“We have to balance all the evidence presented to us.”
She said Brueckner’s case was impacted by speculation in the press.
“Everyone had heard about him in the Maddie McCann case. And they all knew that Brueckner since 2020 was always named by the public prosecution office.”
Germany police officers with sniffer dogs, an excavator and ground-penetrating radars spent three days searching for a break in the case.Credit: AP
“When in the media, a person is here described as a sex monster and a pervert, then it influences the witness.”
The trial was a fiercely contested battleground. The courtroom saw angry verbal skirmishes over 35 days of proceedings between prosecutors and the defence, led by Friedrich Fuelscher, along with shouted interruptions by Engemann.
Last week, Ute Lindemann, the chief public prosecutor, demanded a total of 15 years in prison for Brueckner, and for him to be placed under preventive detention, whereby prisoners deemed to pose a danger to society are not released even if they have served their sentence.
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Fuelscher, Brueckner’s defence lawyer, tried to dismantle the prosecution’s case in his terse closing plea on Monday, and showed solidarity with the judge, whom the prosecution accused of bias in favour of Brueckner.
He said: “Last week, you attacked the professional judge, my colleagues and myself, polemically and personally for long bouts.