Rape trial verdict of main suspect in McCann disappearance expected in Germany

A verdict in the rape trial of a man who is the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is expected to be reached on Tuesday in a decision that could prove crucial to further investigations in the case of the toddler who went missing 17 years ago.

Christian Brückner, 47, has been on trial since February on charges that he raped three women and committed two child sexual abuse crimes, allegedly carried out in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

During closing arguments to the court, prosecutors recommended that Brückner should be jailed for 15 years, calling him a “sadistic psychopath”.

But Brückner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, said on Monday he should be acquitted, questioning the veracity of witness statements and telling the court: “The trial should never have taken place.”

He also argued the trial had been overshadowed by the unrelated McCann case, suggesting Brückner might not have been charged if he had not already been the main suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.

In a move widely seen as a sign Brückner could be acquitted, the judge, Ute Engemann, ruled in July that the evidence against the defendant was “insufficient”, and lifted the arrest warrant against him due to “lack of urgent suspicion”.

Brückner would have been released from prison then, even as the trial continued, had it not been for the fact that he was serving a seven-year prison term for another rape.

That term is due to come to an end next spring, and if he is cleared on Tuesday he could be released. That could seriously affect German prosecutors’ attempts to pursue Brückner’s alleged involvement in the McCann case.

A decision is expected on Tuesday at around 10am local time at the district court in Braunschweig, northern Germany.

Asked on Monday if there was anything he wanted to say, Brückner, who has remained near-silent throughout the trial, said quietly: “No, I would not like to.”

A convicted rapist and paedophile, Brückner was named in June 2020 as the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann from the resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve where she was on holiday with her parents. No charges have ever been brought.

But Braunschweig’s chief prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, has repeatedly stated investigators’ belief in his involvement in that case and his responsibility for her death. However, despite citing supposed “concrete evidence”, prosecutors have yet to state what that evidence is.

Brückner’s connection to the McCann investigation has been repeatedly touched on throughout the trial. Fülscher said the McCann case had “hung like a fog” over Brückner’s current trial in which he is accused of raping Hazel Behan, an Irish administrator, in her Praia da Rocha apartment in 2004.

Brückner is also charged with the alleged rape of a teenage girl in his home in the same city and raping an elderly woman in her holiday apartment.

If convicted, Brückner could face 15 years in jail. He denies the charges.

Among those to have given evidence in the current case – as well as that of McCann’s disappearance – are two witnesses who had close contact with Brückner over a number of years, acting as accomplices with him in a range of thefts.

They told the court about finding videos in Brückner’s Portuguese home showing him raping two women, although these films have never been found.

Separately investigators found evidence in internet chats of Brückner apparently discussing the rape and abduction of women and children.

A former prison mate of Brückner’s told the court last month that Brückner had confessed to him that he had once abducted a child in Portugal. The man said Brückner had told him that one night he had seen an “open window” and had “found a kid and took the child”.

Brückner’s defence team have said the claims do not stand up.

They have claimed that witnesses who told the court Brückner had masturbated in front of them when they were minors had mistaken the act and that he had instead been urinating in public.