The new Madeleine McCann suspect unmasked a day ago has been on the police radar for more than 20 years, and could be let out of jail on parole within days, it has emerged.
The new Madeleine McCann suspect unmasked a day ago has been on the police radar for more than 20 years, and could be let out of jail on parole within days, it has emerged.
Christian Brückner, the main suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, is on trial in Germany for sex offences.
Prosecutors seek a 15-year sentence, citing Brückner's "sadistic" behaviour and graphic rape fantasies.
Brückner is already serving seven years for raping American pensioner Diana Menkes in Portugal in 2005.
WARNING: CONTAINS DISTURBING CONTENT
The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is a “sadistic psychopath” who should be sentenced to 15 years in prison for sex offences he is alleged to have carried out in Portugal, prosecutors argued on Wednesday.
Christian Brückner, a convicted paedophile and rapist, is currently on trial in Braunschweig, northern Germany, over a series of alleged sex offences, which includes three separate cases of rape and two cases of indecent exposure in front of children.
The charges are unconnected to Madeleine’s disappearance, which Brückner denies any involvement in.
Brückner “got a kick” out of the suffering of his victims by tormenting and humiliating them, Ute Lindemann, the chief public prosecutor, told the court on Wednesday.
The messages were considered to be so graphic by Dr Christian Riedeman, a forensic psychiatrist, that they could not be referred to in court.
They were revealed by Lindemann, who told the court on Wednesday that Brückner allegedly fantasised about kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old mother and her young daughter.
According to Lindemann, Brückner said to the child victim: “Are you afraid? Good. Because I am going to really hurt you.”
This undated handout image supplied by the Carabinieri Milano shows a police mug shot of Christian Brueckne. Photo / Getty Images
Direct link between fantasy and reality
The prosecutor argued there was a direct link between the details of Brückner’s fantasies and the rape of Hazel Behan, who was attacked in her Praia da Rocha apartment in the Algarve in 2004.
Brückner asked Behan if she was afraid in that attack.
The 47-year-old is also accused of raping a teenage girl at his Praia da Luz home, raping an elderly woman in her apartment, and exposing himself to two young girls in 2007.
“It’s about the excitement of getting an innocent person and enjoying tormenting and subjugating them. His core fantasies are defenceless female victims. These rapes were all carried out by the one person – the accused,” the prosecutor argued.
Lindemann’s final plea to the judge came after Riedeman described the accused as being “in the absolute top league of dangerousness” in court last week.
The forensic psychiatrist said he had diagnosed Brückner with a “sexual preference disorder” and said he had “sadistic and paedophilic elements”. Specifically, he told the court Brückner gained a sense of satisfaction from tormenting and humiliating women.
He added that there was “a 30 to 50% probability” that the accused could commit further crimes within two years if he were to be released from prison.
Brückner is currently serving a seven-year prison term for raping American pensioner Diana Menkes in Portugal in 2005, but could be freed next year if he is found to be innocent at the end of the current trial.
The chief prosecutor had tried to have Ute Insa Engemann, the head judge, removed from the case, accusing her of being biased in favour of the defence.
“It is my conviction that the chamber will not seriously interest itself in my opinion because it has already expressed that it is set on an acquittal for the accused,” the prosecutor told the court.
She accused the judge of showing so much “aggression” when interviewing a police witness that after a five-hour interview, he apparently did not know what he was saying and “would have confessed to killing his own grandmother”.
Brückner’s trial had been expected to finish in December but could now be over in a matter of days, as the judge revealed she could announce her verdict next Tuesday.
