Madeleine McCann suspects Christian Brueckner is hiding his face as he returns to court after the farcical first day of his unrelated sex crime trial collapsed when the judge was removed from the case

Madeleine McCann suspects Christian Brueckner has arrived in court as prosecutors try to start his sex crimes trial after last week’s chaotic start.

Convicted rapist Brueckner, 47, is accused of three rapes and two sexual assaults that allegedly took place on Portugal’s Algarve coast between 2000 and 2017.

The attacks happened just minutes from where then three-year-old Madeleine disappeared in May 2007 from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, where she was staying with parents Kate and Gerry and her siblings.

She has not been seen since and in June 2020, German police sensationally named Brueckner the man responsible for her ‘kidnapping and murder’, but he has yet to be charged with anything related to her disappearance.

Brueckner arrived in a van with a police escort and was swept inside before the start of the hearing and escorted to the courtroom, flanked by guards and wearing handcuffs.

Wearing the same jacket as last week, a white shirt and khaki pants, he shook hands with the entire legal team and winked at his legal team.

With a file in his hand, he did not look at the press or the public gallery as the hearing began seven minutes after its scheduled 9am start.

Last week’s proceedings lasted less than 10 minutes after Brueckner’s lawyer filed an urgent appeal calling for the dismissal of one of the lay judges for issuing death threats on social media against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Earlier this month, Brueckner told MailOnline that the case against him was “ridiculous”, adding sarcastically: “I hope (they) will soon find answers to (their) questions.”

Mr Fulscher has said his client denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance, as well as the current charges, and that Brueckner is “stressed” by the media presence and is in “poor physical health”.

The trial is not related to Madeleine’s disappearance and members of the press and public who wanted to enter the courthouse in Braunschweig near Hannover had to pass through two airport-style metal detectors before reaching the courtroom on the first floor.

In an effort to avoid the chaos of last week, which saw the trial postponed by 40 minutes, the court opened early, although there appeared to be a smaller crowd than last week waiting to enter.

Asked by MailOnline if there were any more surprises, Mr Fulscher – who is good-naturedly paid by German state funds – said cryptically: ‘Maybe…’

Last week, in an apparent stalling tactic, he told the court that child therapists should not be allowed to sit on the panel as one of the four lay judges.

Mr Fulscher highlighted how she had posted on X, formerly Twitter, in 2019 that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro should be “killed”.

The tweets, which were seen by the Daily Mail before being deleted and read out in court, read: “Kill the devil Jair Bolsonaro. Kill the bastard Bolosonaro. He is the devil. He destroys everything. He must be killed. Now!!!’

She also posted attacks on hunter Walter James Palmer who shot and killed Cecil the Lion, as well as Donald Trump and his family.

Mr. Fulscher also highlighted how she worked as a child therapist and given that the allegations Brueckner faced involved minors, she suggested she would “probably be quite biased,” adding that they “lacked any distance and judgment.” .

After speaking for about ten minutes, Judge Uta Engemann said she would adjourn to consider the request. Forty minutes later she came back to agree and postpone the trial until today.

Prosecutor Ute Lindemann agreed with her – although he added that the fact that she had children was not relevant – but she added: ‘The application is justified. We do not tolerate statements outside the legal system and calls for murder.’

Officials hope that by securing a conviction on the charges, he will reveal what happened to Madeleine.

If found guilty, he could spend the rest of his life in prison, but sources close to him say he will remain silent and not testify.

He insists that DNA and electronic evidence against him is false and that witnesses are lying about him.

Prosecutors also face a dilemma as two of the rape victims have not been identified, but the third victim is known: Irish tour guide Hazel Behan, who says she was attacked in 2004 while working in the Algarve.

She says she was threatened with a knife, tied up and subjected to an hours-long attack by a man she later recognized as Brueckner after his photo was released by German police in 2020.

At the time, she was a 20-year-old sales representative and the now married mother of three will be one of the key witnesses to testify at the trial, which will last until June.

The other two rapes involved an unknown woman between 70 and 80 years old and an unknown girl around 14 years old.

The fourth charge concerns an indecent assault against a 10-year-old girl on a beach close to where Madeleine disappeared a month later and the latest also involves assaulting another child in the Algarve at a playground in 2017.

Earlier this year, Bruecker was transferred from Oldenburg prison in northern Germany to Schnedebruch near Hannover for the duration of the trial.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for raping an elderly American woman in the Algarve in 2005 and was jailed in 2019 following testimony from two former friends who will also testify at his retrial.

He was also moved after complaining of abuse by guards in Oldenburg, where he was in a secure, isolated unit.

Bruecker told MailOnline: ‘My situation didn’t change at all. I just moved the prison. I am still totally isolated. Since (sic) more than two years now.

“I’m still not allowed to talk to anyone other than my lawyer and my punishment (guards).”