Madeleine McCann suspect’s trial on separate charges adjourned

By Oliver Denzer

BRUNSWICK, Germany (Reuters) -The trial of a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann on unrelated sexual abuse charges was adjourned within moments of opening on Friday after the defence cited social media posts indicating a lay judge might be biased.

Barely had suspect Christian Brueckner, handcuffed and wearing a crumpled suit, taken his seat, when the court postponed the trial by a week to rule on whether the lay judge should be removed. The court did not name the judge.

In Tweets, cited by Brueckner’s lawyer, she had allegedly called for the killing of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and of an animal torturer.

“Such a lay judge has no business participating in a fair criminal trial,” defence lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher told reporters outside the court in Brunswick, northern Germany.

German media reported that lawyers also cited the lay judge’s work as a child psychologist as a potential source of bias in a case involving the sexual abuse of several children.

Christian Brueckner, who is already serving a prison term in Germany for raping a woman in the part of Portugal’s Algarve region where McCann went missing, faces three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse of children committed between 2000 and 2017.

Brueckner has denied being involved in McCann’s disappearance in 2007 and has not been charged with any crime related to it.

Among the charges he was due to answer on Friday were the rape of a woman in her 70s in her home in the Algarve, the sexual abuse of a girl aged at least 14, and the 2004 rape, at knifepoint in her home, of a young woman – an act he is accused of recording on video.

“The charges were not read,” said court spokesperson Lisa Rust. “The chamber suspended the hearing.”

Portuguese prosecutors investigating the disappearance of McCann identified as an official suspect a person whose details corresponded to those of Brueckner two years ago.

German police said in June 2020 that McCann was presumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible for it.

McCann disappeared from her bedroom on May 3, 2007, during a family holiday while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt;Editing by Alison Williams, Nick Macfie and Barbara Lewis)