The main suspect in the disappearance of little Briton Maddie McCann remained silent on Friday February 23 on the second day of his trial in Germany where he is being tried for charges of sexual violence that his lawyer contested.
Christian Brückner, 47, is accused of three rapes and two sexual assaults on children allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
These accusations have nothing to do with the Madeleine McCann affair, one of the most high-profile criminal cases of recent years, in which he is considered the main suspect but not charged.
The highly anticipated trial opened last week in Brunswick, northern Germany, but was immediately postponed after the defense expressed doubts about the impartiality of a jury member.
The trial reopened Friday with a new lay judge.
After the charges were read, Christian Brückner's lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, said his client would invoke his right to remain silent.
Friedrich Fülscher added that the defense strongly doubted the evidence used by the prosecution against Christian Brückner.
Credibility of witnesses
Two of the rape charges are based on the accounts of two witnesses who watched video footage that is no longer available, he said.
The credibility of these witnesses will be a
“major question”
in this trial which will last several months, he declared.
Friedrich Fülscher also argued that there was no proof of the date of the crimes, which raises questions regarding statutes of limitations.
In the third rape case involving a 20-year-old Irish woman, Friedrich Fülscher said there was no doubt the crime took place, but "
the person who committed the offense was not the accused"
.
The latter, with the profile of a repeat rapist, is already behind bars in Germany for the rape in 2005 of an American woman aged 72 at the time, in Praia da Luz, the same town in the Algarve region, in the south of Portugal, where Maddie disappeared two years later.
If he is found guilty of the charges against him in Brunswick, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Otherwise, he could be released as early as 2026. Maddie had disappeared at the age of three from the rental apartment where she was vacationing while her parents dined nearby.
The investigation stalled for years before this man, who lived at the time of the events a few kilometers from the rental location, attracted the attention of the authorities and was indicted by German justice in 2020.