Laurence Dollimore
MADELEINE McCann suspect Christian Brueckner is in the ‘top league’ of dangerous criminals, an expert psychiatrist told a court today.
Dr Christian Riedemann gave his assessment of the German paedophile during his trial at Braunschweig court on Friday.
Brueckner, 47, is being tried for five separate sex offences, including three rapes and two child abuse cases, but not for the disappearance of McCann, although he remains the prime suspect.
Dr Riedemann, 54, told the court that Brueckner belongs ‘in the absolute top league of dangerousness’ and in the ‘top 1% of dangerous criminals’.
He called for the serial rapist to be held in ‘preventative detention’ if convicted, saying the chances of him offending within two years of being released were ‘high’.
Dr Riedemann, boss of the Lower Saxony criminal system, said Brueckner refused to meet with him or answer his questions. He did the same in 2019.
It means he has had to speculate based on the available evidence, which goes back to his first child abuse offence as a teenager.
The expert said, in particular, he had viewed the twisted drawings and diary entries of Brueckner, in which he detailed sexual fantasies involving children.
Dr Riedemann said: “They belong in the top 1% of sexual abnormalities, and I have seen a lot of things.”
The expert said Brueckner likely has a sexual disorder that gives him a preference for sadism and paedophilia.
He said if convicted, Brueckner should be locked up in the interest of public safety.
A fellow prisoner, who shared a cell with Brueckner in 2019/20, told the court this week that he had admitted to snatching children on various occasions.
Romanian cleaner Laurentiu Codin, 50, told the court on Wednesday that he had snatched Maddie from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz.
He added he had also asked his advice on getting fake passports and driving licences and if DNA ‘showed up on bones’.
He added that at least one other prisoner also heard the claims.
Brueckner, who grew up in an abusive foster family, is said to have been beaten by his foster parents and became a criminal early on.
In 1993 he abused a child for the first time, before abusing a second.
In 1994, he was sentenced to two years’ prison for both attacks aged just 17.
But before finishing his three year sentence he fled to Portugal, where he was arrested in 1999 and extradited.
After his stint in prison, he returned to Portugal, taking casual jobs and committing petty crimes, including burglary and drug dealing.
In September 2005, he raped a 72-year-old American woman, but would not be sentenced for the crime until 2019.
He is now accused of having committed three more rapes in Portugal, including that of Irish expat Hazel Behan on June 16, 2004.
The victims in the two other cases have remained anonymous.
British toddler McCann vanished from Praia da Luz in the Algarve in 2007.
Brueckner was living and working in the area at the time of her disappearance and remains the prime suspect in the case.
