Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has arrived in court as prosecutors attempt to start his sex crimes trial following last week’s chaotic start.
Convicted rapist Brueckner, 47, is accused of three rapes and two sex assaults said to have been carried out on Portugal’s Algarve coast in a period from 2000 to 2017.
The attacks took place just minutes from where then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007 where she was staying with parents Kate and Gerry and her siblings.
She has not been seen since and in June 2020 German police sensationally named Brueckner as the man responsible for her ‘abduction and murder’ but he has yet to be charged with anything relating to her disappearance.
Brueckner arrived in a van with a police escort and was swept inside for the start of the hearing and escorted into the courtroom flanked by guards and wearing handcuffs.
Brueckner (pictured) arrived in a van with a police escort and was swept inside for the start of the hearing and escorted into the courtroom flanked by guards and wearing handcuffs
Wearing the same jacket as last week, a white shirt and khaki trousers Brueckner (left) shook hands with all legal team and winked with his legal team
Madeleine McCann (pictured) went missing on May 3 during a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal
Brueckner (left) did not look towards the press or public gallery as the hearing started seven minutes after the scheduled 9am start
Wearing the same jacket as last week, a white shirt and khaki trousers he shook hands with all legal team and winked with his legal team.
Carrying a file in his hand he did not look towards the press or public gallery as the hearing started seven minutes after the scheduled 9am start.
Last week’s proceedings lasted less than ten minutes after Brueckner’s lawyer filed an urgent challenge calling for one of the lay judges to be dismissed for making death threats on social media against ex Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Earlier this month Brueckner told MailOnline the case against him was ‘ridiculous’, and sarcastically added: ‘I hope (they) will find some answers to (their) questions soon.’
Mr Fulscher has said his client denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, as well as the current charges and said Brueckner is ‘stressed’ by the media presence and in ‘poor physical health’.
The trial is unrelated to Madeleine’s disappearance and press and public who wanted to enter the court building in Braunschweig near Hannover had to pass through two airport style metal detectors before getting to the first-floor courtroom.
In a bid to avoid the chaos of last week which saw the trial delayed for 40 minutes the court opened early although there appeared to be a smaller crowd than last week waiting to get in.
When asked by the MailOnline if there were any further surprises Mr Fulscher – who is benign paid by German state funds – said cryptically: ‘Maybe….’
Last week in a clear stalling tactic, he told the court that child therapist should not be allowed to sit on the panel as one of the four lay judges.
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner (pictured) has arrived in court as prosecutors attempt to start his sex crimes trial following last week’s chaotic start
Mr Fulscher highlighted how on 2019 she had posted on X, formerly Twitter, that former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro should be ‘assassinated’.
The tweets, which were seen by the Daily Mail before being taken down and read out in court said: ‘Kill the devil Jair Bolsonaro. Kill the Bastard Bolosonaro. He is the devil. He destroys everything. He must be killed. Now!!!’
She also posted attacks on hunter Walter James palmer who shot and killed Cecil the Lion as well as Donald Trump and his family.
Mr Fulscher also highlighted how she worked as a child therapist and given that the charges Brueckner faced involve minors suggested she would ‘probably be rather biased’ adding they ‘lacked any distance and judgement’.
After speaking for around ten minutes judge Uta Engemann said she would adjourn to consider the request and returned 40 minutes later to agreeing to it and postponing the trial until today.
Prosecutor Ute Lindemann agreed with her – although added the fact she had children was not relevant – but she added: ‘The application is justified. We do not tolerate statements outside the legal system and calls for murder.’
Officials hope that by securing a conviction on the charges he will crack and reveal what happened to Madeleine.
If he is found guilty he could spend the rest of his life in jail but sources close to him say he will remain silent and offer no testimony.
He is insisting DNA and electronic evidence against him is wrong and witnesses are lying about him.
Prosecutors also face a dilemma as two of the rape victims are unidentified but the third victim is known – Irish tour guide Hazel Behan who says she was attacked in 2004 while working in the Algarve.
She says she was threatened with a knife, tied up and subjected to a hours long attack by a man who she later recognised as Brueckner after his picture was released by German police in 2020.
At the time she was a 20-year-old rep and the now married mother of three will be among several key witnesses who will give evidence at the trial which is due to last until June.
Earlier this month Brueckner (pictured here during a court appearance on February 16) told MailOnline the case against him was ‘ridiculous’, and sarcastically added: ‘I hope (they) will find some answers to (their) questions soon’
Prosecutors also face a dilemma as two of the rape victims are unidentified but the third victim is known – Irish tour guide Hazel Behan (pictured) who says she was attacked in 2004 while working in the Algarve
Convicted rapist Brueckner (pictured), 47, is accused of three rapes and two sex assaults said to have been carried out on Portugal’s Algarve coast in a period from 2000 to 2017
The other two rapes involve an unidentified woman aged between 70 and 80 years old and an unknown girl of around 14.
The fourth charge is an indecent assault against a 10 year old girl on a beach close to where Madeleine vanished from a month later and the last is also indecent assault against another child in the Algarve in a playground in 2017.
Earlier this year Bruecker was moved from Oldenburg prison in northern Germany to Schnedebruch near Hannover for the duration of the trial.
He is currently serving a seven year sentence for raping an elderly US woman on the Algarve in 2005 and was jailed in 2019 after evidence from two former pals who will also testify at his new trial.
He was also moved after complaining of ill treatment from guards at Oldenburg where he was in a secure isolated unit.
Bruecker told MailOnline: ‘My situation didn’t change at all. I just moved prison. I’m still totally isolated. Since (sic) more than two years now.
‘I’m still not allowed to talk with anybody else then to my lawyer sand to my punishers (guards).’
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