A forensic psychiatrist in Germany dubbed one of the prime suspects in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann a ‘sadistic psychopath’ in court today.
Convicted paedophile and rapist Christian Brueckner, 47, is on trial at the Braunschweig state court in northern Germany over offences he is alleged to have committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
Prosecutor Ute Lindemann argued that Christian should be convicted of two counts of rape and two of sexual abuse, and should be kept in preventive detention after he has served a 15-year sentence, German news agency dpa reported.
Lindemann, who has headed the investigation, has already officially tried to have the current judge, Ute Insa Engemann, removed from the case, claiming that she is biased in favour of the defence.
Today, Lindemann made a plea to Engemann to jail Christian for 15 years for his alleged crimes.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Christian Riedemann, 54, told the court Christian is ‘extremely dangerous’, and added he has a ‘sexual preference disorder’ which also had ‘sadistic and paedophilic elements’.
Christian spent many years in Portugal, including at the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in May 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
He’s currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed in Portugal in 2005.
Brueckner’s lawyer said in February that his client would not respond to the charges, but that he expected an acquittal.
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system and there is no obligation for defendants to respond.
In July, the court lifted an arrest warrant in the cases at stake in the current trial, citing a lack of ‘urgent suspicison’ against the defendant. However, he has remained behind bars because of the sentence he is currently serving.
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