The German man suspected of having a hand in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a British toddler who was abducted in Portugal in 2007, may remain mostly silent during his upcoming trial in Germany for unrelated sexual offenses, according to his lawyer. Christian Brückner is set to appear in court on February 16 for five crimes committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. Currently, he is serving a seven-year jail term for rape, but he has never been accused of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance. Brückner has denied any wrongdoing in the McCann case.
Madeleine McCann went on vacation with her family at Praia da Luz’s Ocean Club in the Algarve when she vanished when she was just three years old. Brückner was named as an official suspect by Portuguese authorities in 2022 and had already been identified as a suspect by German prosecutors in 2020 under the name Christian B.
Brückner’s public defender, Friedrich Fülscher, indicated that he did not anticipate his client making “substantial submissions” during the Braunschweig trial in Lower Saxony, which could possible last months. Fülscher added that there would “be no negative consequences” sourced from Brückner’s silence. He said that “whether a defendant declares ‘I have nothing to do with it,’ ‘I am innocent’ or the like, or whether he uses his right to remain silent, leads to the same result in criminal proceedings.” Despite Brückner staying silent, he would still be required to confirm basic identifying information.
Brückner faces five charges, including the raping of a 70- to 80-year-old woman in a vacation home in Portugal between 2000 and 2006, and the raping of a girl who was at least 14 years old at his Praia da Luz home during that same time period. Brückner is currently serving time for a 2005 rape in Portugal, and his new trial will decide whether he will remain incarcerated after serving his jail time
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