Madeleine McCann suspect ‘dated British woman for a year while living in Portugal in 2004’
THE Madeleine McCann suspect had a year-long relationship with a British woman while living in Portugal, it is claimed.
Named as Christian B by German cops, the 43-year-old couldn't be pictured in full in the UK because of privacy laws but we are now able to show the convicted rapist's face after a major German newspaper published his photo.
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German and UK police forces have appealed for anyone who knows him to contact them with information.
His mugshot shows he has blue eyes and blonde hair with pockmarked skin - similar to an e-fit released in 2013 of a light-haired suspect seen skulking near the apartment where Madeleine vanished hours later.
It has emerged that while living in Praia da Luz in 2004, he had a relationship with an unnamed British woman, according to German news magazine FOCUS Online.
Christian B is now the prime suspect in the infamous 2007 disappearance with prosecutors in Germany investigating him ";on suspicion of murder".
They sensationally revealed yesterday they believe Madeleine is dead and know how she was killed - despite no body being found.
Do you know Christian B's former girlfriend? Get in touch at [email protected] or 02077824368
Scotland Yard, who are still treating the disappearance as a missing person's probe, confirmed a prime suspect in jail in Germany had been identified.
He has not been named by British cops but has been unmasked as Christian B - a convicted paedophile and rapist banged up for attacking a 72-year-old tourist in Portugal.
Christian B, who has a total of 17 convictions, according to , cruised the Algarve in a vintage Jaguar during 12 nomadic years as a wannabe bohemian in Portugal.
What we know...
- The German paedophile, 43, was living in Praia de Luz, Portugal, when Madeleine disappeared
- He took a 30-minute call on his mobile around an hour before she vanished
- The suspect is linked to a campervan he was reportedly living in at the time of the disappearance
- German police are treating the disappearance as a murder inquiry and say the suspect is 'significant'
- Madeleine's parents have welcomed the breakthrough and say they will 'never give up hope of finding her alive'
- Anyone with information for Operation Grange can ring 0207 321 9251 or email [email protected]
The 43-year-old was living in a campervan in Praia da Luz in Portugal around the time three-year-old Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.
The suspect is currently in jail in the German city of Kiel serving a 21-month drugs sentence and will serve seven years for the rape if his conviction is upheld on an appeal he has lodged against the verdict.
Christian B trained as a car mechanic, and first fled to Lagos in Portugal with a girlfriend after serving part of a two-year sentence for child abuse at a Wurzburg juvenile court in 1994.
In 2000, he was caught by Portuguese cops and deported to Germany under a European Arrest Warrant.
After being released from jail, he returned to Portugal and settled in Praia da Luz, working as a waiter and selling advertising for English newspapers during a 12-year stint at the resort where the McCanns took their fateful holiday.
On May 4, 2007 - the day after Madeleine vanished - he got the Jaguar re-registered in Germany under someone else's name although it is believed the vehicle remained in Portugal.
German police believe one of the two vehicles were used in the disappearance of Madeleine.
He also took a mysterious 30-minute phonecall just one hour before the disappearance and had also rented two homes in Portugal just miles from the Ocean Club where Madeleine was staying.
The suspect's extensive rap sheet includes sex attacks on kids, indecent images, sexual coercion, theft and breaking and entering, reports Bild.
He was first convicted aged just 17 in Bavaria in 1994 for “abusing a child” and “performing sex acts in front of a child”.
A former neighbour of the career criminal in Braunschweig, the German city where Christian B opened a kiosk after relocating in 2014, said he was "often very aggressive."
The neighbour, named only as Norbert M., told German newspaper Bild he would mistreat women and that he had an underage girlfriend from Kosovo.
Norbert M said: "He was very bad with women.
"He had a minor friend who came from Kosovo. He always beat them. Once she even had strangles on her neck."
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Christian B was first thrust into the frame in 2017 after allegedly confessing to abducting Madeleine in a bar.
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He was reportedly chatting to the friend in Germany when a TV report came on about the tenth anniversary of the girl's disappearance and he suggested he knew what had happened to her.
German sources claim he boasted he had "snatched her" but didn’t say he had killed her.
