Germany/Portugal - Christian Brueckner, 27 @ time of 1st crime (2004), charged with sexual assault crimes, Praia de Rocha, Portugal. #5

[Davieson]

it was already proven by a higher level that she wasnt biased etc. The fact is none of it really added up..and thats why they failed

Its now clarified that it was 3 professional and 2 lay judges, so hardly a 'rogue' judge ignoring the law for her own ends
As you say the Higher Court have already rejected claims of bias, so any appeal will have to on sustainable points of law.
I suspect there will not be any, but one can never predict the outcome of any legal procedure.

 

[Dotta]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1843647548025626950

 

[Mex]

If the law states "beyond all reasonable doubt", a court is obliged to follow that rule. Although i'm not happy about the outcome, i'm going to accept the decision of the court, that's for sure!

But i still do have a few questions. The first one is, why was the evidence that has been presented to the court sufficient enough for the court to open the trial on all these 5 charges at first? It doesn't seem to be consistent in some way to open the trial on the two rapes without a victim or a video. Just the testimonies of MS and Helge B? Hard to be believe. There must have been something more. Probably the evidence found in Neuwegersleben has been ruled out as inadmissible.

The second one is, that i do not understand the reasons for the aquittal in the playground incident case, where he was caught red handed. I guess, that we'll have to wait for the reasons for judgment to be written down.

That the Salema Beach incident and the rape of poor Hazel B. are going to be a 50/50 chance, was pretty clear to me right from the beginning, to be honest. Just a foreign accent, blue eyes and a similar MO to another rape case isn't sufficient for a "BARD". Even in a typical tourist area. Unfortuneatly, the known MO in the Hazel B. case is also common in the crimes of other perpetrators. It seems to me, that there isn't any photographic evidence of the crimes, he has been made responsible for, yet.

But in the end, at least a very important litmus test for the prosecution in the other well known case, linked to CB. If they really want to pin him down on that one, they will have to offer a lot more and also more valid evidence to the court. So hopefully, it wasn't all in vain! But without any video, pictures or forensics, just based on circumstancial evidence, we won't see any verdict against CB in the future, i guess.

But i'm convinced, that he is going to re-offend pretty soon, based on his behavior in the past, the assessment of his personality in the recent trial and the fact, that everbody knows about him right now. If he's going to walk free in the near future, nobody is going to give him a proper job, a home, a family or anything else that would be useful to re-enter society.

It's just a matter of time, until he will get into focus of the prosecution again. New game, new luck....

I respect that you will have no argument with the decision of the court, but I will be happy if the prosecution have grounds for appeal and do so.

The introduction of the two anonymous rapes on the charge sheet was always a mystery because of the lack of evidence; but knowing the indictment would not have been accepted without, I assumed all would be revealed at trial.
My assumption was a witness who wished to retain anonymity but it obviously wasn’t that. Agreed there must have been something more substantive and your thoughts on the matter fit the bill entirely. There was and then there wasn't because evidence was disallowed.

I agree with the 50/50 assessment you make particularly as any forensics collected from HB’s hotel room had been destroyed but I tend to disagree about rapes with the same MO.

Initially there was only one identified in Portuguese police files as matching the description of those in the video tapes and that was the rape of DM.
There may be more because the matching HB file was initially overlooked. Although rapists may use similar methods to terrorise or restrain, the evidence doesn’t support the sequence of events suffered by DM and HB being a common MO.

I’m back on the same page of the hymn sheets as you regarding the MM trial should there be one. And the reasoning behind the judges’ recent decision on the five trials are going to be of special interest given the number of people directly affected by the outcome.

My thoughts stray a little regarding CB's return to the world's stage. On release he will never be seen or heard of again. He will just vanish as if he had never been.

 

[Mex]

Its now clarified that it was 3 professional and 2 lay judges, so hardly a 'rogue' judge ignoring the law for her own ends
As you say the Higher Court have already rejected claims of bias, so any appeal will have to on sustainable points of law.
I suspect there will not be any, but one can never predict the outcome of any legal procedure.

Having read what the presiding judge had to say one wonders why there wasn't more attention given to a teenage witness in a sex abuse trial being inappropriately questioned in open court.

Snip
In a trial that was often gruelling in its details, one witness who had accused CB of masturbating in front of them when a child was asked to mimic the action in front of the court, and broke down while doing so.

Prosecutors to appeal after Madeleine McCann suspect acquitted in separate rape trial

Christian Brückner found not guilty in Germany of three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse

www.theguardian.com

That is an instance of abuse directed at a witness which should never have happened in this day and age in a modern courtroom. It is exceedingly disturbing that such was demanded from a young girl.
My opinion

 

[Mex]

Snip
HB, who waived her right to anonymity in order to give evidence, was asked by the defence to be deliberately positioned in her seat so that she was forced to face the alleged perpetrator.
She faced excruciating questioning by the court over two days in May in which details of her own conduct were pored over.

Prosecutors to appeal after Madeleine McCann suspect acquitted in separate rape trial

Christian Brückner found not guilty in Germany of three charges of aggravated rape and two of sexual abuse

www.theguardian.com

Reading about the details of the conduct of the court case makes one wonder what century this is.

Why did the judge allow the seating arrangements in court to be adjusted for a witness at the defence motion. Positioning the witness in an intimidating position right in front of the accused flanked by his defence team.

Why was a poison pen letter of no substance allowed to be used to question the rape survivor. She was not on trial: but by pandering to defence whims and questions allowed by this court - it seems she was.
My opinion

 

[mrjitty]

How can they hope to over turn the like of this.The last sentence will immediately be seized upon by any defence should this or the MM case ever reach a court.imo

I am glad to read this

The main judge, Uta Engemann, delivered a lengthy statement explaining the decision to acquit that criticised German prosecutors for naming him in connection to the McCann case

The conduct of the Braunschweig office is baffling to me. If you have evidence, you charge someone. You don't accuse them of murder in the media, say you have the evidence to back it up, and then don't bring the case. it's a very dangerous precedent IMO.