A 46-year-old German man is on trial for multiple rapes and sexual abuse. The man is also a suspect in the Maddie case.
The beginning of the trial against the im Maddie case German murder suspect for five sex crimes has been postponed. Christian B., 47, is accused of three serious rapes and two cases of sexual abuse of children.
The rush before Braunschweig Regional Court in Germany was so large on Friday morning that the originally planned 9am start could not be maintained, as DPA reporters on the ground reported.
Develop security measures
Long lines formed in front of the building and all visitors had to go through extensive security measures before entering. The suspect allegedly committed the crimes in Portugal between the end of December 2000 and June 2017.
The Braunschweig Public Prosecutor's Office charged him in October 2022, after several years of complex investigations in several European countries.
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According to a court spokeswoman, no witnesses were invited to the first day of the trial. While the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor's Office seeks to convict the defendant of all the crimes charged, defense lawyer Friedrich Fülscher assumes his client's innocence and aims to obtain an acquittal. It is the presumption of innocence.
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The suspect has been in the spotlight since the summer of 2020, after German investigators surprisingly announced they suspected the murder of the convicted sex offender in Maddie's disappearance in Britain.
The then three-year-old boy British Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal, in May 2007. The case made headlines around the world, but is not the subject of the current trial in Braunschweig.