Madeleine McCann latest updates: German cops believe she’s dead
Scotland Yard has identified a German man who toured Portugal in a camper van as the prime suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann, as police say she is dead.
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German police say they know how Madeleine McCann was killed as the prime suspect is revealed to be a drug-dealing paedophile.
The sex predator, 43, named only as “Christian B”, is behind “multiple” attacks on little girls and raped an American pensioner - while living as a drifter in Portugal.
According to The Sun the 43-year-old - currently behind bars for an unrelated sex attack - was living in a campervan in Praia da Luz in Portugal around the time the three-year-old vanished on May 3, 2007.
His full identity cannot be revealed due to German privacy laws.
He was jailed in Germany last year for seven years for the rape of an American woman in Portugal two years before Madeleine went missing, it’s reported.
According to newspaper Braunschweiger Zeitung, he was convicted of the horrific sex attack after DNA from a body hair on a bed sheet was linked to him.
He is understood to be appealing the rape conviction.
German police say they have determined the method used to kill the British child Madeleine McCann - although this has not been revealed publicly and no body has been found.
The German paedophile is linked to a campervan he was reportedly living in at the time of the disappearance
Madeleine’s parents have welcomed the breakthrough and say they will ‘never give up hope of finding her alive’
In a statement issued before the German prosecutor spoke, the devastated parents said: “All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice.
“We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.”
Bild describes the transient rapist as having blond hair, being 5ft 9inches in height and having a face which is pockmarked from acne.
He is said to have scars on his right leg and birthmarks all over his body.
His fingernails are said to be chewed and stained from years of cigarette-smoking.
Referring to the suspect, the prosecutor said today: “It is a sexual offender that has been convicted several times also for sexual abuse against children.
“He is currently in prison for a different matter. Between 1995 and 2007 he spent time regularly on the Algarve.
“He spent time in a house between Lagos and Praia da Luz.
“As far as we know during that time he had several casual jobs - amongst others, in catering.
“The suspect has admitted burglaries in resorts and holiday flats and also with drug dealing.
“The public prosecution office of Braunschweig has been tasked with investigation because his last residence was in this area.”
The suspect was born in Germany in 1976 but moved to Portugal in his late teens.
SUSPECT ‘ENJOYED TORTURING’ VICTIM
Christian B came into the frame as a suspect in 2017 after allegedly confessing that he knew what happened to Madeleine, it’s reported.
He is understood to have been in a bar in Germany with another man, around the time of the tenth anniversary of the disappearance.
A report came on the TV about Madeleine and he said something to suggest that he knew what happened, it is claimed.
He also allegedly showed the pal a video of himself raping a woman, leading to a police probe that would see him convicted of a 2005 sex attack on a woman in Portugal.
The suspect is behind bars for seven years for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve, German newspaper Braunschweiger Zeitung earlier reported.
He broke into the victim’s house armed with “a curved sabre” and a rope to tie her to a wooden beam, The Times reports.
She was blindfolded, gagged and whipped with a piece of metal before being raped and robbed.
The victim told the police: “He enjoyed torturing me.”
He denied the attack but cops were handed footage of the attack, along with video of another woman being abused.
The newspaper said he was convicted of the offence in Braunschweig district court in December last year.
Braunschweig state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “The public prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig is investigating a 43-year-old German national on suspicion of murder.
“From this you can see that we assume that the girl is dead.”
Christian Hoppe, from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), yesterday said he believes Madeleine may have been randomly targeted after the man broke into her family’s apartment.
He said: “We think that she might have become the victim of a homicide.”
Mr Hoppe was also asked if the suspect could have had accomplices and replied: “We do not rule that out – besides the initial offender there might be others who have known about the crime, the location of Madeleine’s body or even participated in the crime.”
German polices believe the prolific burglar may have initially gone to raid the McCanns’ apartment.
When asked whether the initial break-in was sexually motivated, Mr Hoppe said: “We cannot rule that out.
“But it is also possible that the suspect, after an initial intention of burglary, spontaneously moved on to a sexual motive.”
The man emerged as a “significant” suspect following a vital breakthrough in the case from a witness who came forward after a 10th anniversary appeal by the Met for information in 2017.
He was already known to British and Portuguese police investigating the case but they had refused to disclose why the suspect is now in prison.
Scotland Yard said that the suspect has been linked to a 1980s VW T3 Westfalia white campervan with yellow skirting that was registered in Portugal and pictured in the Algarve in 2007 in another bombshell development.
Police say he was driving the vehicle in the same town just days before Madeleine vanished and is believed to have been living in it for days or weeks before and after the date of her disappearance.
The German suspect has also been linked to a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 with a German number plate seen in Praia da Luz and the surrounding areas in 2006 and 2007.
German police believe one of the two vehicles was used in the disappearance of Madeleine.
On May 4, 2007 - the day after Madeleine vanished - the man had the Jaguar re-registered in Germany under someone else’s name although it is believed the vehicle remained in Portugal.
Cops refused to disclose if any forensic evidence was found linking either vehicle to Madeleine’s disappearance.
Scotland Yard are appealing for information about the campervan and the suspect’s Jaguar.
“Someone out there knows a lot more than they’re letting on,” said Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who is leading Scotland Yard’s investigation.
The suspect’s extensive and disturbing rap sheet includes sex attacks on kids, child pornography, sexual coercion, theft and breaking and entering, reports Bild.
The Metropolitan Police also revealed a 30-minute call was made to the suspect’s Portuguese phone around an hour before the three-year-old is feared to have been snatched from her holiday apartment as parents Kate and Gerry dined with pals nearby.
It has also been reported that he first broke into a house in 1992 when he was aged around 15.
In March 2008, Christian B. was charged with the manufacturing and trafficking of drugs and then in 2015 he was found guilty assault, reports the German newspaper.
On May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, “Maddie” disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve village in Portugal as her parents dined with friends at a nearby restaurant, sparking one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.
Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her disappearance.
The suspect, who was not named by police, is serving a “long prison sentence”, and has previous convictions over child sexual abuse, said Germany’s federal criminal agency.
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Lead investigator Christian Hoppe told ZDF television that their investigation had led police to suspect that the man was involved in the killing of Madeleine.
He regularly lived between 1995 and 2007 in Algarve, police added, launching an appeal for information relating to the two vehicles that the suspect was known to have used as well as two phone numbers.
Portuguese police closed their investigation in 2008 after 14 months, which at one point implicated her parents in her abduction before their names were cleared.
British police opened their own inquiry in July 2013, but excavations in Praia da Luz yielded no evidence.