Braunschweig Regional Court
Trial against suspect in the “Maddie” case: Witness incriminates Christian B.
Christian B. is standing before the Braunschweig Regional Court for sexual offenses
© Moritz Frankenberg/DPA Pool / DPA
Christian B., who is also considered a suspect in the Madeleine “Maddie” McCann case, is standing before the Braunschweig regional court for other sexual crimes. Now a first witness has testified.
In the rape trial against Christian B., who is also a murder suspect in the Madeleine “Maddie” McCann case, is the first witness for two of the five accused Sexual crimes in Portugal were questioned. The 68-year-old said on Friday in the Braunschweig regional court that he recognized the defendant in two videos. In one of the films, an older woman was hit on the bare chest with a kind of ruler; in the other, Christian B. abused a girl tied to a wooden beam. In the first case, the witness claims to have recognized the 47-year-old, a multiple convicted sex offender, primarily by his voice. The pensioner, who had lived abroad for a long time, could not remember many details. The alleged acts in the videos are charged as rape. They are said to have occurred between 2000 and 2006. The women affected could not be identified and the videos have also disappeared.
The German has to answer in court for three counts of rape and two counts of child abuse. Braunschweig is responsible because his last German residence was in the Lower Saxony city. International media are covering the rape trial against Christian B. because the sex criminal, who has multiple convictions, is suspected of murder in the case of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, who disappeared from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007. German investigators assume that the British woman is dead, although her body was never found. However, the “Maddie” case is not the subject of the current proceedings. The defendant remains silent about the allegations. It is the presumption of innocence.
Christian B. seen on abuse videos?
The witness met B. together with a long-time acquaintance in Portugal. At that time, Christian B. said that he “goes into hotels,” the man reported. His acquaintance stole the video camera and cassettes from Christian B.’s apartment. His acquaintance then discovered the abuse videos in the stolen goods, was shocked and played them to him. But he only saw two to three minute excerpts and kept looking away. “This is not my world,” he said. In television interviews in the past, the witness had described the defendant as a psychopath. “I can’t say anything about the Maddie story,” said the 68-year-old. He could only report on the videos.
The man had already testified as a witness in a trial against the 47-year-old in 2019. At that time, B. received a seven-year prison sentence for raping an American woman in Portugal.