Christian Brückner, the main suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, appeared in court in Braunschweig, Germany, on Friday for the start of a trial on unrelated sexual offences. The 47-year-old is charged with three counts of rape and two counts of sexual abuse of children, alleged to have occurred in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
The trial was adjourned after just nine minutes following an objection by Brückner's defence lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, to one of the lay judges. Fülscher argued that the judge was biased due to tweets she posted in 2019 calling for the murder of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Presiding judge Ute Lindemann accepted the objection, and the trial is set to resume next Friday with a new lay judge.
Brückner, who is serving a seven-year sentence for a 2005 rape in Portugal, has denied any involvement in Madeleine McCann's disappearance. He was brought to court in an armoured police vehicle and seen by photographers for the first time since being linked to the McCann case in 2020. The charges against him include an attack on an elderly woman in her holiday flat, the rape of an Irish woman in 2004, and exposing himself to two young girls.
Among the 40 witnesses expected to testify are two individuals who claim to have seen homemade videos of Brückner raping women. The trial is scheduled to last 29 days, until the end of June.
