Germany/Portugal - Christian Brueckner, 27 @ time of 1st crime (2004), charged with sexual assault crimes, Praia de Rocha, Portugal. #4

[frank-cole]

Goo

Interesting concept that the proceedings are so dragged out.
It does mean that judges and lawyers have ample time to consider witness statements and prepare further questions at leisure.
Very different to a jury trial where lawyers have to think on their feet and may miss or omit to question some crucial piece of evidence.

Good point, it probably does have an effect. It enables more time to reflect. In a case of a serial sexual offender, involving multiple crimes - perhaps the trial, in 1 block - (4-6 week ish) - reflects the serial nature of the offending and therefore can be displayed more effectively in court. Long gaps could perhaps render evidence & witnesses to be perceived independently rather than taken into wider context of a 1 offender 1 area 5 sex crimes.

My opinion

 

[Lilly b]

A reasonable concept.
But is the process really as dragged out as all that considering that there are five separate trials underway; that days have been expended when questioning took place on unrelated incidents designed to shake the reliability of witnesses, but also to attempt access to the MM files;

• May 2, 2024: Mark Draycott is a Scotland Yard investigator working on the Maddie case. On the twelfth day of the trial, his testimony was heard. He contradicts a statement by key witness Helge B. In addition, it becomes known on this day that the Göttingen Regional Court has rejected the application for a retrial against Christian B. from 2019 as inadmissible.
• March 14, 2024: On the fourth day of the trial, ... Later, the defense filed a motion to be granted access to all investigation files against Christian B. – including the Madeleine McCann case. It is already clear that the trial will probably not end in June, but will take longer.

and there has been at least one delay due to illness.

• May 22, 2024: On day 17, the head of the BKA's operational case analysis was supposed to testify. The Federal Criminal Police Office has compared the rape of Hazel B. with the rape of the 72-year-old American woman, for which Christian B. was convicted. But: The chief profiler is missing for reasons of illness. Christian B.'s lawyers file a motion for rejection – due to bias.
• June 28, 2024: At the end of June, some trial dates are cancelled due to the illness of a person involved in the judiciary.

The exposure incident in the Messines playground is interesting from the point of view of the gap between the then child witnesses being interviewed.
Difficult to determine only from the headline ... but was there any suspicion that an issue of perjury might have been suggested?

• April 12, 2024: On the eighth day of the trial, an alleged victim has his say for the first time: the then eleven-year-old in front of whom Christian B. is said to have masturbated. The now 18-year-old and the father are switched from Portugal to the Braunschweig district court.
• April 26, 2024: On the eleventh day of the trial, another witness from Portugal is heard. The man had held the defendant on a playground in 2017 until he was arrested by the police. According to his descriptions, Christian B. first tried to move away and then claimed that he had only urinated.
• August 5, 2024: The trial continues after a summer break. BKA chief profiler Harald Dern testifies. He talks about the similarities and differences between the rape of the 72-year-old American woman, for which B. was convicted, and the act against Hazel B. In addition, the court is again concerned with the latest alleged sexual abuse in Portugal: A former playmate of the victim and her father will be connected to Braunschweig.

What a strange headline!
Is it merely a poor translation? Or is it yet another try by CB's defence to employ the witness contradiction (and worse) ploy which has been in use to taint testimony since the start of the trial.

Christian B: Have parents talked their children into abusive work?
Braunschweig. In 2016, the Maddie suspect went into hiding in Portugal. He was arrested in 2017. He is said to have masturbated in front of children. Or was everything completely different?

Christian B. in Braunschweig: Wurde Kindern Missbrauch eingeredet?

2016 tauchte der Maddie-Verdächtige in Portugal unter. 2017 wurde er verhaftet. Er soll vor Kindern masturbiert haben. Oder war alles doch ganz anders?

www.braunschweiger-zeitung.de

It's actually quite difficult to get children to lie about something imo, what do you think?

 

[Mex]

It's actually quite difficult to get children to lie about something imo, what do you think?

In the present circumstances I think because of the ages of the children and their lack of understanding of what was going on makes it a very difficult thing to quantify.
At the time at least one of the children knew something was amiss causing her to alert her father. At the time I think the adults may have been more alarmed than the children were. Therefore I think it is a bit unfair to expect the now teens to give a comprehensive account of what happened particularly as they now have a different perspective and it must be difficult for them to differentiate between then and now and to put it all into words.

Perhaps more reliance should have been put into knowledgeable questioning back in 2017 by child protection experts for the record. Maybe it was? But who could have foretold that no trial would happen till seven or eight years down the line.

Sad that the newspaper headline suggests collusion might be indicated; but the time lapse seems to make the suggestion a player despite CB's en flagrante arrest.
My opinion

 

[frank-cole]

In the present circumstances I think because of the ages of the children and their lack of understanding of what was going on makes it a very difficult thing to quantify.
At the time at least one of the children knew something was amiss causing her to alert her father. At the time I think the adults may have been more alarmed than the children were. Therefore I think it is a bit unfair to expect the now teens to give a comprehensive account of what happened particularly as they now have a different perspective and it must be difficult for them to differentiate between then and now and to put it all into words.

Perhaps more reliance should have been put into knowledgeable questioning back in 2017 by child protection experts for the record. Maybe it was? But who could have foretold that no trial would happen till seven or eight years down the line.

Sad that the newspaper headline suggests collusion might be indicated; but the time lapse seems to make the suggestion a player despite CB's en flagrante arrest.
My opinion

Was CB arrested in Portugal for this offence in 2017? That’s probably a better marker.

 

[Mex]

Was CB arrested in Portugal for this offence in 2017? That’s probably a better marker.

Yes, CB was arrested in the playground and taken into custody because there was an existing European Arrest Warrant out for him concerning other crimes.
He was extradited to Germany almost immediately.

Snip
CB was caught with his trousers down under a slide in San Bartolomeu de Messines, 40 miles from Praia da Luz, Portugal, where MM, three, went missing.

He was arrested in 2017 for carrying out a sex act in front of four youngsters.

The paedophile, 43, was extradited to Germany and is in jail on drug offences.

The new revelations about the German paedophile and his criminal past emerged in a half-hour investigation aired by Portuguese TV broadcaster RTP.

Mum claims Maddie suspect Christian Brueckner 'exposed himself' to her daughter

Brueckner was caught with his trousers down under a slide in San Bartolomeu de Messines, 40 miles from Praia da Luz, Portugal, where Madeleine McCann, three, went missing

www.mirror.co.uk

Whether the Portuguese police interviewed the children at the time is something which I've never seen mentioned. Statements were probably taken because in the process of this trial we know that files exist but either haven't been referred to, or if they have the reportage hasn't really dwelt on it.

 

[frank-cole]

I

Yes, CB was arrested in the playground and taken into custody because there was an existing European Arrest Warrant out for him concerning other crimes.
He was extradited to Germany almost immediately.

Snip
CB was caught with his trousers down under a slide in San Bartolomeu de Messines, 40 miles from Praia da Luz, Portugal, where MM, three, went missing.

He was arrested in 2017 for carrying out a sex act in front of four youngsters.

The paedophile, 43, was extradited to Germany and is in jail on drug offences.

The new revelations about the German paedophile and his criminal past emerged in a half-hour investigation aired by Portuguese TV broadcaster RTP.

Mum claims Maddie suspect Christian Brueckner 'exposed himself' to her daughter

Brueckner was caught with his trousers down under a slide in San Bartolomeu de Messines, 40 miles from Praia da Luz, Portugal, where Madeleine McCann, three, went missing

www.mirror.co.uk

Whether the Portuguese police interviewed the children at the time is something which I've never seen mentioned. Statements were probably taken because in the process of this trial we know that files exist but either haven't been referred to, or if they have the reportage hasn't really dwelt on it.

It will be interesting to see whether the court believes the children & the original arresting police - or whether they side with CB. A not guilty verdict in that case would certainly turn many heads.

 

[Davieson]

I

It will be interesting to see whether the court believes the children & the original arresting police - or whether they side with CB. A not guilty verdict in that case would certainly turn many heads.

I'm sure they'll interpret the evidence presented correctly and that correct decisions will be made, though it may be some time yet before we hear what they are.

 

[Mex]

I

It will be interesting to see whether the court believes the children & the original arresting police - or whether they side with CB. A not guilty verdict in that case would certainly turn many heads.

It is very difficult to fathom exactly what the thinking of the court is regarding this episode and surprisingly my interpretation is a negative one given the small information sample gleaned from the BZ press.

• August 5, 2024: The trial continues after a summer break. BKA chief profiler Harald Dern testifies. He talks about the similarities and differences between the rape of the 72-year-old American woman, for which B. was convicted, and the act against Hazel B. In addition, the court is again concerned with the latest alleged sexual abuse in Portugal: A former playmate of the victim and her father will be connected to Braunschweig.

Christian B.: Have parents talked their children into abusive work? In 2016, the Maddie suspect went into hiding in Portugal. He was arrested in 2017. He is said to have masturbated in front of children. Or was everything completely different?​

Braunschweig: Prozess gegen Christian B. – das ist bisher passiert

Braunschweigs Staatsanwaltschaft wirft dem Maddie-Verdächtigen Vergewaltigungen und sexuellen Missbrauch vor. Kurz und knapp: So läuft der Prozess.

www.braunschweiger-zeitung.de

There is something weird about the terms used (bearing in mind this is not a court transcript but merely journalistic licence).
The witness is rather more than a "playmate". She and her parent were present as witnesses as were the previous Portuguese witnesses
April 12, 2024: On the eighth day of the trial, an alleged victim has his say for the first time: (at which she was reduced to tears under questioning)
April 26, 2024: On the eleventh day of the trial, another witness from Portugal is heard.
Then there is the gap between testimonies.

It really never occurred to me that there would be any difficulty at trial with such a well documented case. I mean how often is it that a sex offender is arrested at the scene of the crime with his trousers round his ankles? Not often I'll wager.
But I can actually see exactly how he may walk from this one. And if that happens it will indeed give pause for serious thought and much turning of heads.
My opinion

 

[Mex]

I'm sure they'll interpret the evidence presented correctly and that correct decisions will be made, though it may be some time yet before we hear what they are.

I disagree with that assessment for the simple reason that I am less than impressed with the manner in which a woman who was subjected to hours of torture was reduced to tears under questioning. A state of distress to which despite her terror and pain her assailant never reduced her to. It took the questioning in a German court to do that.
The days of metaphorically demanding that a rape survivor holds up her knickers in open court are long gone! Just as well really, because hers were slashed from her body with a knife as a precursor to her ordeal.

 

[frank-cole]

I

I disagree with that assessment for the simple reason that I am less than impressed with the manner in which a woman who was subjected to hours of torture was reduced to tears under questioning. A state of distress to which despite her terror and pain her assailant never reduced her to. It took the questioning in a German court to do that.
The days of metaphorically demanding that a rape survivor holds up her knickers in open court are long gone! Just as well really, because hers were slashed from her body with a knife as a precursor to her ordeal.

I completely disagree with him too - I can’t fathom why anybody would try to float the idea that CB’s involvement in that crime wasn’t sinister. But then again, it’s the typical nature of such threads. I fully believe the children I don’t believe the paedophile. Who knows how much the judge has bought the defences game. Irrespective of judgement, only a very small group of people would carry-on as this was a case of the friendly neighbourhood paedophile who happened to be just urinating in a children’s part in front of children. That type of rhetoric is & will be, born out of MM case opinion. Some will want the prosecution to fail in the MM case - hence - cannot approvingly talk about the prosecution at any point beforehand.

 

[UK Girl]

I

I completely disagree with him too - I can’t fathom why anybody would try to float the idea that CB’s involvement in that crime wasn’t sinister. But then again, it’s the typical nature of such threads. I fully believe the children I don’t believe the paedophile. Who knows how much the judge has bought the defences game. Irrespective of judgement, only a very small group of people would carry-on as this was a case of the friendly neighbourhood paedophile who happened to be just urinating in a children’s part in front of children. That type of rhetoric is & will be, born out of MM case opinion. Some will want the prosecution to fail in the MM case - hence - cannot approvingly talk about the prosecution at any point beforehand.

It could also be said some are so desperate for him to be convicted they are willing to ignore the problems in this case. For me its the biggest shambles courtwise I have seen and certainly nothing there for me to approve of the prosecutors.

 

[frank-cole]

It could also be said some are so desperate for him to be convicted they are willing to ignore the problems in this case. For me it’s the biggest shambles courtwise I have seen and certainly nothing there for me to approve of the prosecutors.

Often those who claim it’s a shambles now were the very people trying to discredit or dismiss the prosecution before the charges were made. Plus - undoubtedly - McCann sceptics. If you look at comments pre arrests & pre announcement- they’ll correlate with thoughts on the prosecution & MM case opinion. The majority of us are guilty of bias. That’ll remain because the MM case polarises public opinion.

As I said, I believe the children, I don’t believe the paedophile.