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CChristian B., the German suspect in the case of the missing Madeleine McCann, could soon be tried again in Braunschweig. The local prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation against her on suspicion of rape. Shortly after the Federal Criminal Police Office released the new information on the Maddie case in early June, a 37-year-old woman reported in Ireland. He said he could identify Christian B. in press photos as the man who raped her in Portugal in 2004.
Reinhard bingener
Political Correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hannover.
The Irish woman was 20 years old at the time and immediately reported the rape to the Portuguese police. The perpetrator broke into his apartment at night and threatened him with a machete, the woman reports. He installed a video camera on her and brutally raped her for five hours. Although she wore a mask and spoke English. But the woman recognized a German accent. And he noticed he had noticeably blue eyes, just like Christian B. The build also matches the video recordings of the German.
Video recordings show more violations
Christian Wolters, spokesman for the Braunschweig prosecution service, also reports that there are “parallels” between the rape of the Irish woman and the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve in 2005. Because of this act, Christian B. was sentenced in December 2019 by the Braunschweig regional court to a prison term of seven years, which is not yet legally binding. During this process, there were also video recordings that allegedly showed at least three other violations. Wolters makes it clear, however, that the three video sequences do not show the rape of the young Irish woman.
Investigators are now awaiting files from Portuguese colleagues on the Portugal case. The Braunschweig prosecution is optimistic that charges will be brought this year. The outcome of the process will then depend mainly on whether the judges consider the Irish woman’s statements credible.
If convicted, Christian B. would be a serial rapist. Then he would not only have to wait a long prison sentence, but a preventive detention order. The strategy of the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Braunschweig prosecutor’s office would have been successful. When the investigators became public in June, they relied not only on new information about the Maddie case, but also clarification of alleged additional acts by Christian B. As the Irish woman’s case shows, investigators correctly assumed that they were Ni You even have to give the name or photographs of the suspect, because this information is spread throughout Europe. As a result of this procedure, Christian B. was unable to preview the files.
In Maddie’s case, however, the investigation is difficult. Prosecutor Wolters confirmed to the FAZ that they are still searching for the important witness with whom Christian B. is said to have telephoned on the night of Maddie’s death on May 3, 2007 near the crime scene in the Algarve. Wolters reports that there have so far been “some interesting references” to the disappearance of the three-year-old from Britain, which however are not sufficient for a prosecution. “The puzzle is not yet complete.” However, investigators strongly believe that Maddie is dead. “We don’t have the body” and “there is no forensic evidence,” says Wolters. “But there is real evidence to suggest that she is dead.”
