Laurence Dollimore
MADELEINE McCann suspect Christian Brueckner will spend at least four months in the dock for a series of alleged rapes and sexual assaults, the Olive Press can reveal.
The convicted paedophile, 46, will have his first day in court on February 16 at the Braunschweig High Court in Germany.
He will be tried over five sex crimes, three involving minors.
In a court press release seen by the Olive Press, Brueckner has at least 29 court appearances between February and June.
If all goes to plan his last day in court will be June 27. All hearings are taking place in Court Number ‘141’.
A spokesman Lisa Rust, pointed out, ‘more details’ would be given out in December. The press release adds that the accused ‘is presumed innocent until proven guilty by law.’
His charges include three rapes, one of Irish woman, Hazel Behan, who was just 20 when she was allegedly attacked during a four-hour ordeal in Portugal.
Two other rapes are understood to have been filmed at the small farmhouse he rented just outside Praia da Luz, the same resort where Madeleine McCann was snatched in May 2007.
The alleged victims were a young teenage girl and an elderly woman in her late 50s or 60s, both of whom were allegedly tied to a post in the living room.
He is also accused of sexually assaulting a young German girl, 10, on a beach near Praia da Luz, a month before Madeleine went missing.
During the broad-daylight attack on Zalema beach, a naked Brueckner allegedly firstly spoke in English, then German, before clambering away up a steep slope in full sight of the girl’s parents.
A further sexual assault on four children also allegedly took place in Portugal in 2017.
During on midsummer incident in Sao Bartolomeo de Messines, Brueckner allegedly flashed and masturbated in front of children as they played in a park around midnight.
An off-duty female officer was fortunately nearby and was able to detain him before discovering there was a European arrest warrant out for him.
The following year he was tried and found guilty of the horrific, sadistic rape of an American pensioner, also in Praia da Luz, in 2005.
He is currently serving seven years for the offence, after one of his hairs was found in the 72-year-old’s bedroom.
In the case of Hazel Behan, in Portimao, in 2004, the evidence was illegally destroyed, for no explained reason, within two years.
“We expect Hazel to be giving her evidence for a couple of days and then it will be the turn of the other victims and witnesses,” prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said this week.
“The court will have translators in various languages and will be fully prepared.
“An official press release with all the details will be issued shortly.”
Meanwhile, he brushed off the official complaint issued to the court last week by Brueckner’s lawyer over key witness, Helge Busching, a former acquaintance of the German sex offender, to whom he allegedly confessed the Maddie abduction to in 2008.
“It will not be a problem at all, don’t worry. I spoke to Helge yesterday and it’s only an attempt to paint him in a bad picture,” said Wolters.
“We understand the issue and he will be fine.”
He also confirmed that the investigation ‘very much continues’ into the Maddie case and he expects a trial date for the abduction to be ‘set soon’.
“It’s certainly ongoing and I’m heavily involved, but the focus right now is on the trial in February,” he added.
One of Brueckner’s alleged victims, Hazel Behan, now 40, revealed she had been given the trial date last week when two German detectives visited her to go through the ‘fine details’.
She confirmed she was given the start date as February 16 and that the trial could last ‘for three months’.
“They came over to Dublin and we spent a day going through all the logistics,” she said.
“They are well advanced and extremely organized and are taking no chances with my safety.
“I will be taken over to Germany a day or two before I give evidence and kept, carefully guarded until I get to court. Nobody will be allowed to get near me. Not even my husband can come with me.”
She added: “I can’t wait to finally look my attacker in the eyes and see him face justice.”
Brueckner’s lawyer, Friedrich Fulscher, has continually denied all the attacks and wants to see the Diana Menkes rape conviction re-opened.
