A woman invited to go on holiday with Madeleine McCann’s main suspect, Christian Brueckner, told the court she feared “she would be raped” by him and armed herself “with a knife”.
Charity worker Andrea Barth, 49, said she was in her 20s when she was invited to Brueckner’s ramshackle house in Portugal for a three-week holiday with a friend in 2006 and described her fear upon arriving at the sex offender’s home. condemned.
He said that when he arrived home, just minutes from where Madeleine disappeared, he remembered her as “incredibly dirty” and was scared of what might happen.
German Barth said: “I started to have some worries,” before adding: “I started to get a strange feeling and started thinking, ‘Where are we?’ and ‘I don’t know this person.'”
“I started to think something wasn’t right here and I was afraid,” she said, adding that she feared they would become “classic rape victims.”
Madeleine McCann’s prime suspect Christian Brueckner arrived at court this morning for his ongoing sex crimes trial and the judge was due to hear from his former lovers and friends.
‘It was definitely a big fear and I called my sister in Germany and asked her to get a number from the tourist office to find us a hotel.
“My emotions really ran high, we were in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to plan an escape.
‘We got knives from the kitchen in case we had to defend ourselves. For me the danger was very realistic.”
Mrs Barth said Brueckner went out one night before returning around 3am.
And he adds: “I was very afraid that Brueckner would return and that we would be victims of sexual crimes.”
He added that they told him they wanted to leave and stay somewhere else in the nearby city of Lagos.
During questioning by Brueckner’s legal team, Ms Barth was asked: “Is it perhaps more likely that you were frightened by the spiders you had seen in the house?” She denied it.
Madeleine McCann’s prime suspect Brueckner arrived at court this morning for his ongoing sex crimes trial, and the judge is expected to hear from former lovers and friends.
Christian Brueckner arrives at court in Braunschweig, Germany, on April 10, 2024
Then three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on Portugal’s Algarve coast, in May 2007, where she was staying with her parents and siblings.
Dressed in his now trademark blazer and jacket, Brueckner, 47, was led into court in handcuffs and shook hands with his legal team before being seated.
The convicted rapist and pedophile was sensationally named by German police in June 2020 as the man they believe responsible for Madeleine’s “kidnapping and murder.”
However, no charges have been filed since the announcement, raising concerns that there is no real evidence against him, and he is currently on trial for unrelated sexual offences.
Brueckner was living in the Algarve in 2007 when three-year-old Madeleine disappeared while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann in the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal.
He is accused of raping three women and sexually assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 in the same area, and is on trial in Braunschweig, Germany, where he used to live.
The trial against Brueckner began two months ago and has heard the testimonies of several witnesses who knew him when he lived in the Algarve.
Dressed in his now trademark blazer and jacket, Brueckner, 47, was led into court in handcuffs and shook hands with his legal team before being seated.
Two explicit videos said to show sexual assaults on an elderly woman and a girl are also key to the case.
The trial has already heard from former friends Manfred Seyferth and Helge Busching, who claim to have seen the videos after breaking into Brueckner’s home in Portugal while he was in prison for stealing diesel.
Early in the trial it was revealed that key witness Busching had cancer, which could have a serious impact on Madeleine’s investigation and any future trial, as his diagnosis is terminal.
Busching told the court he saw the videos and recognized Brueckner and also contacted Scotland Yard to tell them about him, as he had heard him say of Madeleine “she didn’t scream” when she was taken away.
Busching also told the court that Brueckner was an “expert at picking locks” and could have easily broken into his room, as he was a prolific thief who stole cameras and passports from hotels.
Michael Tatschl, Brueckner’s former accomplice, told the trial that the convicted sex offender would break into vacation apartments naked.
He said Brueckner would use the strange modus operandi of not leaving evidence and not getting his clothes caught on surfaces.
Tatschl said: ‘He scaled the walls. One time he told me that she came in and three teenagers were sleeping in the living room. He was naked. One of them woke up when a phone rang and he screamed.
‘The girl’s father heard the scream and came, so Christian had to run and jump from a balcony. Several times he stole naked because he didn’t want to leave a trace.
Previously, Tatschl said she was an “accomplice in crime” with Brueckner when they lived in Portugal and told German media that she overheard him talking about “selling children to a pedophile ring in Morocco.”
In a previous interview he also said he was “convinced” that Bruecker had taken Madeleine, saying: “I know he did it.” He is more than capable of carrying a small child.
On November 18 last year, prosecutors confirmed that Brueckner would be tried on several counts of sexual abuse against women between the ages of 10 and 80.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.
Brueckner’s former accomplice Michael Tatschl photographed outside German court before testifying
Madeleine disappeared from a rented apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, during a family vacation.
Since her disappearance, parents Kate and Gerry from Rothley, Leicestershire, have led a high-profile campaign to obtain information about her disappearance.
In 2019, Brueckner was convicted in a German court of the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in her home in Portugal, near Praia da Luz, and is serving a seven-year sentence.
Brueckner is currently on trial accused of raping three women and assaulting children between 2000 and 2017 in the Algarve.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 after being found guilty of raping an elderly woman in the Algarve in 2005.
Brueckner’s defense has tried several times to have witnesses thrown out, saying the case is unfair and biased against their client because of the connection to Madeleine, but so far all attempts have failed.
The trial is expected to continue through the spring and summer.