A good, concise article in the Times which answers some of the questions I had about this. Let’s pray that if it does go to court it’s in Germany and not Portugal (where he’d probably walk free, be allowed to prosecute the McCcanns for allowing him to kidnap their child instead and then write a best selling book about his ordeal).
What happens next to Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brückner?
Peter Conradi
Saturday June 06 2020, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
The emergence of Christian Brückner, 43, as a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case follows a joint operation by police in Britain, Portugal and Germany.
Where is Brückner?
In jail in Kiel, northern Germany, serving 21 months for dealing drugs on the holiday island of Sylt. The sentence, handed down in 2011, was initially suspended, but in 2016 he was convicted of sexual offences involving a child and the following year of grievous bodily harm and so was then obliged to serve the drug sentence.
Last December he was given a further seven years after he was convicted by a court in Brunswick, Lower Saxony, of raping a 72-year-old American widow at her beachside home in Praia da Luz in September 2005, about 20 months before Madeleine McCann’s disappearance. It was his 17th conviction. The woman, who returned to America, has not been named.
Brückner has appealed to Germany’s Federal Criminal Court against the rape verdict, which is therefore not yet legally binding. The matter has been passed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He was extradited to Germany from Italy, to which he had fled in 2018, under a European arrest warrant.
With two-thirds of his drug sentence served, Brückner is eligible for parole. This is not automatic, however, and German legal experts have said that it is extremely unlikely that someone suspected of murder would be released early.
When could he be charged?
Brückner was revealed to be a suspect on last Wednesday’s edition of Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst (File XY Unsolved), the German equivalent of Crimewatch — even though his name was not given.
In fact Brückner appears to have become a suspect in the case as long ago as 2013 after British detectives appeared on the same German television programme. According to Der Spiegel, a viewer then gave a tip to police in Brunswick, where Brückner was at the time running a kiosk. Police had passed the tip on to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation but “it was apparently not acted upon, much to the consternation of the local investigators”, the magazine claimed.
Seven years on, Brückner has yet to be charged over Madeleine’s murder, apparently because there is insufficient evidence — which explains the decision to go on the programme again. “It is not enough for an arrest warrant or an indictment,” admitted Hans Wolters, from the public prosecutors office in Brunswick. Police have released photographs of the suspect and of the exterior and interior of his former home in Portugal.
Under German law, prosecutors are free to question Brückner about the McCann case, but it is thought that they have not yet done so. Judging by his past behaviour, he is unlikely to be co-operative when they do.
Legal experts were surprised that Christian Hoppe, of the Federal Criminal Police Office, who appeared on the programme, explicitly described the case as murder rather than as a missing person inquiry, as it has hitherto been treated by Scotland Yard. “That is very unusual,” said Arndt Kempgens, a German criminal lawyer who is following the case. “That can only mean they have found something else that they haven’t made public. Otherwise they would have spoken about a missing person.” It is thought that this something else could be photographs or information from other prisoners.
The German Madeleine
Inga went missing five years ago
Brückner has also been investigated in connection with the case of Inga Gehricke, a blonde five-year-old who disappeared on May 2, 2015, during a get-together in the woods with two other families near Stendal, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The parallels with the McCann case are striking. Inga’s parents initially thought their daughter had run into the forest to collect wood for a campfire. More than 100 police searched in vain for her for four days. Despite five years of public appeals and a reward of €25,000 for information leading to her whereabouts, Inga has not been found.
Brückner, registered as living 30 miles away in Brunswick at the time, was questioned the following February in connection with a piece of land he owned in Neuwegersleben, about 55 miles from where Inga disappeared. The land has a derelict former crate factory on it.
A passer-by came across some bones — apparently of Brückner’s labrador — buried there and alerted the police. In a bag they found a USB stick with pornographic image of children and a picture of Brückner naked.
Neighbours reported seeing him at the site most days in the three months leading up to Inga’s disappearance; he also appeared to have lived there for some time in an old caravan.
Investigators ended their investigation into any connections between Brückner and the Inga case after four weeks. It has since emerged that the day before her disappearance Brückner had been involved in a minor car accident at a motorway service area near Helmstedt, between Brunswick and Stendal, according to a local newspaper. On Friday state prosecutors in Saxony-Anhalt said they would reopen the investigation.
Third possible victim
Brückner is also suspected in connection with the disappearance of a German boy, Rene Hasee, 6, from a beach on the Algarve on June 21, 1996 — just months after Brückner had moved to the area.
The boy’s family, from Elsdorf, in North Rhine-Westphalia, had been on holiday in Aljezur, 25 miles from Praia da Luz. His father, Andreas, was contacted on Friday by police — the first time they had been in touch for 20 years. “There could be a connection,” he told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper. Rene had been running ahead of his mother and step-father on the beach on their way for a swim when they lost sight of him.
Although a body has not been found, Hasee said he had long since accepted that his son drowned, but told the paper: “He was actually also a very careful child. He would not have easily climbed into the Atlantic alone.”
Brückner was convicted of sexual offences involving a child in 2016
Where could he go on trial?
Under German law citizens may be tried either in the county where they allegedly committed a crime — in this case Portugal — or in the country in which they were arrested, namely Germany. The German and Portuguese authorities would decide between them.
If it were agreed to hold proceedings in Germany, the trial would be in a Schwurgericht (court of assizes), before three judges, assisted by two lay judges. Proceedings would be in public, although parts, such as those relating to sexual abuse, could be held in camera. The court may also visit the scene of the crime.
Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, along with other people who were in Praia da Luz at the time of her disappearance, would be witnesses. The couple would also probably want to take advantage of a provision in German law allowing them to be Nebenkläger (co-plaintiffs) alongside the state.
This would allow them to put questions to the defendant themselves, heightening the courtroom drama. If convicted of murder in Germany, Brückner could face life imprisonment, which would mean a minimum of 15 years in jail.
@Peter_Conradi
