Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner arrives at court for unrelated sex assault trial
16.02.2024 - 10:59
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been pictured arriving at court today ahead of a long-awaited sex abuse trial.
Christian Brueckner arrived at a court in Germany to face charges for crimes against women and children in Portugal, the Mirror reports. The offences allegedly took place between 2000 and 2017, and include the rape and sexual abuse of children.
No charges he faces relate to the disappearance of Madeleine. He has never formally been charged over the disappearance of three-year-old.
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Brueckner, a convicted paedophile, was pictured arriving at Braunschweig Regional Court in a police van. The 46-year-old was then pictured being escorted into the courtroom minutes later, which is packed with around 100 members of the press from across the world and members of the public.
The trial is set to be held over 40 separate days and is due to conclude in June. Today is the first time Brueckner has been seen in public since being linked to the Madeleine case in 2020.
Madeleine was on holiday with her family at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz in the Algarve area when she went missing from her bedroom on 3 May 2007. While her whereabouts remain unknown, German prosecutors believe she is dead and claim they have proof.
He denies any involvement in her disappearance, but was made a formal suspect by Portuguese prosecutors in 2022. He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping an American pensioner in the Algarve.
If he is cleared by a judge at the end of the trial, he could be freed in September next year. Brueckner faces trial today for five offences in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017.
They include