Christian Brückner rape trial adjourned over magistrate’s call for ‘assassination of Bolsonaro’
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A sex crimes trial of the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was adjourned on Friday morning after one of the magistrates was found to have called for the assassination of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
Christian Brückner appeared in a German court to face three counts of rape and two of child sexual abuse.
He is already serving a seven-year sentence for raping an American pensioner in the Algarve resort town where three-year-old Madeleine went missing in 2007.
But the first day of the trial ended in chaos after just an hour when it emerged that Britta Thielen-Donckel, one of the lay judges sitting in the case, had posted on social media calling for the Brazilian to be killed.
Mr Bolsonaro was president from 2019 to 2022. A conservative populist, his supporters stormed federal buildings in January 2023 after his defeat in the presidential election. He is banned from holding public office until 2030 for making false claims about voter fraud in that election.
Presiding judge Christina Engelmann ruled the posts made Ms Thielen-Donckel unfit to take part.
The trial has now been adjourned until Feb 23 so a replacement magistrate can be found.
German and Portuguese prosecutors have named Brückner as the main suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance in 2007.
He has denied any involvement and has not been formally charged.
Brückner, a convicted paedophile, wore a grey suit jacket over a purple shirt with black trousers and brown shoes after being driven from prison to the court in Braunschweig, northern Germany, in the back of a police van.
The 47-year-old did not speak in court as he appeared in the dock for the first time to face the five fresh charges.
He could be given a maximum sentence of 15 years – on top of his current sentence which is due to end in 2027 – if found guilty in a trial expected to last four months and involve 26 separate hearings.
But he could remain in prison indefinitely on grounds of public safety.
Brückner is accused of raping a woman aged between 70 and 80 at her Algarve holiday apartment on an unspecified date between December 2000 and April 2006.
He is also being prosecuted over an alleged 2004 rape of a 20-year-old woman who was working in the Algarve.
Prosecutors say he filmed both rapes on a video camera and that two friends later found the footage. Both are expected to testify against him as witnesses.
Brückner is facing a third charge of rape against a German-speaking girl who was aged at least 14.
The incident is said to have occurred at his house in Praia da Luz on an unspecified date between December 2000 and April 2006.
The fourth charge involves alleged sexual abuse of a German girl, 10, on an Algarve beach in April 2007 and the fifth concerns a Portuguese girl, 11, who he is accused of forcing to watch a sex act at a playground in June 2017.
He is also being tried for defamation against prison officers who he termed “torturers” for leaving him in solitary confinement.
Brückner said last night that his new trial is “ridiculous” as he made his first public comments on the case.
“I hope [they] will find some answers to [their] questions soon,” he told MailOnline.
Friedrich Fulscher, his lawyer, added that he is “aiming for a full acquittal” on all charges.
The first day of the trial had been expected to focus on procedural matters.
McCann was on a family holiday to the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz in May 2007 when she disappeared from her bedroom while her parents were dining with friends.
Brückner was living in a campervan nearby at the time.
German prosecutors have said they believe she is dead.
