Christian Brueckner: Suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance fears for safety from inmates and guards
BRAUNSCHWEIG, GERMANY: Christian Brueckner, the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has been whining about his new trial and the prison conditions he faces.
The convicted sex offender claims that the police are playing games with him and trying to make him admit to crimes he did not commit.
Christian Brueckner’s complaints and fears
A source told The Sun that Brueckner has been “moaning a lot” about the impact of his trial on his mental and physical health.
He also fears for his safety from other inmates and his guards, whom he calls “punishers.”
“He thinks he is paraded as part of a game the police are playing and that the whole thing is just designed to try and make him crack up. He knows the police want him to confess to things he’s not responsible for,” the source said.
The source added that Brueckner feels isolated and has no sympathy from anyone except his legal team, who have raised concerns about the “awful” conditions he is enduring behind bars.
Christian Brueckner is forever moaning about his cell and the risk he is at
The source further told the outlet that Brueckner is constantly moaning and fears that other inmates might harm him in the prison.
“He’s forever moaning about his cell and the risk he is at from other inmates,” the source said.
Brueckner’s lawyer, Dr Friedrich Fulscher, has also previously complained about his client’s deteriorating health, blaming the media for his stress.
“He’s been two years in solitary confinement, so of course he is not healthy. He is in poor physical health,” Dr Fülscher said.
He said that Brueckner found the media attention “extremely stressful” because they were only interested in the Madeleine case, not his current one.
Christian Brueckner Brueckner’s trial and charges
Brueckner, 47, appeared in court on Friday, handcuffed and with a blank expression, to face a series of violent sex crimes in Portugal, where Madeleine went missing in 2007.
However, the trial was adjourned after only nine minutes, when a judge’s tweet calling for the killing of the former Brazilian president and an animal abuser was read out in court, Independent reported.
The court will decide next week whether the lay judge should be removed from the case.
Brueckner’s trial is not directly related to the McCann case, but the police are hoping that some of the witnesses might reveal a link between the two.
The current charges against Brueckner stem from the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance. He is accused of raping three women and sexually abusing children in Portugal on several occasions.
One of his alleged victims is Hazel Behan, an Irish woman who says he raped her when she was 20 and working as a holiday rep in Portugal in 2004.
He is also charged with raping and abusing a teenage girl and an elderly woman at his home in Praia da Luz, the same resort where Madeleine vanished, between 2000 and 2006.
Additionally, he is accused of masturbating in front of two girls, one at a playground and one at a beach, in 2007 and 2017.
Brueckner is already serving a seven-year sentence for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005.
He faces up to 15 more years in prison if convicted of the new charges. He denies all the allegations against him.
