He is the main suspect in the disappearance of little Maddie.
A 47-year-old man is on trial in Germany starting this Friday on separate charges of sexual crimes.
The trial before the court in Brunswick, in the north of Germany, will be particularly scrutinized because since his indictment in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, a criminal enigma with worldwide repercussions, this man has never appeared during a public hearing.
Referred to by the court as “Christian B.”, Christian Brueckner will be tried for several months for sexual assault and rape committed between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.
Vanished during a vacation in Portugal
His designation, in 2020, as the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was a major moment in this investigation with international ramifications where there were numerous twists and turns, false leads and hypotheses.
“Maddie” disappeared in 2007 shortly before her fourth birthday at a seaside resort in Portugal.
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Christian Brueckner has not been formally charged for the disappearance of the child, but the investigations of the German justice system in this case are at the origin of the trial which opens on Friday, according to Christian Wolters, spokesperson for the public prosecutor's office. Brunswick.
“Without the investigation into the Maddie case, these alleged crimes would not have come to light,” he told AFP.
Imprisoned for rape
The accused, with the profile of a repeat rapist, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence 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 region from the Algarve (southern Portugal) where Madeleine McCann disappeared.
In one of the cases in which he appeared on Friday, he is suspected of having sexually assaulted a 10-year-old German girl on a beach in April 2007, just a few months before the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
In another case, he is accused of exposing himself to an 11-year-old Portuguese child on a playground.
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He is also on trial for the rape of a woman in her seventies, tied and beaten in her vacation apartment, of a child of around 14 tied to a post in her house and of a 20-year-old Irish woman in whose home he visited. is introduced via the balcony.
If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Otherwise, he could be released as early as 2026, according to Christian Wolters.
Christian Brueckner's lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, assures that his client plans to defend himself by remaining silent, but that this "does not mean that he has anything to hide".
“Guaranteeing a fair trial will be the greatest difficulty: the media's prejudice against the accused is unprecedented,” Friedrich Fülscher told AFP.
His “sexual fantasies” in notes and sketches
Among the incriminating evidence that the prosecution will produce at the trial are witness statements and notebooks seized from Christian Brueckner, according to Christian Wolters.
These handwritten notes and sketches offer insight into the accused’s “sexual fantasies,” he said.
Maddie had disappeared from the rental apartment where she was spending a family vacation while her parents dined nearby.
Her disappearance gave rise to an exceptional international campaign to try to find her.
Photos of the little girl, with her bobbed brown hair and large light eyes, went around the world.
The suspicions officially placed on Christian Brueckner, almost four years ago, had revived the hope of parents Gerry and Kate McCann to finally see progress in the case.
Christian Brueckner is serving a prison sentence in Germany for raping a woman in 2005. DR
The investigation stalled for years before this man, who lived at the time of the events a few kilometers from the hotel, attracted the attention of the authorities.
In this case, the Portuguese police carried out searches near a water reservoir in Portugal at the end of May 2023.
“Elements” were discovered, according to the Brunswick public prosecutor’s office, which then considered that it was “too early” to determine whether they were linked to the disappearance of the child.
German investigators, however, claim to have “concrete evidence” of Madeleine’s death.