German prisoner identified as suspect

[honestbroker1]

With thanks to Lilly at Websleuths:

https://oberlandesgericht-braunschweig. ... 25563.html

Looks as if eveything is back on track, except delayed by Herr Fulscher's attempt to derail court proceedings.

[sal]

^^
Already posted on previous page HB

[honestbroker1]

^^
Already posted on previous page HB

Yes, sorry Sal.

[sal]

BILD EXPLAINS THE LEGAL CONFUSION SURROUNDING CHRISTIAN BRÜCKNER

https://www.bild.de/news/inland/news-in ... .bild.html

[honestbroker1]

BILD EXPLAINS THE LEGAL CONFUSION SURROUNDING CHRISTIAN BRÜCKNER

https://www.bild.de/news/inland/news-in ... .bild.html

Sal, could you copy and past the article, please?

I can't open the link on my browser.

Thanks.

Finally made it and have bookmarked the link:

From the link:

There are still no charges in sight in the Madeleine case.

According to Wolters, it is theoretically possible that the investigation into Maddie would be completed and charges brought against Brückner before the proceedings in the Hazel B. case were completed: “Both proceedings run independently of each other and have hardly anything in common apart from the accused. “

[honestbroker1]

BILD EXPLAINS THE LEGAL CONFUSION SURROUNDING CHRISTIAN BRÜCKNER

https://www.bild.de/news/inland/news-in ... .bild.html

Sal, could you copy and past the article, please?

I can't open the link on my browser.

Thanks.

Finally made it and have bookmarked the link:

From the link:

There are still no charges in sight in the Madeleine case.

According to Wolters, it is theoretically possible that the investigation into Maddie would be completed and charges brought against Brückner before the proceedings in the Hazel B. case were completed: “Both proceedings run independently of each other and have hardly anything in common apart from the accused. “

Going by strict order of chronology, Brueckner's trial for the rape of Hazel should occur before his trial for the abduction of Madeleine, because Hazel was raped in 2004.

But I'm unsure it's quite as straightforward as that, because the Germans became the leading ivestigating force in the Madeleine case quite late on, taking over from the Portuguese police and Scotland Yard.

I suppose it entirely depends which of the two strands of independent enquiries into separate crimes is completed first that will determine the order in which the trials are held.

[honestbroker1]

A point to add to the above post, which I can't, now, edit:

A point those who cite the length of time the Madeleine investigation has taken to come to fruition as evidence of a "stalling" enquiry should take note of is that the investigation into Hazel's rape began 3 years before Madeleine was abducted and has still, not, been prosecuted.

[honestbroker1]

Found this at, of all places, Haverns, though without the link:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/m ... r-31019102

Brazen Christian Brueckner, being investigated over Madeleine McCann's 2007 disappearance in Portugal, attempted to play for time by trying to get the investigation moved

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has failed to have investigators thrown off his case and now cannot delay his trial, it has been reported.

p.a.e.dophile and violent s-e-x offender Christian Brueckner, who is currently in a German prison on drugs charges, tried to put his court date back but has lost his legal bid, it has been claimed. His lawyers attempted to play for time by getting the probe switched to another region.

But now it appears have been knocked back, and that means police can push forward with their bid to take the 46-year-old to trial. Had his team been able to gain support, it could have set the case back years. It comes as police and prosecutors said this summer they are "electrified" by new evidence against him.

Christian Brueckner
Christian Brueckner's lawyers hoped to delay a trial and buy him time ( Image: REX/Shutterstock)
has been missing since May 2007
Madeleine McCann has been missing since May 2007 since vanishing in Portugal ( Image: PA)
He is said to have boasted about owning the tools for breaking into people's homes to a pal, which could derail the long-held theory that little Madeleine's abductor clambered through a window before snatching her from her room in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Investigator Hans-Christian Wolters told The Sun: “This is a relief for us. It is always nice when you get an affirmation of the way you had seen things. The Regional Court here had said Christian B’s last residence has been in Saxony-Anhalt, and therefore we were not the correct investigative jurisdiction for this case. "We appealed to the Higher Regional Court.”

Brueckner's lawyer Friedrich Fülscher said: “The decision must be accepted at this point. What now needs to happen is the Regional Court must decide whether the degree of suspicion we have against Christian B is sufficient to hold a trial. If yes, they need to set the date for a hearing.”

Brueckner can be charged over alleged s-e-x offences carried out in Portugal, a court ruled last week. He is being probed by a team of prosecutors and detectives over the British youngster’s 2007 disappearance in Portugal. He was already awaiting trial for a string of rapes and child sexual assaults allegedly committed in the country. Those charges were dramatically dropped in April after a German court ruling over who had jurisdiction in the case.

The charges had been filed by prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig because he previously lived there in 2016. But Mr Fuelscher argued that he was actually living in Neuwegersleben, Lower-Saxony. Braunschweig Regional Court ruled in favour of Brueckner, 46, saying it had no jurisdiction over the case.

Mr Fuelscher claimed the probe into Madeleine’s disappearance also needed to be shelved as a result of the judges’ decision. The decision was a devastating blow for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry and raised fears Brueckner could walk free. But yesterday the Higher Regional Court overturned the ruling, saying Braunschweig prosecutors have jurisdiction after all.

It means he will now have to answer five Portuguese charges, which were first filed last October, and could stand trial. The s-e-x crimes were all allegedly carried out in the Algarve between 2000 and 2017. They include the alleged rape of an Irish tour rep, who was attacked in her apartment Praia da Rocha in 2004.

Brueckner is also accused with raping a teenage girl in his Praia da Luz home and raping an elderly woman in her holiday apartment. He also faces two child s-e-x charges for allegedly exposing himself to girls in separate incidents in the Algarve ten years apart. The German has not been charged in the Madeleine case - which is ongoing - but remains the only suspect.

That sounds much more encouraging.

Herr Wolters seems to be up to all Herr Fulscher's tricks.

[honestbroker1]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ckner.html

(Sic):

Brueckner, 45, who is currently languishing in a German prison for the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal, could now face a trial over a string of alleged s-e-x offences committed between 2000 and 2017.

Including crimes committed before Madeleine was abducted; even (some of them) before she was born.

[sal]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/24217791/ ... eged-rape/

[Whiterose]

Thanks sal

Another step closer to getting justice for Hazel.

[honestbroker1]

From way back it has been Fulscher's demand that Wolters show him the evidence he has against his client.

Perhaps Wolters has done just that, and Fulscher's response was to abandon attempts at challenging the case; instead, try to get proceedings derailed by raising querulous quibbles about where Brueckner was, or was not, living.

Of course, no matter what the outcome of legal proceedings, Fulscher will shrug and move on. All lawyers do. It isn't personal. They just do the best they can by their client, win or lose, shrug and move on.

[sal]

Christian Brueckner, the German suspected of having killed the English girl Maddie McCann, in May 2007, in the Algarve, begins his trial in February. According to 'Expresso' online, the process is taking place at the Braunschweig court. Brueckner is accused of three rapes and two crimes of sexual abuse
of children, committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
c d m

[Whiterose]

Thanks sal.

[honestbroker1]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ldren.html

Trial date for matters unrelated to Madeleine set.

[honestbroker1]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... trial.html

[honestbroker1]

https://news.sky.com/story/plot-to-kidn ... d-13066078

[honestbroker1]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/m ... w-32217506

[honestbroker1]

Really not sure what to make of this.

If Herr Wolters has solved the case and the culprit is in custoy, why does SY need extra funding? Unless that is a contingency against the case against Brueckner collapsing.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... grant.html

[honestbroker1]

Today's Times

It is “entirely plausible” that Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, abducted the British toddler, one of his former associates has told a court.

Brueckner, 47, a convicted p.a.e.dophile, is on trial in Germany for an alleged series of unrelated sexual offences against five women and young girls.

Prosecutors believe he also kidnapped Madeleine, who was three at the time, from her parents’ holiday apartment on the Algarve in 2007.

However, they have yet to charge him in her case and Brueckner has repeatedly protested his innocence.

Christian Brueckner is on trial for an alleged series of unrelated sexual offences
Christian Brueckner is on trial for an alleged series of unrelated sexual offences
AFP
The investigators may draw some encouragement from Christian Post, a former friend of Brueckner, who testified against him in the trial at Braunschweig regional court on Thursday.


Post, 56, who now lives in Cambodia, had previously told the press he was “100 per cent certain” that Brueckner was the culprit.

Christian Post previously told police he was “certain” that Brueckner had abducted Madeleine
Christian Post previously told police he was “certain” that Brueckner had abducted Madeleine
MIRRORPIX
This time, however, was the first occasion that he had confirmed his suspicions under oath, saying that it would be entirely consistent with Brueckner’s character if he had abducted the toddler.

The pair came to know each other through the German ex-pat community in southern Portugal, where Brueckner lived on and off for years, committing crimes.

These included the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist, for which he is serving a seven-year prison sentence.

Brueckner and Post first met at a bar. “I realised [Brueckner] was interested in forging passports so that he could generate an income,” Post said.

“And later on — I’m not sure whether it was the same day — he said that during the night he was ‘active’ in Praia da Luz [the town where Madeleine disappeared], and would climb up buildings when the window was open and would then take stuff.”

Madeleine McCann was three when she disappeared during a family holiday in Praia da Luz
Madeleine McCann was three when she disappeared during a family holiday in Praia da Luz
PA
Post, who played the keyboard at local bars and festivals, said he had visited Brueckner during his previous spells in prison, bringing him tangerines filled with vodka at his request.

On one occasion Brueckner asked Post to take his dogs and leave them on the outskirts of a village so they could be found and cared for by locals, the court heard.

[honestbroker1]

y

Rainer Burkard and Jon Clarke in Braunschweig

A CLOSE friend of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner sought by police as a witness in the case has finally broken his silence.

Ralph H – a self-confessed ‘accomplice’ of the p.a.e.dophile – revealed Brueckner, 47, is a ‘very sick man’ and is certain he knows ‘what happened to Maddie’.

“Christian has two faces; the face of a good guy and the face of the monster!” he told the Olive Press.

“He’s a career criminal and simply knows no boundaries.

“Believe me, I’ve known him for years, sold drugs with him, robbed homes with him… Even stole solar panels from the side of the motorway!

“He’s a very sick man and definitely has a thing about children…And while he told me he doesn’t want to talk about the Maddie case, I’m sure he knows something!”


Ralph H says former friend Christian Brueckner is a ‘monster’
Speaking from his home in the Kennelblick allotment community, in Braunschweig, Germany, where Brueckner also rented a home for three years, he continued: “We spent a lot of time together.

“The route to his house led directly past mine so he often stopped by for a chat.”

Ralph H, a local career criminal, met Brueckner soon after he rented his quirky blue gingerbread-style home in 2013.

He added: “I liked him at first. He was always happy to help undertake repairs on my house and other neighbours’ nearby.

“He was constantly bringing (stolen) stuff in and letting everyone use it, things like space hoppers, where you bounce around doing jumps.

“He once gave us small remote-controlled helicopters, everyone got one, it was difficult to fly them, but it was a lot of fun.”

It is the first published interview with Ralph H, 49, since armed police swooped on his home to grill him over his links to the s-e-x offender a fortnight ago.


Ralph H’s house (pictured) was visited by police who wanted to quiz him over his links to Brueckner (COPYRIGHT OLIVE PRESS SPAIN/RAINER BURKARD)
Making world headlines, he had been forced to flee to a friend’s home in nearby Wolfenbuttel and has been lying low ever since.

Wrongly labelled a ‘suspect’ in the Maddie case, up to ten armed police had actually knocked on his door to interview him about Brueckner voluntarily.

While they surrounded his house, they did not have a search warrant… and unsurprisingly he has spent little time there since.

“I still hope we can talk to Ralph H about what he knows about Christian B,” prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters, told the Olive Press this week.

The lawyer – who is preparing to prosecute Brueckner over the abduction of Maddie, then three, in Portugal in 2007 – added: “I gave all the information (on Ralph) to the BKA, but I’ve had no response to date.


Former house of Christian Brueckner (COPYRIGHT OLIVE PRESS SPAIN/ RAINER BURKARD)
“Officially we don’t want to say any more about this special witness.”

Ralph himself is adamant however, he will ‘not help the police’ and has now got a lawyer.

“Where I grew up, anyone who goes to the police is out of the community,” he explained.

Speaking from the garden of his small allotment cottage, his words offer a unique insight into the psyche of the long-time s-e-x offender Brueckner, currently facing five other s-e-x assault charges, three of them rapes, at Braunschweig High Court.

While stopping short of openly admitting being a p.a.e.dophile and s-e-x offender, Brueckner frequently alluded to it, claims Ralph.

“He had an inner restlessness and was always in financial trouble, despite all the drugs he dealt around the area,” explained Ralph, who grew up in a tough suburb of Braunschweig.

“He also stole a lot and I sometimes drove him to his burglaries and waited in the car.


In the dock: Brueckner at first day of current trial in Germany (CREDIT: OLIVE PRESS SPAIN)
“He would steal everything he could. One time from the hardware store, other times the grocery store. He would work out the parts of shops where there were no cameras.

“He even dismantled solar panels on the highway in broad daylight. He would put on one of those protective yellow vests like a workman and just get on with it.

“We also dismantled entire rows of fences at a trade fair in Hanover, and walked off with them.

“A lot are still here today around my house and at Christian’s own allotment garden.”

As to his involvement in crime, Ralph doesn’t try to hide it.

“Of course I also liked to earn a few euros on the side and so I became his accomplice,” he admitted.

“It bonded us together; he knew he could rely on me and reliability creates trust.”

It was this trust that allowed Ralph to finally see a different deeper side of Brueckner… and learn about his harrowing upbringing and darker crimes.

“Christian told me about his childhood in Wurzburg,” he continued. “How he missed his biological mother who gave him away and his violent stepfather and the lock-up punishments in the cellar.”

MaddieMcCann e
Madeleine McCann vanished from Portugal in 2007
It caused him ‘to die mentally’ and he had to ‘develop survival strategies’ he told Ralph.

“He developed an inner and an outer demeanour. Two faces exactly,” he explained.

“And violence, of course, begets violence. And as he grew older and taller, Christian took advantage of his physical strength and began to get what he wanted by force. And once Christian got going, there was no stopping him.”

He went on to tell Ralph about his many youth sentences and his aborted apprenticeship as a mechanic.

Then about his ‘escape’ to Portugal, where his ‘talents’ as a criminal came into their own.

“He met the right crooks in Portugal, he sold drugs at festivals and met a German woman with (a similar) criminal energy.”

He explained how this woman, who became his girlfriend, was able to get them into the homes of the wealthy and always ‘knew where the money was’, on one occasion leading to the theft of €100,000.

Ralph claimed: “She got work in these wealthy households as a babysitter, scouted them out then organised them to be robbed or burgled. She couldn’t get enough of it”.

Christian was her perfect accomplice, a good burglar who could get into any hotel to steal passports and other items, he alleged.

“Then this fine lady had the contacts to discreetly turn into money,” explained Ralph.

“She was a real ice-cold angel, and Christian told me he needed a strong, guiding hand like that. And she even supported his sexual preferences,” he continued.

“I didn’t know his thing was little girls at first, it just came out later when I started to ask questions!

“Of course he kept avoiding the topic, but it slowly became obvious.

“In any case, I knew he was sick. Take the time he undressed his girlfriend naked in the gardens, allowing everyone to touch her.

“It was awful and while everyone was drunk and laughing their heads off, the poor girl was clearly upset and crying.

“I quickly intervened and grabbed him to put an end to it there and then.

“He was initially angry with me about it, but then he calmed down and let her go home. Thankfully, she had soon left him, helped by some other friends.”

From that day Ralph grew increasingly suspicious of Brueckner, particularly after he was accused of raping a pensioner, 72, to which he was found guilty and given a seven-year sentence in 2020.

Police had already found child pornography on a camera at his kiosk and a mutual friend was investigated for child p*rn, AFTER Brueckner had been surfing on his laptop.

“I realised he had an even darker soul than I could have imagined, particularly when I discovered he had pimped his own girlfriend as a whore on the internet.

“Clearly nothing was sacred to him and it was then I started to ask him repeatedly about Maddie’s disappearance.

“I bombarded him with questions about the case and could see he was lying.

“He didn’t want to talk about it and kept avoiding it.

“But I didn’t let up and suddenly he lost his nerve and dropped his guard for a moment and brought up the Maddie case, and that was that, I really grilled him on it.

“He shuffled around and then finally replied irritably: ‘Actually I don’t want to say anything about that’.

“It was obvious he knew something and had just stopped short of opening up.”

He continued: “I didn’t give up however and I drove him into a corner asking him about the child p*rn and why he needed three computers at his kiosk.

“Eventually he snapped, became really aggressive and then suddenly he left and climbed over my garden fence without a word and ran away. …and that was that, our friendship was over.”

All that’s left for Ralph, who was brought up in a red light district surrounded by petty criminals, is to look back and try and figure out just what exactly ‘makes Christian tick’.

“When I analyse my friendship with him there’s nothing good I can take away, but one thing is also clear: Christian wasn’t born a monster, he was made that way, I’m sure of that!”

German investigators believe Brueckner abducted and murdered Madeleine McCann from her holiday home in Praia da Luz, in Portugal, though no charges have been filed against him.

His current trial in Braunschweig involves three rapes and two counts of sexual abuse against children in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

Brueckner denies all the charges as well as any involvement in the Maddie case.

The trial continues next week.

[Whiterose]

I bet he knows a lot more than he is saying

[honestbroker1]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... s-32624670

[honestbroker1]

Todday's Telegraph

An email account which links rapist Christian Brückner to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been discovered by police, a German court was told yesterday.

Titus Stampa, a police detective, said investigators found a Hotmail account and hard drive belonging to Brückner which were “related to the killing”, referring to her 2007 disappearance.

“An external hard drive also belonging to the killing case, and I am not allowed to talk about it,” he told a court in Braunschweig, in comments reported by the Daily Mirror, during a trial of Brückner on unrelated s-e-x offences.

He declined to give any further details, such as of any photographs or video files which implicated Brückner, who was identified in 2020 by German authorities as a suspect in the case of McCann’s disappearance.

It is the first time German authorities have disclosed some detail of the evidence they hold against Brückner in the McCann case.

Mr Stampa, who said he could not further discuss the email account as it was related to a different criminal case, went on to describe a second email account in which Brückner shared child abuse content with other predators.

Madeleine McCann went missing in the Algarve, Portugal, in 2007
Madeleine McCann went missing in the Algarve, Portugal, in 2007 CREDIT: PA
He told the court that Brückner had deleted all the emails in that account dating to early 2007, when Madeleine vanished from a hotel resort in Praia da Luz, in Portugal.

“I can remember that things were massively deleted in the inbox. There was nothing in there from January 2007,” he told the court in Braunschweig.

Mr Stampa also referred to an email allegedly written by Brückner involving a fantasy of a young girl and her mother being kidnapped and abused. “It was about violence and brutality and them being abused sexually,” he said.

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Brückner is on trial in Braunschweig facing three charges of rape and two charges of child sexual abuse which are unrelated to the McCann disappearance.

His lawyers say he denies those charges.

If convicted in the Braunschweig trial, he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years on top of his current rape sentence, for which he is due for release at the end of 2025.

Camper van
Brückner was living in a T3 Westfalia camper van near the area where Madeleine, who German prosecutors suspect is dead, disappeared. British detectives say they continue to treat the case as a missing person investigation.

German prosecutors also say that phone records show Brückner receiving a call on May 3 2007 near the Ocean Club resort, where the McCann family had been staying. He insists he was several miles away with a young woman at the time.

Last May, detectives investigating the Madeleine case said they were searching a Portuguese reservoir for more evidence, in the first dig of that nature in Praia de Luz since 2014.

The search of the Arade man-made reservoir, near Silves, ended after three days with investigators taking material from the area for further analysis. Scotland Yard detectives reportedly travelled to Portugal to take part in the search.

Brückner denies any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine and has not been charged with that offence.

His lawyers have said he cannot receive a fair trial in the Braunschweig case as German prosecutors have “created a worldwide sense of pillory against our client”.

He is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping an American pensioner in the same resort town where Madeleine vanished. The trial, which is expected to last until October, continues.