Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has arrived in court for his ongoing sex trial with a former partner in crime due to testify first.
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 at Braunschweig, near Hannover, flanked by guards and wearing handcuffs.
Convicted rapist Brueckner, 47, is accused of three rapes and two sex assaults. He is pictured arriving at court
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner has arrived in court for his ongoing sex trial with a former partner in crime due to testify first
The case is not directly related to Madeleine and Brueckner denies any involvement in her disappearance
Bar owner Manfred Seyferth, 68, is due to give evidence for the prosecution and in earlier interviews has described Brueckner as a ‘bad, bad man’.
In 2019 Seyferth and his pal Helge Busching, 50, helped jail Brueckner for seven years after describing how they had found a video camera at his house showing him raping an elderly woman at her Algarve home in 2005.
Seyferth lived in a caravan next to Christian’s house a few minutes drive from Praia da Luz, from where then three year old Madeleine vanished in May 2007.
Petty crook Seyferth and Busching. also described in the 2019 case, they had seen footage of a young teenage girl also being attacked and recognised the perpetrator as Brueckner.
In an earlier interview Seyferth said Brueckner was an ‘evil psychopath’ ‘capable of taking a small child’.
He added: ‘Christian is a bad, bad man. He is evil.
‘I never liked him and he is a psychopath. He is obsessed with small children, and I didn’t like it.
‘He always had a young girlfriend with him and I think he is easily capable of taking a small child.’
In 2007, Seyferth lived in a caravan next to Christian’s house, a few minutes drive from Praia da Luz.
Madeleine McCann (pictured) went missing on May 3, 2007 at the age of just three. She has never been found. Christian Brueckner has been named by German prosecutors as their chief suspect in her disappearance
Talking of that time, he admitted: ‘I stole some diesel and some solar panels.
‘I’m a thief but I don’t do anything else — not like Christian who is sick.’
Seyferth also revealed he and Busching had found a gun in Brueckner’s apartment but had panicked and thrown it into a nearby reservoir.
He added:’After Maddie disappeared, I didn’t see him (Brueckner) for a few months until a hippy festival in Orgiva (Spain) a year later.
Seyferth said he knew that Brueckner was robbing holidaymakers in the Portuguese resort that year.
At the 2019 trial in Braunschweig – the same venue as his current hearing – the court heard from Seyferth and Busching and their testimony was pivotal in nailing him.
They described how they had found a horrific video in Brueckner’s Portuguese home that showed him torturing and then raping the elderly American woman.
Other footage was said to show a young teenage girl tied to a wooden post as she begged for help while he sexually abused her.
Seyferth said: ‘He is evil because of the things I saw on the video with the old woman and the girl.
The chief suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann – Christian Brueckner – appears in court at the start of a sexual assault trial in Germany
‘It wasn’t a young girl like Madeleine, she was older, maybe 15 years old and that was the usual age of his girlfriends.’
Talking about how he testified against Brueckner at the rape trial, Seyferth said:’When I saw him in court, he made me shiver. He has a cold hard face and evil eyes.’
Last week the current trial heard how Irish tour rep Hazel Behan, who has waived her anonymity, feared she would be ‘beheaded’ by Brueckner after he attacked and raped her.
He is also accused of raping two other women including an unidentified 70–80-year-old and a 14-year-old.
Further charges also include indecent assault against a 10-year-old German girl and a 11-year-old Portuguese girl.
All the charges are said to have taken place between 2000 and 2017 and on Portugal’s Algarve coast.
Christian Brueckner was named chief suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2020
The case is not directly related to Madeleine and Brueckner denies any involvement in her disappearance and his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher has also said he is not connected to the current trial.
In his opening remarks Mr Fulscher said Seyferth and Busching were ‘unreliable’ due to known drug and alcohol issues.
Mr Fulscher also claimed police had bugged conversations Brueckner had held with his legal team in order to see if he would incriminate himself on Madeleine and the other cases.
He added as a result of the link with Madeleine his client had been under ‘worldwide media fire’ but as yet ‘no charges had been brought’ and no ‘files provided’.
Mr Fulscher said:’ The greatest challenge for the court in these proceedings will be to free itself from these ulterior motives when investigating the procedural truth and assessing the evidence with regard to the accusations levelled.’
The trial continues.
