Suspect in Maddie McCann case will be in court in Germany from Friday. Dead snake of four meters long found in Berlin park

Christian B. has already been convicted of serious rape. From next Friday, the 47-year-old will have to answer for serious crimes again.

While the first test in 2019 almost missed the public, interest is now enormous. Since researchers announced in 2020 that they considered the German a murder suspect in the case of the missing Maddie from Great Britain, he has acquired a completely different focus.

Who is the suspect?

Christian B. has been officially considered a suspect in the McCain case since 2022. The German police believe he could be the key to solving the case.

However, B. denies having anything to do with Maddie’s disappearance. B. is currently serving a prison sentence for drug offenses and, since 2019, a further seven years in prison in Oldenburg prison in northern Germany. He was convicted of raping a 72-year-old American woman in 2005. The crime took place in the same area in Portugal’s Algarve where Maddie later disappeared.

What is the new process about?

The defendant must answer for five serious sexual offenses before the Braunschweig Regional Court. Become a resident of Würzburg three cases of aggravated rape and two cases of child sexual abuse accused. The court initially scheduled the hearing for approximately 30 days until the end of June.

The suspect is said to have committed the crimes in Portugal between the end of December 2000 and June 2017. In October 2022, after several years of extensive investigations in several European countries, the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office presented an indictment of more than 100 pages.

The man is accused of… a woman about 70 to 80 years old allegedly tied her up and raped her in her holiday apartment. He should also have a German one Girls at least 14 years old tied naked to a wooden post, beaten with a whip and forced to perform oral sex. He should move on a 20 year old woman raped from Ireland.

According to the Daily Mail, the Dubliner was visited by authorities from Germany at the end of last year who informed her about the procedure. Out of concern for her safety, she will be given strict police protection, the report said. The woman herself was quoted as saying:

That B. could be her tormentor became clear to the Irish woman through the reports of the rape of the 72-year-old American, for whom B. is currently serving a prison sentence. She threw up when she read it “because it immediately took me back to my experience,” she told The Guardian in 2020.

In addition, B. is sexual abuse two girls aged ten and eleven Charged on beaches and in a playground in Portugal in 2007 and 2017. It is said he appeared naked in front of children and masturbated in front of them. In the latter case, the victim alerted his father, after which the suspect was arrested on the spot by police officers. The prosecution also relies on video recordings of the crimes that the suspect recorded himself.

Christian B. risks a prison sentence of 15 years. Subsequent preventive detention is also a possibility.

Where is the connection to the Maddie case?

On June 3, 2020, the German Federal Criminal Police Office and the Braunschweig Public Prosecutor’s Office surprisingly announced that they were taking action against a sex offender who had been convicted multiple times in the Maddie case. Suspected murder determine. At prime time, the report about a suspicious German was shown in the ZDF program “Aktenzeichen XY … unresolved”.

although To date no body has been found Investigators said at the time that they believed the girl from Britain was no longer alive.

Authorities have not yet provided any further information about what their suspicions are based on. To date, no fees have been charged. The Portuguese Public Prosecution Service also accuses the German in the Maddie murder case.

Maddie’s parents have not yet commented on the lawsuit.

Can the Maddie case be time-barred?

Yes, at least in Portugal. Crimes with a maximum sentence of 10 years or more expire in Portugal after 15 years. If this period expires, no further costs can be charged.

Theoretically, this deadline has already passed: since Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007, last year marked the 16th anniversary of the case.

And yet the case has not expired. Why?

Eleven days before the approaching limitation period, so on April 22, 2022, Christian B. was officially declared a suspect for the first time. This measure interrupted the limitation period in Portugal.

If Maddie is dead, the crime can be prosecuted up to fifteen years after the crime. However, if she was still alive and the victim of a sex crime as a minor, a trial could take place until she reached the age of 23. The British woman would now be 20 years old.

But maybe that doesn’t matter at all, because under German law, murder has no statute of limitations. And since the German investigations have nothing to do with those in Portugal, the German Public Prosecution Service can file charges at any time. Provided you have sufficient suspicion of the crime. However, decisive evidence for this is still lacking.

What happened to Maddie?

Madeleine McCann disappeared without a trace from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Portuguese Algarve in 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday. Her disappearance sparked one of the largest searches in history.

Are there any other clues?

Last year, Poland’s Julia Wendell caused a stir when she claimed to be the missing Maddie McCann. However, DNA clarifications subsequently carried out concluded that this was extremely unlikely.

saw/rbu with material from the news agencies sda and dpa and from t-online