McCann suspect in German trial for unrelated sex offences

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 BBC 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'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 BBC 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.

Over his lifetime, he's been convicted for a string of theft, drug and child sex offences.

Brückner is said, by prosecutors, to have lived "more or less permanently" in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, working in odd jobs.

In the immediate wake of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, he 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.