only be clarified in the main proceedings whether the allegations were true or not.
Any person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty by law.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the charges were brought to the youth chamber of the Braunschweig Regional Court because the victims of some of the accused acts were children or young people and therefore so-called youth protection matters were involved.
The Braunschweig public prosecutor's office had already filed the lawsuit against Christian B. in October 2022.
The Braunschweig Regional Court temporarily considered itself not responsible.
The parents of missing Maddie McCann spoke out with an emotional New Year's message.
The two of them have one wish for 2024.
They initially did not comment on the trial in Braunschweig.