Acquittal in rape trial against Maddie suspect
A court has acquitted Christian B., who is also suspected in the Maddie case, of several serious sexual offenses.
The 47-year-old will nevertheless remain in prison. The case involving the girl from Great Britain is not officially the subject of the proceedings.
Christian B., who is also suspected of murder in the Maddie case, has been acquitted of several serious sexual offenses by the Braunschweig Regional Court. The 47-year-old German will remain in prison, however, because he is still serving a prison sentence for rape until September 2025. The verdict is not final and an appeal is possible.
After 38 days of trial before the criminal court in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, the three professional judges and two lay judges acquitted the defendant. Many trial observers had expected this outcome after the court lifted the arrest warrant against the sex offender, who had multiple previous convictions, in July at the request of the defense.
The Braunschweig trial was the focus of international media because the defendant is suspected of murder in the case of the missing three-year-old Madeleine “Maddie” McCann. The Maddie complex is not officially the subject of the current trial. The investigations are continuing, but no charges are foreseeable so far.
Public prosecutor’s office is likely to appeal
At the start of the trial in February, Christian B. was accused of three rapes and two cases of sexual abuse of children in Portugal. After the end of the evidence, the public prosecutor’s office essentially stuck to its conviction and demanded a total of 15 years’ imprisonment followed by preventive detention. In this case, B. could not have been released after serving his sentence.
The prosecutors found him guilty of two rapes and two cases of abuse. In the case of rape, the accusation could not be upheld. The public prosecutor’s office had already announced an appeal in advance in the event of an acquittal.
The defense had demanded an acquittal on Monday. B.’s lawyers argued that there was a lack of evidence and that witnesses were not credible. The defendant had the opportunity to say a final word on the penultimate day of the trial, but did not comment.
