Woman invited to go on holiday with Madeleine McCann suspect Christian ... trends now
A woman invited to go on holiday with Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner has told a court she feared she 'would be raped' by him and armed herself 'with a knife'.
Charity worker Andrea Barth, 49, said she was in her late 20s when she was invited to Brueckner's ramshackle home in Portugal on a three-week holiday with a friend in 2006 and described her fear on arriving at the convicted sex attacker's house.
She said that when she arrived at his home – just a few minutes from where Madeleine vanished – she recalled it as being 'incredibly dirty' and she became frightened about what might happen.
German Ms Barth said: 'I started to have some concerns,' before adding: 'I started to have strange feeling and started to think "Where are we?" and "I don't know this person."
'I started to think something isn't right here and I was afraid. By this time had gone out and that we would be classic rape victims.
Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian Brueckner arrived in court this morning for his ongoing sex crimes trial with the judge due to hear from ex-lovers and friends
'It was a definitely a very big fear and called my sister in Germany and asked her to get a number for the tourist office to find us a hotel.
'My emotions really spiralled, we were in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to plan an escape.
'We got knives from the kitchen just in case we would have to defend ourselves. For me the danger was very realistic.'
Ms Barth added that Brueckner – who had gone out earlier – eventually came back at around 3am and she had told him they wanted to go and stay elsewhere in the nearby town of Lagos.
She added: 'I was really afraid that Brueckner would come back and that we would be victims of sexual crime.'
Under cross examination from Brueckner's legal team, Ms Barth was asked: 'Is it perhaps more likely you were frightened by the spiders you had seen at the house?' She denied this.
The Madeleine McCann prime suspect arrived in court this morning for his ongoing sex crimes trial with the judge expected to hear from ex-lovers and friends.
Dressed in his now trademark blazer and jacket, Brueckner, 47, was brought into court with handcuffs and shook hands with his legal team before sitting down
Dressed in his now trademark blazer and jacket, Brueckner, 47, was brought into court with handcuffs and shook hands with his legal team before sitting down.
The convicted rapist and paedophile was sensationally named by German police in June 2020 as the man they believe responsible for Madeleine's 'abduction and murder'.
However, since the announcement no charges have been brought raising fears there is no real evidence against him, and he is currently on trial for unrelated sex crimes.
Brueckner was living on the Algarve in 2007 when three-year-old Madeleine went missing while on holiday with parents Kate and Gerry McCann in the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal.
He is charged with raping three women and sex assaults on children between 2000 and 2017 in the same area and is on trial in Braunschweig, Germany, where he used
