Lower Saxony

As he left court in Lower Saxony, Germany, he was asked by BBC News if he kidnapped and killed the three-year-old.

Brückner is due in court on Thursday morning in Lehrte, Lower Saxony, to face the charge of insulting a prison staff member, a court official told the BBC.

They will do so amid the verdant surroundings of Lower Saxony where the watch towers, fences and buildings have gone.

The scientists used a unique empirical dataset, taking data from 40 plots of mature European beech forests across the state of Lower Saxony in Germany.

Brückner's trial is being heard by judges - not a jury - in Braunschweig, in the north-western state of Lower Saxony, because that was where Brückner was last officially registered.