The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann uttered his first words in court today as he prepares to face the verdict in his trial on separate sex crimes charges.
Christian Brueckner, 47, arrived in court for the closing stages of his trial this morning, dressed in the same pale blue jacket and open-necked shirt he has worn since the start of proceedings eight months ago.
In his closing argument at the courthouse in Braunschweig, Brueckner’s main lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher hinted that Brueckner was only on trial because of his link with Madeleine’s internationally recognised case.
Fuelscher went on to attack the prosecution and added: ‘They have presented one-sided and selective investigative results, submitted nonsensical motions to dismiss and tried to influence public opinion.’
When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say himself, Brueckner leant forward and uttered softly: ‘No, I would not like to.’
Convicted rapist and paedophile Brueckner was sensationally named as the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine in June 2020 by German police but since then no charges have been brought.
He is currently on trial accused of three rapes and two child sex abuse cases between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal close to the resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve, from where Madeleine vanished while on holiday with parents Kate and Gerry McCann.
The charges are unrelated to the Madeleine McCann case, in which Brueckner was sensationally revealed as a suspect in 2020
Madeleine McCann (pictured) went missing on May 3, 2007 at the age of just three. She has never been found. German criminal Christian Brueckner has been named by German prosecutors as their chief suspect in her disappearance
Brueckner is already behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American tourist in 2005 in Praia da Luz, the same Portuguese seaside resort where Madeleine McCann went missing two years later
Kate and Gerry McCann are pictured in a 2017 interview. Brueckner is currently on trial accused of three rapes and two child sex abuse cases between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal close to the resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve, from where Madeleine vanished while on holiday
Mr Fuelscher opened his argument by saying the ‘trial should never have taken place’ and went on to question the reliability of the witnesses involved.
He added: ‘We are here to decide about the freedom and fate of a person, Christian Brueckner.
‘He is accused of five offences, but what really happened does not match what is claimed.
‘This is why it is when the prosecution loses emotional distance from the case. This trial should never have taken place.
‘If it was any other person, then on the basis of this evidence the trial would never have come to trial.’
Sources close to Brueckner’s legal team have told MailOnline they expect a verdict as early as Tuesday in the case.
Brueckner is accused of raping three women – one of which is Irish tour guide Hazel Behan – and earlier in the trial, she gave a harrowing description of what she said happened to her at Brueckner’s hands on the Algarve.
Ms Behan, 40, who waived her anonymity said she had returned to her flat in Praia da Roche, in Portugal, in June 2004, after a row with her then-boyfriend when she was just 20.
Appearing in court last May, she described how she got into bed fully clothed and then fell asleep, only to wake moments later when she heard her name being called.
Ms Behan said: ‘I thought it was my boyfriend who had come to apologise. After a short space of time I said to myself in my head, ”He doesn’t have a key so how did he get in?”
‘I had such a fear which I have never experienced and it felt as if all the blood in my body went to my feet.
‘I turned and saw a man fully dressed in black from head to toe, with a knife and the first thing he did was put his knee into my back and a hand over my mouth.
‘He pulled my head and said in English ”Don’t f***ing scream or I will kill you”, so that’s why I didn’t. It was all very quick.
‘He pulled my hair, and then positioned my body so that he was behind me, he removed my trousers and underwear and I tried to turn round.
‘But he pulled my head back and said in English ”Don’t look at me” and then I smelt a fruity smell. I knew it was condoms, so I knew it was going to happen.’
Ms Behan, from Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland, added: ‘I have had three children, but I have never felt a pain like that and I felt it would last forever.’
But Mr Fulscher said in his closing speech his client was innocent of the attack.
‘Hazel Behan was raped in the most brutal way. I have already pointed out that the defence has no doubts about this,’ Mr Fuelscher said.
‘Only one question is important here and now, can it be established beyond doubt that the defendant was the one who committed the offence?
‘At the end of this hearing, the answer to me is clearly no.’
Defendant Christian Brueckner in the courtroom for a session of his trial at court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, on September 25, 2024
Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing 3-year-old girl Madeleine McCann, stop to talk to the press after attending a church service in Praia da Luz
Christian B, when he was arrested for drug trafficking in Italy in 2018
Last week prosecutor Ute Lindemann argued Brueckner should be jailed for 15 years – labelling him a ‘sadistic psychopath’.
But in July the prosecution was dealt a significant blow after the current trial judge ruled that evidence against him in the current trial was ‘insufficient’, which has been widely interpreted as meaning he could be acquitted.
If Brueckner is cleared it means he could be released next year from the seven-year prison sentence he was given in 2019 for raping an elderly American woman in the Algarve.
That would have huge consequences on German prosecutors who want to pin Madeleine’s disappearance on him – they also claim to have ‘concrete evidence’ that she has died but have so far not disclosed any details.
It is possible that prosecutors could apply for Brueckner to be held in ‘preventative custody’ if he is cleared of the current charges which will give them time to gather more proof in the Madeleine case.
Illustrating his argument that Brueckner was innocent, Mr Fuelscher highlighted how Ms Behan said her attacker was ‘left-handed’ when Brueckner is the opposite and although she said her attacker had a ‘German accent’, this was ‘purely circumstantial’.
He pointed out how Ms Behan’s description of the height of her attacker ‘was way off the mark’.
Mr Fulscher also highlighted how his client had ‘no abnormalities on his leg’ despite Ms Behan saying the man who attacked her had a ‘scar, birthmark or tattoo on his upper thigh’.
Madeleine McCann (pictured) went missing on May 3, 2007 at the age of just three. She has never been found. German criminal Christian Brueckner has been named by German prosecutors as their chief suspect in her disappearance
He is accused of three counts of rape and two counts of child sex abuse allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017
German investigators sensationally named Brueckner as the key suspect in the abduction of the British three-year-old
The defence was also critical of the German police’s investigation of the case describing it as ‘ one-sided’ and he had been left ‘shocked’ by it.
Mr Fulscher said:’ We have heard BKA officers (German police) openly admit that they did not question witnesses critically so that no contradictions would arise.
‘This is simply scandalous and casts a very bad light on the federal authorities, especially as the BKA is highly trusted in terms of competence by the judiciary and general public.’
During the current trial, Brueckner’s former cellmate Laurentiu Codin told the court that he had ‘confessed’ to him he had once abducted a child in Portugal.
Codin told the hearing: ‘He was looking for money. He said he didn’t find any money but found a kid and took the child.
‘He said that two hours later, there were police and dogs all over the place, so he then went away, out of the area.
‘He said that he took the child in Portugal in his car, and in the time when the police and dogs were at the house, he drove away and he was gone.
‘He asked me if the DNA from a child can be taken from bones under the ground.’
Also key to the current case – and that of Madeleine’s disappearance – are two super witnesses Helge Busching and Manfred Seyferth, former partners in crime with Brueckner.
They claim to have found a video in Brueckner’s home in Portugal showing him masked and raping two women although the clip has never been discovered and defence lawyers have questioned its existence.
Busching also claims that Brueckner told him at a festival in Spain a year after Madeleine vanished that it was ‘strange she didn’t scream’ which investigators also claim is vital to the case and he even told Scotland Yard about it in 2018.
Met officer Mark Draycott testified to the court in May how Busching had contacted them and he had been quizzed in great secrecy in Athens about his claims after he was released from a Greek prison for people trafficking.
But Mr Fuelscher portrayed Busching and Seyferth as ‘unbelievable’ witnesses and said their sole aim was to put ‘Bruckner in prison’, describing their evidence as ‘lies’.
Busching and Seyferth had also both testified in the 2019 trial which sent Brueckner to jail but Mr Fulscher said their testimony was ‘now full of contradictions’.
He pointed out how witnesses they had said had seen ‘the rape video’ denied having ever set eyes on it and Mr Fulscher said Busching’s aim was ‘solely to profit from the multi-million reward’ in the Madeleine case.
