Christian Brückner, who is considered to be the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann disappearance is to go on trial today (Friday, February 16) for unrelated sex offences.
The 47-year-old is facing three allegations of rape and two of sexual abuse, dating back to between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.
Brückner has never been charged with Madeleine McCann's disappearance and has denied any involvement.
He is already serving a seven-year jail sentence for rape and will be in court in the northern city of Braunschweig in Germany.
The trial of Christian Brueckner was due to start at 9am but likely to be slightly delayed amid great demand to get into the courtroom. Brueckner himself is now in the court cells having been brought from prison where he is serving a sentence for rape. pic.twitter.com/rcHzjKukIq
— Emma Murphy (@emmamurphyitv) February 16, 2024
When did Madeleine McCann go missing?
Madeleine McCann disappeared as a three-year-old back in May 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal's Algarve region.
It remains one of the highest-profile missing persons cases in the world.
Brückner was identified as a suspect by German investigators in 2020, in what they have classed as a murder inquiry.
He was subsequently made an arguido, or formal suspect, by Portuguese authorities, BBC News reports.
No formal charges have ever been brought against Brückner in the McCann case, and the full details of the German investigation have never been released.
Recommended reading:
- Where are Madeleine McCann's parents Kate and Gerry now?
- Full timeline of events since Madeleine McCann disappeared
- Portuguese police apologise to Madeleine McCann's parents
Christian Brückner on trial in Germany for sex offences
The charges Brückner faces, in a trial that will be heard by judges not a jury, are for five unrelated and separate offences in Portugal, and are:
- The rape of a woman aged 70 to 80 in her holiday apartment in Portugal between 2000 and 2006
- The rape of a German-speaking girl of at least 14 at a house where he lived in Praia de Luz, again between 2000 and 2006
- The rape of an Irish woman whose holiday flat he is alleged to have broken into from her balcony in Praia da Rocha in 2004. In all three rape cases, Brückner is accused of whipping the victim and filming the assaults
- Sexual abuse of a 10-year-old German girl on a beach in Salema in 2007
- Forcing an 11-year-old girl to watch a sex act at a playground in Bartolomeu de Messines during a festival in 2017
According to the German criminal code he could be given between five and 15 years in prison, if found guilty.
Brückner's lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher told BBC News that the charges are based on "very, very shaky foundations" and that he expected his client to stay largely silent during the trial.
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