Christian Brueckner 'asked friend to remove CDs from home featuring sex acts'
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner asked a pal to remove CDs from his home featuring depraved sex acts, as well as "young people" and animals, a court has heard.
The convicted rapist and paedophile is on trial in his native Germany accused of five sex crimes, including rapes and grabbing a girl on a beach not far from where Madeleine vanished just weeks later. He has not been charged with Madeleine's disappearance, but prosecutors believe he snatched the then three-year-old from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
Giving taped evidence in front of a judge and lawyers, which was today shown to the court, Brueckner's former pal Christian Post, 56, admitted he helped remove the CDs after Brueckner was jailed in Portugal after being caught stealing fuel from lorries. He said: "He asked me to look in the house and take two or three bags for him to an acquaintance.
"I put the bags in my car and I saw there were CDs which were labelled. The labels suggested to me that there were things which involved young people.
"But I only saw it quickly and I found it all too shabby so I threw these away. I did not watch them personally. I just saw the label, then made the decision. They included some pornographic practices. One thing that I noticed involved dogs, so this is things which I then threw away. I can't remember the full details, but there were some things like this and I didn't want to risk transporting something like this."
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Post confessed to smuggling "oranges filled with vodka" into jail for Brueckner after he asked him to "so he could have a fun evening in prison". He admitted he did watch some of Brueckner's CDs, which he said included pornographic material downloaded from the internet. But he added: "After that I didn't have any great ambitions to get much closer to Brueckner. For me this chapter then closed."
Christian Brueckner is standing trial in Germany (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Post said he met Brueckner "more than five, but less than ten times", including "two or three" times when he visited him at his then home in Praia da Luz. He said he had initially considered Brueckner to be a car mechanic, but became aware he was operating as a criminal when he spotted "three piles of red passports" stacked up near a chimney, which he said he found "odd". He said: "I spoke to him about that. I realised he was interested in forging passports so that he could generate an income."
Post also claimed Brueckner told him he crept into properties to carry out burglaries in the area where Madeleine disappeared. He said: "He said during the night he was active in Praia da Luz and spoke about climbing up on buildings when the windows were open and would then take stuff. He said he climbed up trees or scaled buildings.
"I remember in the village and in the resort where Maddie was taken, there were trees there and I think he did say that he was operating in that area, but he didn't go into detail." Post acknowledged he could have gone to police, but admitted he was "quite selfish".
Asked about claims from another witness that he helped Brueckner dispose of the stolen passports, Post said when he arrived at the house he was handed the bags by a woman, who he estimates was aged in her 50s and he believed was Brueckner's girlfriend. He added: "I wasn't aware of any passports being in the bags. It is possible, but I didn't check. I didn't want to search through them."
Brueckner in handcuffs in the courtroom (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Speaking about his first impressions of Brueckner and his home, Post said: "I noticed for a relatively young man he was rather oddly dressed with a jacket, which did not really suit the type of person he was. He was around 30 years old. His car, a Jaguar, and his outfit and clothing, all this didn't really fit for me."
He added: "[His home] was in quite a remote area. It was in need of renovating. I would say it was a bachelor pad. It was not too messy, like a place for a hoarder, but it was definitely in need of a clean. It was very chaotic."
Asked by Brueckner's lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher if he got rid of some of the CDs because they contained child porn, Post said: "Yes".
Asked why he didn't get rid of all of them, Post said: "Well, not all were clearly labelled and I wasn't sure which ones were and were not bad ones."
Asked about the "themes", he said: "Anal sex, animals, I'm not sure if there was other stuff with lesbians etc. I didn't look at all of them. CDs were all over the floor, and socks, and also on the sofa. I didn't look at every single one." Asked about the passports by Brueckner's lawyer and whether Brueckner told him why they were there, Post said: "No, he never said he wanted to sell them or anything."
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Brueckner shaking hands with his lawyers at the court (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Brueckner, who was wearing a creased grey blazer and blue chinos, showed no emotion this morning while listening to Post's evidence. He entered courtroom 141 at Braunschweig Regional Court, northern Germany, wearing handcuffs and surrounded by three security guards, just after 10am UK-time.
After being uncuffed he shook hands with his lawyer Friedrich Fuelscher and other members of his legal team before sitting down alongside them. Brueckner, who is already serving a seven-year jail term for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz in 2005, lived on a ramshackle property near the Ocean Club holiday apartments where Madeleine, who was from Rothley, Leics, and would now be aged 20, went missing in May 2007.
He was publicly named as a suspect in her case by German prosecutors in 2020, but denies any involvement. In 2022, Post told the Mirror he is convinced Brueckner kidnapped Madeleine.
Bruecker was charged with the offences he is now on trial for in October 2022 before the case was delayed following a legal row over jurisdiction. It is being held on 29 separate days over four months and will hear from more than 40 witnesses, with a verdict expected at the end of June. There are no formal pleas in the German legal system and defendants are not obliged to respond to the charges.
Brueckner is not expected to give evidence in the case and denies charges of rape and sexual assault, one count of child molestation and indecent exposure and one count of public exhibitionism and indecency. He faces up to 15 years behind bars if convicted, but if he is cleared of the charges he could be freed in September 2025 when his current seven-year sentence for rape is complete. The trial continues.
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