christian brueckner, christian b, christian brückner or in short cb, 28 june and later.

this from bz;

In the rape trial against Christian B., who is also a suspect in the Maddie case, the defence has called for an acquittal. ‘There was never sufficient suspicion’, said defence lawyer Friedrich Fülscher at the beginning of his plea. An acquittal was the only correct outcome of the trial. Among other things, the defence cited a lack of evidence and untrustworthy witnesses.

The 47-year-old German is accused by the public prosecutor of three rapes and two cases of child sexual abuse, which he allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. The verdict is due to be announced in October after more than 30 days of hearings.

The defence also criticised the fact that the public prosecutor's office had only presented one-sided investigation results. The lawyers also accused the investigating authority of making gross technical errors and sleight of hand in the presentation of evidence. Fülscher also suspected that no charges would have been brought if the accused had not also been the suspect in the Maddie case.

dpa has even much less.

from belfast live

In his final remarks today, Brueckner's defence attorney Friedrich Fuelscher heavily criticised key witness Busching, calling him a liar and accusing him of fabricating stories to gain attention, reports the Irish Mirror.

Mr Fuelscher criticised the courts at Braunschweig regional court, saying: "There is no evidence at all which supports what he said."

Brueckner, who has maintained a stoic presence throughout his eight-month trial, was seen sitting still next to his lawyer, dressed in the same grey blazer. Mr Fuelscher expressed to the judges: "This trial should never have taken place."

He added, "If it was any other person, then on the basis of the evidence it would never have come to trial. The day has long passed whereby we lock away people based on them and not their crime."

He asserted that prosecutors are "trying to influence the opinion of the public".

During the proceedings, Mr Fuelscher also remarked about the lack of evidence for some of the allegations, highlighting that two of Brueckner's supposed rape victims had yet to be found, questioning, "You have to ask, how likely is it that people who have suffered like that would not have reported it? " Despite considerable investigative efforts by German authorities and police, no conclusive findings were made.

It's mighty funny how all these alleged cases of rape and indecent exposure all happened in Portugal, around Praia da Luz, which is a beach resort incidentally!  The very same location that saw the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?

Any more cross continental worms in the woodwork?

A prolific child abuser come 'any age will do' rapist would offend anywhere he or she happens to be at any one time - surely?  Brueckner was said to be a traveler, of no fixed abode, who flitted overland between Germany and Portugal, so say the press and media.  Between times is not known with any accuracy, if at all.



The vast stretch of land between Germany and Portugal is of course France and Spain, although not marked as such.

Or was it something to do with the Portuguese sun that turned the rational into irrational, or maybe the beer a bit too strong for the German palate, or maybe he was addicted to golf which has featured on and off over the years - even to this day, The Foreign Detective being a fanatic of sorts.?

Or maybe it's a load of old cobblers.  Just another rumoured suspect in the disappearance of little Madeleine McCann to keep the balls rolling.  Who would care one jot about the life and times of Christian Brueckner if not for the name Madeleine McCann appended.

The poor child was lost in the mists of time, the focus was taken off her from the night of 3rd May 2007.  

Sad.

Hey, I've just had a thought!

Wouldn't it be a hoot if Christian Brueckner was a woodworm .

thedefence team will not stop at this, the ndr a german broadcast company had this too;

Lawyer also wants to appeal earlier judgement
Christian B., who has several previous convictions, is currently serving a prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman, for which he was sentenced by the Braunschweig Regional Court in 2019. Because new facts have emerged in the course of the current trial, his lawyer Fülscher also wants to challenge the judgement at the time. The lawyer announced this on Monday.

and the part the bz had about the plea of the defence team today;

Trial at Braunschweig District Court: This is how Christian B.'s defence lawyers responded.
On Monday, the defence team's response was no less clear. Friedrich Fülscher, Philipp Marquort and Atilla Aykac speak of ‘sleight of hand’ by the public prosecutor's office, one-sided investigations and ‘gross technical errors’. Fülscher: ‘This main trial should never have happened.’ The public prosecutor's office and the BKA wanted to put his client behind bars come hell or high water. The case illustrates the ‘dire consequences’ that could result ‘if the investigating officers of the public prosecutor's office lose the necessary emotional distance and this attitude is combined with amateurish investigations by a police authority’.
The Kiel defence lawyer and his colleagues repeatedly point out that Christian B. is being prejudged by the public. His colleague Mr Aykac calls it a ‘media hounding’ initiated by the prosecutors. Fülscher suspects that no charges would have been brought if the accused had not been the suspect in the Madeleine ‘Maddie’ McCann case.

Christian B. defence lawyer Fülscher: main prosecution witness in Braunschweig is a ‘busybody and liar’
The public prosecutor had ‘selectively presented evidence’ in order to ‘influence public opinion’, said Fülscher. He considers their chain of circumstantial evidence to be unsustainable. ‘You cannot construct a certainty from several probabilities.’ According to the defence lawyers, ‘nothing remains’ of the accusations at the end of the hearing of evidence.
Fülscher had nothing good to say about the main prosecution witness Helge B., among others. ‘He is a busybody and a liar’. Helge B. started the investigation into the convicted sex offender Christian B.. He claims to have seen at least two rapes on a video cassette from the accused's house, which B. is said to have recorded.
Christian B. trial in Braunschweig: witness receives thousands of euros from newspaper for an interview
However, neither the recordings nor the victims have yet been found - ‘and the BKA really tried’, says Fülscher.  From the defence lawyer's point of view, Helge B. was determined to ‘put the accused in prison and use this trial as his stage’. Also by deliberately making false statements.

The fact that the witness had received 5,000 euros from the ‘Bild’ newspaper for an interview illustrates his pursuit of profit. Should the case be brought to trial, Helge B. would be one of the prosecution's most important witnesses. The witness also heavily implicates his former acquaintance Christian B. in the ‘Maddie’ case.
Rape of Hazel B.: Christian B. defence lawyer sees no evidence of the Maddie suspect's guilt

The defence also sees no evidence of the crime in the case of the rape of Irish woman Hazel B. in June 2004. The then 20-year-old was the victim of a masked burglar who tied her up, raped her and whipped her. B. is said to have acted in a strikingly similar way when he raped a US-American woman in 2005, for which he was convicted by the Braunschweig Regional Court. In this case, a hair discovered at the crime scene was subsequently traced back to Christian B. There is no solid evidence in the case of Hazel B.

However, a BKA profiler testified in the current trial that such ‘one-on-one rapes’ are extremely rare. He considers the accused to be a serial rapist. Do the parallels point to B. as the perpetrator?
No, says defence lawyer Fülscher. It is ‘terrible’ what happened to the Irish woman. But can it be established beyond doubt ‘that the accused was the one who committed the offence’? Hazel B. claims to have recognised the accused in photos as her rapist. By his piercing blue eyes. Fülscher assumes that she wrongly came to this conclusion based on the media coverage of the accused. After all, pictures of him went around the world. He considers it ‘utopian’ that she really recognised him by the colour of his eyes.

Fülscher describes the BKA profiler's analysis as ‘charlatanic’ and ‘insubstantial’. Overall, the work of the Federal Criminal Police Office is ‘scandalous’. Because: ‘In almost every witness interrogation, questions that arose were not asked. The investigation was one-sided.’
Defence lawyer: It was wild peeing instead of masturbation
The defence lawyers also see similar mechanisms at work with the children, who say that Christian B. was the man who exposed himself in front of them. Two such acts were part of the indictment. They are said to have taken place at a party in the Algarve. However, according to the defence lawyers, B. did not masturbate, but simply needed to relieve himself.

However, he paid ‘respect’ to the court. ‘For allowing the defendant a fair and open-ended trial - despite the worldwide media prejudgement.’ And also despite the ‘sometimes personal attacks’ by the public prosecutor.
Defence wants to challenge an old verdict from Braunschweig against Christian B.

Christian B. listens to all this motionlessly. He sits stiff and pale in his crumpled jacket next to the defence team and stares into nothingness. ‘Do you want to say something?’ the judge asks him at the end. The answer is as monosyllabic as B.'s entire trial. ‘No.’

The verdict will be announced on 8 October at 10 am. Even in the event of an acquittal, Christian B. would remain behind bars. He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of the US-American woman. According to the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office, he would not be released until mid-September 2025 at the earliest.

i already found a bit that sounded odd, but it seems that when a new arrest order is given, the jail time if the person liker cb is in already will stop the clock for that sentence, but when the arrest order was taken down again, cb his sentence of 7 years for the 2005 rape case simply started rolling on again.

that sounds very strange and not something i heard before, so now i am curious because always was said cb would get out around april 2025 for the case he is in, now that will be going on to october 2025, but if that does change if he is acquitted from these 5 cases.

it is never east to do a count, because the pre arrest time usually counts too in the total jail sentence, and that is quite a mess around cb. there already have been many juridical procedures standing on and off for that verdict.

but at best we can hope tomorrow on this hour we can say we have had round one, because it seems very likely there will be chances for many follow up trials.

the appeal the prosecution can try if they do not agree with the verdict, and i have no idea if the verdict and sentencing both are read out on the same day even, is at first only on technical matters. so this appeal does not start the full over again.

still up to now it is a kind of working that goes against all we usually would expect from germany.

der stern has a not guilty result, later more...

Christian B. has been acquitted in a trial on charges of several serious sexual offences. The regional court in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, did not impose a sentence on the 47-year-old German on Tuesday. He could not be ‘convicted of the offences he is accused of’, said presiding judge Uta Engemann at the sentencing on Tuesday.

Christian B. will remain in prison, however, because he is still serving a sentence for rape until September 2025.

where the mirror speak of a unexpectedly not guilty verdict that is not really the overall sentiment, cold cases, and old cases are always hard to solve, but it was clear that during the full trial there was a lack of material evidence, all it was was told stories, many without even nearing the cases under trial at all, by mostly not that kind of people we would call upright, decent and honest people.

also from the german news outlets there was a complete different feeling, where the uk media was quite bombastic and optimist, mostly telling their public all was a done deal, cb was guilty. the nasty parts often published open on their web pages. so it was just what you could read that could inform you, and a lot was never said in that way in court. the basic words been so often translated as direct connections to the case of madeleine mccann.

where in germany cb is only still under suspicion in that case, not a suspect, no charges, so even there is only a spoken connection.

half of the witnesses found by english spoken news outlets never made it in that compassivity even inside this court in these 5 other cases. stories before in many news articles, documentaries etc. been quite different from the same story told by that same witnesses during court.

and this result still means there are open cases, these stories are there on their own merits, but only connecting cb into them is not been possible. the cases will still exist, but not listed to cb. they just are going back to the status they already had unsolved.

and that can be a hard part to keep in mind. how worse cases are, and some are, they will be that still, only the court verdict says it was not proven cb had a hand in them. that can never be a secure outcome.
but i already saw people write , yes because some material was declared illegal, not all facts could be used, that is a very wrong wording. the rules are known for the police before hand, they are trained and instructed into working with and around possible evidence, so there is no excuse for doing such things, and all that is illegal cannot be accepted to also facts. the problem in that is always the same, how much would you except in wrong doings by law enforcement, because next time it could be done in a case made against you. if you do not want to live to experience that result, why would it fitting for others.

and this was even about information, not evidence, it never made it that far, that not only was gathered once illegally, but even twice. if we do not want a justice system, but simply play each case by emotions only that would at least be much easier and a lot cheaper too. but why would we stop that when people already have done nasty deeds?
anyone can end up in the position of defendant, and that is why there is the presumption of innocence. and that means also for each next case that goes for that one too.

if the prosecutions seeks an appeal, that would not mean the case has to be done over at all, these first appeals are usually much more about the correctness of procedure of law, also known as the technicalities. an outcome from there will dictate what follows through after that.

i do hope they do publish the 10 seconds of speaking the not guilty verdict, with the motivation on it too. at least that would give a better idea what did happen and what did put the weight in or not.

No surprise really - is it? Now it will be interesting to see how the 'race for a conviction in the Madeleine McCann case' proceeds - if at all! The German authorities don't appear to have moved forward on that issue since it first hit the headlines back in June 2020.

They will need a bit more than a phone ping and hearsay to even get an arrest, let alone as far as a court hearing. Then there is the small consideration of the Portuguese investigation that runs contrary to the press and media reports and German court proceedings. They seems to have forgotten, or ignored, the formality of a police investigation - out of their jurisdiction anyway.

Now, how can we make this dude look more sinister, to convince the reader of his guilt..



Sorted!

If you say it often enough and loud enough, it becomes a reality in some quarters.

Done and dusted, now who can we concentrate all our efforts on picking apart - The Foreign Detective? Oh no, perhaps not, he's a free man and doesn't like a challenge.

Still, all roads lead to Majorca, sorry Rome.

It keeps life's woodworm occupied, that's the main thing - back on track.

There's been a rumour going around for some long while suggesting a British journalist based in Spain, who used to (and still does on occasions) report rubbish for British tabloids, is somehow behind the lynching of the German prisoner now laid to rest - hopefully!

Second thoughts, the Madeleine McCann connection will no doubt continue for eternity.  If not in any official capacity, certainly amidst the social media brethren.

Oh ye of little or no faith!

But is it someone or something a little closer to home that infiltrates - like a rampant woodworm?  Or could it be a Spanish based woodworm riding tandem? Careful there woody, you could get mangled in those revolving spokes!

'Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive'

Bit of a riddle is it not?  

It's doubtful all will be revealed ....

you do not ask a court did he do it, you ask can it be proven he did it. and in these 5 cases the answer is given as a no.

and many stories that in their own way ended up as witness accounts, have been done no favour in the media, before and during the start of this trial too. most articles in the media also were much more opinions, often not different of what we call a column, still hidden as information to the public.

and the judges can only make use of what is brought before the court, so they have nothing to do with the mirror, daily mail, the sun, a local free paper in spain or anything of the likes. it has to happen in court, and very little did happen, there was a complete no show of material evidence, and the stories by words been embedded in lies and untruths as best. how can be expected from a judge some of your story is true, when you lie significantly in other parts.

and i agree that there been used too much emotions where a more impartial stance would be done better.

that does not mean there are not still 5 unsolved cases out there, only when it was put to the test, and all parties in this court had the experience to know the rules as given by law very well, can hardly be surprised by the verdict.

and of course this is also the result of the german possibility to get a case in court only on indications of guilt, and this was a indications only trial. as i once said at the beginning in other places, if the mccann parents would put to trial with indications only, they could be spoken guilty easily. indications are not the kind of prove you need, it can make material evidence stronger, but it was never there. even the stuff that was taken out because it was not legally sound gathered by the bka, was not evidence, but still a mere indication.

i found it often very sloppy that witnesses been presented without reaching into matter of the 5 cases presented in this court. the continu infringement of the madeleine case was unacceptable too.

and yes it always is sad when there is not enough evidence left to bring a case to justice, but it is done justice now to, only not to the side of a victim. but that is not how justice can work if we call justice done only when someone is spoken guilty.
and each case is out there on their own, and also need their own verdict. independent of all others and ones before or after they happen. it was now very hard to keep check on what was part of what case also, and yes one statement can reflect on multiple cases, but it was very hard to see a build up in the story of each case itself.

that it cannot be easy to get a set of 5 cases , all happened longer ago and abroad is a given, but that was known upfront, that was not something that was discovered during the trial itself or new. and there was not that much need too, after they lent martin ney another german with nasty offences to his name to france to be part of a trial there, this could have done in portugal too of course with cb.

only here is where the defence plea comes in hard, most of these cases would never see court if tried in portugal, different law and by that things as a sol and definitions of specific criminal offences would keep it out of court.

so it still is a strange thing when a anti european bit of german law, is used together with communal european agreements to cover these cases in this court. in my opinion simply cop shopping, and there is a moment been that scotland yard presented all this including the madeleine case to germany, only because cb is also german and available, and with the motivation the portuguese still hang on that the parents mccann are guilty and do not want this case around cb.

if as theresult of hb his musings also a rogatory letter was send that explicit asked for only unsolved cases with a specific mo and showing no intrest when the portuguese authority also made known there are also 3 cases solved in portugal that fit that mo. the hazel b case never seem to have fit the questions asked by letter.

also the very ungerman presentation by the press officer of the prosecution in braunschweig, with words and suggestions he could not easily have made on german territory, so he used portugal and australia for that, and a lot of english language news outlets, it does make you think into making a suspect, instead of an honest approach to solve crimes.

and if we look in the cases that have been used that makes it questionable if this was to serve justice to the victims, or if they are simply be used and abused for keeping cb in a german jail. the media has a role in that part too, by how this case was presented to the public and these same victims it was laid out as a done deal, the culprit would be convicted.

i do not care about cb himself, but using other cases to undo an years old big mistake under german hands is not how justice can work. i find it a horrible thought the actually are showing the victims in his 3 earlier convictions of sexual abuse of very young female victims, and during the trial of victim 1 and 2, there was already another psych how told, he would not stop, and when many years later a worse effort of abuse took place there was not asked for secure upholding after his jail time for that, at least as far was to find. they even left the guy out to roam other countries. all because bureaucratic mumbo jumbo prevailed over doing justice.

it all gives not the impression justice was in their minds that much. as this is not the only case they lost during the last weeks, i think they have to work a bit harder on their reputation at the prosecution offices of braunschweig.

about the madeleine cases with cb as potential defendant.

at the moment in germany cb is at best under investigation, there is no arrest and by that he is officially not even a suspect, there are no charges at all too. so all there is is a guy they are suspicious about, a bit overly vested in that too. still officially cb is stilla nobody in that case.

the phone ping was part of the questions they came out in the beginning of june 2020, the other thing was about two buildings, and the registration on may 4 2007 of the jaguar.

that last bit was covered and by that answered in the early vides der spiegel made. alexander b. said on camera it was not cb, but he who decide to reregister the jaguar on his name, cb had no longer a valid address to register that car for insurance purposses, so use an in between, before that it was a guy from munchen, but that person did no longer want to be part of that, and alexander b. living in augsburg took over, he was a kind of a friend of cb, more they both liked jaguar cars.
cb and ab had spoken already for some weeks and in germany the language is a bit more clear in wording about some weeks. because they call it multiple weeks.

you had simply top go to an registration office and show the paperwork, to being able to handle that , ab must already have it at hand, ab motivated it as he has the time to handle it on may 4, 2007. this is also one of the not shabby former friends of cb.
i know quite a lot of dutch people that emigrated to germany and handling a car registration is and was quite a burden.

but as ab was willingly and freely telling his part in all this on camera pretty early on, it makes it hard to see because of that it could have somewhere a connection with madeleine missing in portugal.

the phone ping itself is debunked well enough, as there ever was only one mast to take a ping, it is impossible to work out where that ping came from. all it is is a normally silent making connection between mast and a phone. it does make a ping noise, it took me years to find out what it was and where it came from, but my classic set of boxes do register the connection by doing ping. every 4 hours plus 1 minute, do not ask me why, but keeping register for a few days it showed that time frame.

so it is hard to know where a specific phone was in praia da luz, most even forget to count the sea, as if there are no watersports and boats used there. also it seems they never found out who was on the other number outside pdl, so no one can know if cb had the thing.

also when cb left the portuguese jail for his conviction of dieseltheft just before christmas 2006, he was helped by the family that owned a scrapyard, there are multiple scrapyard owners in this case around, but this was the family p. this family lent cb the vw transporter campervan it was also still owned by them. it needs some shady connections, but it could be very well that not cb owned that phone, but also a member of that same family, and let is used by cb. it does fit that same timeline well enough.

the german docu that had cb his former friends we know most of them from court by now, that promised they did know what cb did on may 3 was lacking every hint on that. i hate such promisses, mostly because i had to make use of a so called pirate website and that means you have to endure adds for 10 to 15 minutes at least 3 or 4 times each hour you look.

so even the phone ping is most likely a fata morgana at best.

by this there can hardly be much usable material survived to be of use as evidence in ny trial in the madeleine cb with cb in the role of defendant.

and they have a new boss higher up in the prosecution service in braunschweig, lets hope it is at least one with both feet on sturdy ground, and has a good broom too.

it is not that unknown that evidence of any intruder in the madeleine case always was missing. there is not even any evidence of an intruder, or an abduction. there is no easy solving in that case. and it is odds in favour cb is just one in a long line of former people where some been suspicious about.

look who is back again!

still not found the time for a course of how to speak english;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtbhZOQGiak

'I'm broken': Reaction to prime Madeleine McCann suspect being acquitted of multiple assaults

Tuesday 8 October 2024 at 8:26pm

"Every ounce of blood, it just rushes to your feet. It kind of nearly paralyses you. Like that fear, that I hope I never feel again."

Hazel Behan, who bravely waived her right to anonymity, says she was attacked by German national Christian Brueckner in Portugal when she was working as a holiday rep aged 20.

Ms Behan said she was raped by the chief suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, and told ITV News she has been left broken after he was acquitted of attacking her and other women.

Brueckner is still in prison in Germany for other sexual offences and local authorities insist he is still the prime suspect in the disappearance and murder of three-year-old Madeleine.

"He had piercing blue eyes. Oh, they bore into my head. They're there. They're imprinted on who I am. They'll never leave. Spend hours in a room with somebody who is absolutely torturing you and all you can see is their eyes. By God, you better believe I'll remember them. I made sure I'd remember them. I see them. I can see them every time I close my eyes."

On Tuesday he was cleared of a string of violent rapes and sexual abuse in the part of Portugal where Madeleine went missing.

We asked Ms Behan for her response to the verdict.

"I'm shattered, you know. I'm really, really broken," she said.

German prosecutors say they'll appeal, insisting their investigation into Madeleine's disappearance continues unhindered.

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said Brueckner is the "prime suspect" and that he remains "the only suspect" they have in the Madeleine McCann case.

"We have evidence that he killed Madeleine McCann, but it's not the time for us to put it on the table and to decide if we could charge him or if you could go for an arrest warrant or something like that in the Madeleine case."

"Maybe we'll come to this point in the next year," he added.

Brueckner moved to Portugal from Germany in 1995 after being convicted of child sexual offences. German authorities caught up with him in 1999. After serving time in Germany, he returned to Portugal.

In 2005, he raped an American pensioner in Praia da Luz - two years later, Madeleine McCann disappeared from the same resort.

Brueckner then returned to Germany in 2017 to serve a sentence for child sexual abuse. In 2019, he was convicted for the 2005 rape of an American woman in Portugal.

On Tuesday, after he was found not guilty of the current charges, Brueckner's lawyers suggested he was only on trial because he was a suspect in Madeleine McCann's case.

German prosecutors remain convinced Christian Brueckner was involved, despite the acquittal. He denies any involvement.

https://www.itv.com/news/2024-10-08/im-broken-madeleine-mccann-prime-suspect-acquitted-of-unrelated-rapes

Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said Brueckner is the "prime suspect" and that he remains "the only suspect" they have in the Madeleine McCann case.

"We have evidence that he killed Madeleine McCann, but it's not the time for us to put it on the table and to decide if we could charge him or if you could go for an arrest warrant or something like that in the Madeleine case."

"Maybe we'll come to this point in the next year," he added.

Sorry chum, you've been saying the exact same thing since the news hit the headlines, back in June 2020.  Yes folks, that's over four years ago!  You've also been threatening next year action every year since 2020.  It's wearing very thin now.

What's next on the agenda, Brueckner is set free so your case against him thus shattered - maybe next year?  That ship has long since sailed and is sinking fast.

Ms Behan was attacked by a masked man, but she is certain it was Brueckner.

Sorry, not good enough Ms Behan. if you want to see a man go down for a serious crime (for in reality that it is) surety is not enough.  You need to be certain and have proof/evidence of the incident, neither of which you can say or do!

After a period of twenty years, for it was the year 2004 you claim to have been raped, perhaps you should consider putting it behind you and moving on.

Prosecutors to appeal after Madeleine McCann suspect acquitted in separate rape trial

Christian Brückner found not guilty in Germany of three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Tue 8 Oct 2024 14.40 BST

The main suspect in the disappearance of the British toddler Madeleine McCann is likely to be released from prison next year after he was found not guilty of all charges in a separate rape and sexual abuse trial.

Christian Brückner, who is serving a seven-year sentence for rape, was acquitted by the district court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, of three separate charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

He is due for release by September 2025 at the latest, after which he would be free to leave Germany.

The verdict could prove crucial to further investigations in the case of Madeleine. Prosecutors in Braunschweig have said they will immediately appeal, including calling for a retrial, having repeatedly claimed judges in the case were biased.

A convicted rapist and paedophile, Brückner was formally named in June 2020 as the main suspect in the disappearance 17 years ago of Madeleine from the resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve, where she was on holiday with her family. No charges have been brought and he denies any involvement.

Braunschweig’s chief prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, has repeatedly stated investigators’ belief in Brückner’s responsibility and said the investigation, in which he is under suspicion of murder, continues. Prosecutors have cited “concrete evidence” but are yet to state what that is.

Brückner’s connection to the McCann investigation was touched on repeatedly throughout the trial, which concluded on Tuesday. His lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, said the McCann case had “hung like a fog” over the trial.

Brückner, who showed no emotion as the verdict was announced, was acquitted by three professional judges and two lay judges. The main judge, Uta Engemann, delivered a lengthy statement explaining the decision to acquit that criticised German prosecutors for naming him in connection to the McCann case. “We as judges have sworn an oath, and it is to serve the truth only. We take this very seriously, but we cannot wrap people in cotton wool,” she said.

“This oath means that we do not cater to the views of the media, the defence and the prosecution, or to the tables of regular pub-goers.”

She said that “everyone” had heard about Brückner in connection with the McCann case and the labelling of Brückner, “as a sex monster and a pervert”, amounted to “massive third-party suggestions” which had influenced witnesses and resulted in testimonies to the court being “almost worthless for the legal chamber”.

The verdict is seen as a slap in the face for prosecutors, who had argued for the German national to be handed a 15-year sentence. His sentence for the rape of 72-year-old US tourist in 2005 in Praia da Luz runs until September 2025, but Fülscher has said he expected his client could be free as soon as the spring.

Wolters, the chief prosecutor, and investigators in the McCann case now faced a race against time if they were to make a charge. Speaking after the verdict Wolter told journalists: “We consider the judgment to be wrong in substance and will therefore appeal so that the federal court of justice is able to review the decision once more for legal errors.”

He said the court would have the power to order a retrial with different judges.

Wolters said the investigation into the McCann case was continuing, but neither a conclusion to that or a charge was currently foreseeable.

The court in Braunschweig heard that Brückner had been accused of raping Hazel Behan, an Irish administrator, in her Praia da Rocha apartment in 2004, and was 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. He was also accused of exposing himself in front of a 10-year-old German girl on a beach and to an 11-year-old Portuguese girl at a playground.

An acquittal had been widely predicted after the court revoked the arrest warrant against Brückner in July at the defence’s request, citing unreliable witnesses and a lack of forensic evidence.

Expert witnesses had recommended that Brückner be held in preventive detention owing to the potential danger they believed he posed to the public.

Christian Riedemann, a leading psychiatric expert in the field of sexual abuse, told the trial last month that having examined a notebook in which Brückner had gathered a “hotchpotch” of drawings and notes of “instructions for the detailed abuse of children and women”, he deemed him to be “in the absolute top league of dangerousness ... it doesn’t get any higher than that.” He said the probability that Brückner would commit a crime again in the two years after the end of his sentence was “30 to 50%”.

In a trial that was often gruelling in its details, one witness who had accused Brückner of masturbating in front of them when a child was asked to mimic the action in front of the court, and broke down while doing so.

Hazel Behan, who waived her right to anonymity in order to give evidence, was asked by the defence to be deliberately positioned in her seat so that she was forced to face the alleged perpetrator. She faced excruciating questioning by the court over two days in May in which details of her own conduct were pored over.

Brückner passively followed the entire proceedings, sometimes cupping his face in his hand, occasionally taking notes, entering court every day in a pale blue crumpled jacket with elbow pads. He only spoke once on Monday, responding to the judge’s question as to whether he wanted to speak, to say quietly: “No, I would not like to.”

Brückner was linked to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance after he was found to have been a convicted child sexual abuser who had gone to live near Praia da Luz. He worked as a waiter and broke into holiday apartments at night. At the time of McCann’s disappearance on 3 May 2007 a mobile phone registered to him was connected to the resort’s radio mast.

Among the witnesses in the Braunschweig trial was a former prison mate of Brückner’s who told the court that he had confessed to him that he had once abducted a child in Portugal, telling him he had seen an “open window” and had “found a kid and took the child”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/08/main-suspect-in-mccann-disappearance-acquitted-in-separate-and-abuse-trial

Is it really any wonder he was acquitted?

The crumpled pale blue jacket Brueckner wore for every court appearance (?) looks about as pale as the piercing blue eyes etched on the mind of the star witness.

Wishy washy, a bit like the witnesses testimony.

as i said before for the judges it is damned if they do, and damned if the don't.

all the court got presented been words, most from mouths that are not the cleanest at all. there was simply no evidence to connect all these words to cb. so how could you expect more than an acquittal.

and i agree that painting someone into a bogeyman in the media not only influences witnesses, but also the public.
so how must you see in that light, made up stories by cb for private use and an inner circle to the stories that are mostly painted up with as much dirt as was possible, what can be seen as dirty and nasty stories too.

what could have helped was publishing simply all that was said in that court, we only got the most impressive parts, but in a way that makes it not easier to understand. if a case grows so much into the public, i think it works better if the public can decide for itself what is going on or not. so make such trial as public as is possible.

the media have to look into their own role too, articles about the same witnesses been presented as opposites, that has no longer anything to do with the still number one role of the media what was and still has to be informing the public, being eyes and ears for all who cannot go into the court themselves.

the enormous infiltration of the madeleine case was not only through the hand of the media, the prosecution service of braunschweig offered that very freely, something that also never is done before.

and if you choose the limelight you better come prepared well, not one but at least two routes to what they still see as possible evidence are not available in the legally sound way. i can understand the judges got mad, the lying about it just kept going on into the court.

old cases are always hard to get through a court, but still this was not a prosecution team in its first court appearance at all, they know what is asked. the officers of the bka are trained for their jobs too.

loosing these 5 cases was simply because of a job not done.

and they did not much hiding this was just a test case, there was no dedication in these 5 cases, no defending these in the media. what they were about was left to the media. helge b. was under police protection, still he ended up everywhere in the media from netflix to bild, from the rabe docu to an australian series for tv. helge b had no need for protection from a bogeyman, i cannot say that protection to the media was needed, or in the slightest having an effect at all.

this trial got not the 5 acquittals because of very good lawyers, but because the prosecution was not able to deliver what was needed.

all these cases are a result of the investigation in the madeleine case, an german investigation that started in the second half of 2017, became public only in 2020, because no one of the uk media or german tabloid style news outlets found an article in greek. the story of helge b. was already out before the german bka got that case up and running. we are 7 years later and still no charges brought or in sight. we are told by that same prosecution service of braunschweig they have the evidence, well put that up to bring these charges.

i am only afraid we will have to see the same mouths talking a lot in again a slightly different version and what we again have to accept as the truth, well maybe that could work, but the public is not stupid.

time to lift the curtains, not keeping up finger pointing to all others, better start from a clean house on.

for the people who still have facebook accounts the sun has a video up, where their reporter interviews the german reporter jutta rabe. she made one of the documentaries for the german tv some years back about cb. that alone cannot be called her very impartial, but it is expected many news outlets will now change their approach to put their mouth to cover their money. or keep it safe on their side of course.

shame we never heard what came from the complaint cb lanced when jutta suggest cb mistreated his dogs.

but it has a nice bit about the new walked in star witness for the prosecution if they ever get charges out for the madeleine case.

i love it when someone talks about how impartial a witness must bem because he did not wanted to say nasty things about cb in court, but still did. and how could we think this by origin romanian guy could be influenced by the media in this case, because as jutta states he did work in germany but hardly manages the german language, he has even the need of a translator in the court last week.

the fresh details that nopt have been in the media sounds a bit off, is there even still a possible variation in the madeleine case that is not been in the media or social media left? and jutta forgets how easy it works to get at least a bit of anidea when you simply use a translation app, what is made very easy on most social media, facebook and instagram just ask if you want a translation, even twitter now x has that option if you go to the profile of a poster. all others can still work by using auto translate by google.

i think all possible scenarios in the madeleine case are said and done, including the ridiculous and plain stupid ones, only the order can still have a need of some work to it. but news is not expected anymore. and no, introductions of a girl friend, cq lover is not, and it was even jutta her own production that made a girlfriend sailing in for a time.

still i am more curious who the not accredited journalist was, that spoke during lunchtime on that day of testimony of laurentiu c. and that restored his memory very well, before lunch and much earlier when questioned by the bka that was all not there.

well it only means they have made a new star witness, now helge b is a bit growing old in that status.

https://fb.watch/v633BFdWH9/
this must be the video. most news outlets can be viewed without having an account.

Madeleine McCann update as cops say secret witnesses mean suspect Christian Brueckner WILL still be charged

By Rob Pattinson

October 9, 2024

POLICE last night warned “the clock is ticking” as they race to stop ­Madel­eine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner going back on the streets.

The convicted paedophile, 47, was sensationally cleared of a string of unrelated rape claims by a German court yesterday and will finish his current seven-year sentence on September 17 next year.

Prosecutors launched an immediate appeal, claiming judges in Braunschweig were biased.

And investigators probing ­Madeleine’s 2007 disappearance from a Portuguese holiday apartment vowed to charge Brueckner before his release date after securing a number of secret witnesses.

Lead prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told The Sun: “We hope we will get an appeal decision from the supreme court.

“But if that is not decided by next September we will try to get an arrest warrant for Maddie.

"That will be our only chance to keep him behind bars.

“I can’t say if we have enough right now, but it is a question we will answer next year because the investigation is still ongoing.

“The verdict today has no impact on the Maddie case. They are totally separate.”

He added: “We have witnesses no one knows about.


BUBBLING WITH RAGE

"I can’t say which witnesses we have, but we have more witnesses than the two or three from this current case.”

Until now a drifter and an ex-cell mate appeared to be the only witnesses, both alleging Brueckner confessed to them.
Counting the days to freedom

Yesterday Brueckner, in jail for the rape of a US pensioner, was acquitted of three further counts of rape and two counts of ­indecent exposure.

The ruling left him counting the days to freedom, despite a psychiatrist rating him as “top league of dangerousness”.

Explaining the appeal, prosecutor Wolters told The Sun: “The supreme court have the power to order a retrial with new judges.

“We believe we have enough evidence Christian Brueckner is guilty and we believe the court will see the judges here have ­misinterpreted the evidence.”

We have witnesses no one knows about. I can’t say which witnesses we have, but we have more witnesses than the two or three from this current case

Mr Wolters went on: “We believe one of the judges had made their minds up before the case even started.

“As soon as we had an indication of this we applied for that judge to be removed, but the request was declined.

“We think there is a case to show bias among the judges and we believe we can show that.”

During the trial Brueckner was accused of breaking into a flat in Portugal.

An Irish woman, then aged 20, said she was raped by a masked man — and identified Brueckner by his “piercing eyes”.

We think there is a case to show bias among the judges and we believe we can show that

He was cleared of that, and separately of raping a girl of 14 and an elderly British woman.

He was also cleared of grabbing a child and performing a sex act on himself, near Praia da Luz weeks before Madeleine was abducted there aged three.

Brueckner has never been formally accused over her disappearance.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30952688/madeleine-mccann-update-christian-brueckner/