Madeleine McCann suspect's court date confirmed as trial for attacks on children to finally go ahead

Brueckner is accused of five separate sex crimes, three of which involve minors.

He will be tried on accusations of rape of an Irish 20-year-old, an elderly woman in her late 50s or 60s, and a young teenage girl.

The two latter cases are claimed to have been filmed in a small farmhouse close to where Madeleine McCann disappeared in May 2007.

The other two charges relate to the alleged sexual assault of a young German girl, 10, one month prior to Madeleine's disappearance and an alleged flashing incident in 2017 in front of a group of school children in a playground.

"It's set to begin on February 16, a Friday and a half day, but there should be enough time to hear all the charges," prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said.

"Everyone is available that day and assuming there are not too many holdups from Christian's lawyer, Mr Fulscher, we will hear his reply to the charges."

He continued: "The first witnesses will be brought in the following week.

"There will be four to five judges, two of them lay judges, normal people who are brought in for such cases."

Earlier this year Brueckner attempted to push back his date in court by switching the German probe to another region.

The move, which would have put the probe under a different jurisdiction, could have pushed the case back several months if not years.

However, the bid has been thrown out of court with investigators set to take the convicted 46-year-old paedophile and rapist to trial.

Today is the first time the date of the court case has been confirmed.

A last minute legal bid was launched by Brueckner's team earleir this month in an attempt to get one of the key witnesses in the case thrown out.

The claim was rejected with Brueckner's lawyer now accepting the start date.