Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner is set to go on trial next year.
The paedophile will be in the dock facing charges for five sex crimes, three involving minors, on February 16 2024, German prosecutors have confirmed. It is expected to be presided over by a panel of four or five judges and could last up to three months, according to reports.
The 46-year-old's lawyer is understood to have accepted the start date despite filing a complaint against key witness Helge Busching. The trial will take place at Braunschweig High Court. Police identified Brueckner as a suspect in the McCann case in 2022 after it emerged he had reportedly been driving around the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal at the time the British youngster went missing in 2007.
He has always denied any involvement Madeleine's disappearance. Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: "It's set to begin on February 16, a Friday and a half day, but there should be enough time to hear all the charges. Everyone is available that day and assuming there are not too many holdups from Christian's lawyer, Mr Fulscher, we will hear his reply to the charges."
He continued: "The first witnesses will be brought in the following week. There will be four to five judges, two of them lay judges, normal people who are brought in for such cases." Brueckner - who is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman - is accused of three rapes, one of Irish girl, Hazel Behan, who was just 20 when she was viciously attacked during a four-hour ordeal in Portugal.
Two other attacks are said to have been filmed at the small farmhouse he rented just outside Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was snatched in May 2007. The victims were a teenage girl and an elderly woman. Brueckner is also accused of the sexual assault of a 10-year-old German girl, on a beach near Praia da Luz, a month before Madeleine disappeared. Another sexual assault on four children also took place in Portugal in 2017.
Brueckner's lawyer submitted an official complaint to the court over key witness Helge Busching, a former friend of the accused, and who he allegedly confessed the Madeleine abduction to in 2008. Mr Wolters brushed this off, saying: "It will not be a problem at all, don't worry. I spoke to Helge yesterday and it's only an attempt to paint him in a bad picture." He added: "We understand the issue and he will be fine." Mr Wolters said the Madeleine investigation continues and he expects a trial date to be "set soon".