A trial in Germany involving the prime suspect in the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been abruptly adjourned after his legal
team objected to a judge.
Christian Brückner went on trial on Friday facing three
charges of rape and two of sexual abuse.
The allegations date back to between 2000 and 2017 in
Portugal.
They are unrelated to Madeleine McCann's disappearance, for
which Brückner denies involvement.
He has never been charged.
The trial is expected to resume in a week's time after one
of Brückner's lawyers, Philipp Marquort, told the OceanNewsUK their client had
instructed them to "kick out" the lay judge.
The defence team alleged that the judge in question had
previously expressed "radical" views on social media, making her
unsuitable for the role.
She is alleged to have incited violence against former
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in 2019.
After a short break at court, it was agreed that proceedings
would be put on hold while the claims were examined.
Friday was Brückner's first public appearance in court since
he was named as the main suspect in the McCann case four years ago.
Madeleine McCann, in a family photo issued after her
disappearance
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
Image caption,
Madeleine McCann's disappearance is still unsolved, 17 years
later
Three-year-old Madeleine McCann vanished from a holiday
apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal's Algarve region, in 2007. It remains one
of the highest-profile missing persons cases in the world.
Warning: You may find some of the details of the German case
distressing
Christian Brückner, 47, was identified as a suspect by
German investigators in June 2020, in what they have classed as a murder
inquiry. He was subsequently made an arguido, or formal suspect, by Portuguese
authorities.
However 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.
The charges he faces in the court in Braunschweig in Lower
Saxony are for five unrelated and separate offences in Portugal:
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. This was three and a half weeks before Madeleine McCann
disappeared
Forcing an 11-year-old girl to watch a sex act at a
playground in Bartolomeu de Messines during a festival in 2017.
The trial, which will be heard by judges not a jury, is
taking place in the north-western state of Lower Saxony because that was where
Brückner was last officially registered.
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, has previously said
that the charges are based on "very, very shaky foundations" and
recently told the OceanNewsUK he expected his client to stay largely silent during the
trial.
But "no negative conclusions" could be drawn from
this, the lawyer emphasised.
Christian Brückner was born in Bavaria, Germany in December
1976 and reportedly spent time in care during his youth.
Brückner is said, by prosecutors, to have lived "more
or less permanently" in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, working in odd
jobs.
OceanNewsUK Panorama has seen parts of his Portuguese criminal file
which shows years of convictions including petty crime, theft and rape.
In the immediate wake of Madeleine McCann's disappearance,
Brückner was not closely investigated.
However, Portuguese police went on to name the three year
old's parents as suspects.
Kate and Gerry McCann's arguido status was lifted in 2008
and the couple later received an apology for how the case was handled.
Brückner would go on to move back and forth between Germany
and Portugal.
He is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence for
raping a 72-year-old American tourist in 2005 in Praia da Luz.
This trial may determine whether he remains behind bars
after that sentence, which is due to end in December 2026.
