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).”

The man German prosecutors say is responsible for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has appeared in court to stand trial on a slew of sexual abuse charges.

Christian Brueckner was pictured pulling up in a prison van outside the courtroom in Brunswick, Lower Saxony, just after 8am local time this morning, wearing a dark green hooded sweater.

His beady blue eyes could be seen peering into the vehicle's windows between the bars before he was dragged outside and marched past a screaming crowd of about 40 journalists toward the courthouse.

Armed police stood guard outside as the 100 or so members of the public queuing to enter the building were led through airport-style security checks.

It is the first time the convicted sex offender has been seen in public since 2020, when he climbed into an ambulance for treatment after being attacked in prison.

The 47-year-old is accused of three rapes and two indecent assaults in cases involving five women and girls aged between 10 and 80. The allegations, which the convicted sex offender brazenly told MailOnline, were 'ridiculous'.

A total of 29 days are planned for the trial, during which more than 40 witnesses will take the stand, and a verdict is expected to be delivered in June.

If found guilty of all charges, Brueckner will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

But officials hope that by securing a conviction on the charges, Brueckner will offer information about Madeleine in exchange for a milder sentence – although sources close to him say he will remain silent and not testify.

Brueckner is already serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of 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.

Brueckner, 47, was sensationally named by German police in June 2020 as the man responsible for the kidnap and murder of Madeleine while she was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann.

The then three-year-old boy from Rothley, Leicestershire, was abducted from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Portuguese Algarve coast in May 2007 and has not been seen or heard from since.

Brueckner – who lived in the area at the time – has previously denied any involvement in her abduction and murder to MailOnline.

The charges he faces in court today are not related to the Madeleine case.

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 is also an indecent assault against another child in the Algarve at a playground in 2017 .

Commenting on the case before the trial, Brueckner, who denies the charges, said in a mocking tone: “I hope (they) will soon find answers to (their) questions.”

MailOnline understands that Brueckner had been transferred from Oldenburg prison in northern Germany, where he was serving his seven-year sentence, to Schnedebruch near Hanover for the duration of the trial.

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).”

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Brueckner's lawyer Friedrich Fulscher said he was “aiming for a complete acquittal” on all charges.

He said: 'The hope is for a fair trial, but my client has been attacked in the media. He will not say anything during the hearing other than his name, but nothing should be inferred from that.

'What needs to be made clear is that these charges have nothing to do with Madeleine McCann and now, almost four years after he was named as a suspect, no update has been received from prosecutors.

'He has not been charged with anything in connection with the McCann investigation and I have not even been given access to the files in that case and I have no idea what the evidence against him is.

'Only the Public Prosecution Service thinks it has the right person.'

As part of his defense team, Mr Fulscher has brought in three other export people, including Philipp Marquort, an expert in IT forensics who will be used to help Brueckner with mobile and computer data.

Others on his team include Atilla Aykac, an expert in cross-examination, and who recently filed to have a case dismissed after revealing during a trial that a judge was having an affair.

Mr Fulscher warned: 'Some prosecution witnesses will have to be prepared for some unpleasant questions.'

The final member of the team is law professor Dennis Bock, who was described by Mr Fulscher as 'simply legally brilliant'.

The witnesses include Brueckner's former friends and ex-girlfriends, and Hazel's ex-boyfriend will also testify.

MOLLY MCCANN scored a stunning victory over Diana Belbita after appearing to “pop” her rival's arm.

The two fighters went head-to-head at the UFC Apex in the Women's Strawweight category.

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McCann, 33, dominated the fight, winning via a Round 1 submission with just one second left on the clock.

She performed an incredible armbar move, grabbing Belbita's arm and pinning her down with her legs.

The Romanian tapped out when she started screaming in pain.

The referee rushed in to get McCann away and straighten the fighter's arm.

McCann's emotions came out as she fell to the ground after her stunning win.

However, Belbita still had a lot of discomfort while she remained lying down.

According to commentary, they were convinced her “arm definitely popped.”

Many initially thought she had broken her arm during the fight.

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However, Belbita confirmed she avoided a broken arm last night following the results of a CT scan.

She wrote: “Not a broken bone. I have to do an MRI as soon as I get back to Canada.

“It feels like a torn ligament.”

It was the first win of McCann's MMA career.

She apologized for not moving up to her natural weight class sooner when she spoke after the fight.

She said: “I would really like to take this time to apologize to the UFC, to my fans and to myself for not being at the right weight for all my other fights and for my last two appearances .

“But today I forgive myself so we can move forward.”

She is now aiming for UFC gold.

She added: “Say less, do more, say less, do more.

“The plan was to become world champion, but that didn't work out at 125 pounds. You know that if the plan doesn't work, you don't change the goal. You change the plan.

'Adversity, I went through it.

“My coach Paulus [Rimmer] promised me this would happen and I listened.”

Ferne McCann has opened up about her relationship with her fiancé Lorri Haines, revealing the couple sleep in separate beds and have no plans to tie the knot anytime soon.

The Only Way Is Essex star, 33, and the entrepreneur, 32, who share daughter Finty, six months, started dating in 2021 and got engaged seven months later in July 2022.

Ferne has admitted the couple's relationship has changed since they welcomed their baby daughter, who joins Ferne's other daughter on Sunday at the age of six, from her previous relationship with acid attack criminal Arthur Collins.

Speak with OK! magazineshe explained that they now sleep in separate bedrooms to cope with Finty's irregular sleep routine.

The reality star admitted the arrangement means their sex life has taken a hit, but insisted having their own bed was 'honestly perfect'.

Ferne confessed: 'I really love it. There are times when I can be quite needy and say, “You don't love me anymore, I need you in bed.”

“But I much prefer it and I don't know when we'll sleep in the same bed again!”

“The last few nights we watched Beef on Netflix in bed and had really nice conversations, and he went to bed. It's really perfect.'

Discussing the impact on their chances of getting intimate, she admitted: 'I'll be completely honest with you, it doesn't happen that often at the moment.

'When we first met we had sex five times a week, sometimes twice a day. It's not that at all.'

She continued, “I think we're focused on different things with the baby. We find the time when we need it. We both work during the day…'

Ferne also revealed that the couple are in no rush to tie the knot, but says she thinks they will opt for a long engagement instead.

She said, “I'm looking at my vision board right now and there's not a bridal veil in sight. Maybe I should put something on that so we can eventually get married.

“I just feel like we're going to be engaged for a long time. We are committed to each other; I don't feel like we should get married right now.'

Lorri proposed to Ferne 18 months ago, while the romantic scenes were airing on her ITVBe show, Ferne McCann: First Time Mum.

He got down on one knee on a raised wooden platform on an idyllic beach in France, surrounded by flowers, after asking Ferne's grandfather Frank for permission.

Ferne previously said she wanted an 'intimate' wedding surrounded by their children, but her plans have changed since welcoming Finty.

Last month she admitted to MailOnline that she and Lorri haven't started planning the big day and even suggested they elope to Las Vegas instead.

She explained, “We're just enjoying the engagement and the baby. We haven't really started planning yet.

'You never know what's going to happen. I might end up pregnant again, or we might run away and get married in Vegas. It's just life.'

Ferne McCann has revealed how she managed to change her fiancé Lorri Haines’ ‘bachelor ways’ before they met.

The Only Way Is Essex star, 33, who shares daughter Finty with Lorri, 33, started dating in 2021 and got engaged last year.

Ferne also has a six-year-old daughter on Sunday with her previous partner Arthur Collins, an acid attack criminal.

As the family prepares for a Christmas party with their newborn baby, Ferne shares how she calmed Lorri down when they first met.

Ferne told me The mirror: ‘I mean Lorri was such a bachelor before I met him. One Christmas day he flew abroad and had his Christmas dinner at the airport.

‘I thought: that’s not a tradition. But yeah, he was just living his best single life until he met me and we merged our families. So we’re not going to do that!

‘This will actually be the second Christmas we spend together. I mean, we moved really fast – had a baby, got engaged and all that, but this will be our second Christmas, so I think we’ll make our own traditions together.”

Ferne also shared that she would like to have more children with Lorri after baby Finty cemented them as a family.

Looking to the future, Ferne said she definitely wants to have more children and joked about having as many as ten children.

Ferne exclusively told MailOnline: ‘I think about this all the time. If you had asked me four months ago, when I was just in the newborn stage and still high from birth – which was incredible with Finty – I would have said yes, I want 10 more.

‘But as Finty gets older she’s more lively and gives back more, so I just really want to enjoy her. Like I’m so proud of Finty.

“And I think if we still had one now, life would already be chaotic. We are very busy. I won’t say never, because I would like to have more children, but I think I’m doing well for now, but I wouldn’t rule it out.’

Ferne concluded: ‘I can see myself with four or five children.’

Speaking about becoming a blended family, Ferne further told MailOnline: ‘For years I was a single parent with Sunday, who I absolutely loved.

‘I look back on that chapter in my life with such loving, warm memories, as if our bond is so unique and so close that of course it would be a big change for us.

‘When we met Laurie, we fell in love very quickly, but we knew having children would take a little more time. So it took almost two years before the families really came together. And of course, like any relationship, it takes work.

‘But I feel like for the first time in those two years we’re really in our flow, like we’re a team now and I love our family dynamic.

‘If I’m honest, it hasn’t been plain sailing, but like any relationship you have to work at it and put in the effort.

“Finty has really just been the glue and cemented us as a family.”

The model recently returned to reality television, with Ferne McCann: My Family & Me following her and those close to her.

Ferne also runs the mental health app Shoorah, which she co-founded with Lorri in June 2022.

Ferne has revealed that she and Lorri are not stuck in wedding planning and may decide to just elope to Vegas.

She told MailOnline: ‘We’re just enjoying that engagement and the baby. We haven’t really started planning yet.

‘You never know what’s going to happen. I might end up pregnant again, or we might run away and get married in Vegas. It’s just life.’

The man who notified authorities of Madeleine McCann’s prime suspect, Christian Brueckner, has claimed the girl’s suspected killer said she “didn’t scream” when she was abducted, in his first-ever public interview.

Key witness Helge Busching explained how he learned of Brueckner’s dark past, how his former acquaintance seemed to blame himself for Madeleine’s disappearance – and how Scotland Yard ignored his tip.

Helge said he learned of Brueckner’s true nature well before McCann’s disappearance, after he stole some videotapes and guns from Brueckner’s house.

Recalling when he witnessed the clips, which allegedly showed Brueckner sexually assaulting an elderly American woman and a teenage girl in Portugal, Helge said:

“You could see someone beating the woman. She was tied up, lying on the bed, wearing painted ski goggles… must have been 70 or 80 years old. She yelled: You damn son of a bitch!… then I saw it was Brueckner.

‘[The teenage victim] said, “This is bordering on rape!” And he just said, “Shut up.” That’s when I knew what kind of guy Brueckner was.’

Helge then left Portugal, but told the German outlet Image how in 2008 at a music festival in Spain he again crossed paths with Brueckner, who has since been convicted of sexual offenses.

‘He asked me, ‘are you not going to Portugal anymore to do business there?’

“I said, ‘No, since the girl disappeared there, there have been too many police checks for me and I don’t need that at all.'”

‘[The topic of Madeleine’s disappearance] came up and I said, “Anyway, I don’t understand how the little one could have disappeared without a trace.”

“Christian had two or three beers and he said, ‘She wasn’t yelling.'”

‘I thought: he knows that. He has something to do with it. But he also checked that I understood that and then left at night.

‘At 3 or 4 am he left a packed festival in his mobile home. I looked for him the next morning, but his neighbors said he had left.’

Helge further claimed that he approached German authorities after finding the videotapes, but that a police officer told him to leave them behind and keep quiet.

“I spoke to a police officer I know in Germany. He said, “Helge, keep your hands off it.” A lawyer told me the same thing. I wasn’t sure what could happen to me – I would have blamed myself!’

He added that in 2008 he tried to inform Scotland Yard about Brueckner through the special hotline for Madeleine McCann tips, but never heard back.

“I called Scotland Yard in 2008. At the Maddie hotline. I said I knew someone who might have something to do with it and gave them the name. But nothing happened there. Nothing! I was never called back.

“In 2017 I had just served a prison sentence in Greece. When I heard about the 10th anniversary of the disappearance, I remembered. Apparently the phone call didn’t help at all. So I contacted Scotland Yard again.

“Then they listened to me.”

Madeleine was staying with her family in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal when she disappeared in May 2007.

The case, which has gone unsolved for the past 16 years, remains a mystery as no body has ever been found.

Last month, investigators combed a reservoir in the Algarve for the videotapes, a camcorder and the gun discarded by Helge and his accomplice Manfred Seyferth after they stole the materials from Brueckner’s house.

An area of ​​about 160 square feet was flattened and cleared of grass and shrubs with several holes dug in the ground to a depth of about two feet.

Other holes had also been dug in the water’s edge close to the waterline and the path close to the edge of the reservoir had been cleared.

It is thought that the soil removed was taken by German officials for further examination at a laboratory in Wiesbaden, which is home to the country’s investigative force, the BKA.

Germans Seyferth and Busching lived in the Algarve at the same time as Brueckner and the two were involved in petty theft with him before falling out.

Footage from the video camera allegedly showed Brueckner torturing and raping an American woman, with footage of a girl about 15 years old also subjected to the same gruesome ordeal.

In 2019, Brueckner was convicted by a German court of raping an elderly American woman at her home in Praia da Luz, close to where Madeleine disappeared, and given a seven-year prison sentence.

He denies any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.