Inside Madeleine McCann suspect’s ‘secret cellar lair’ dug underneath his German home as cops searched for clues
SHOCKING photos have revealed the “secret cellar lair” Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B dug underneath his German home.
Cops swooped on the rundown house in central Germany where the convicted paedophile had lived after the current tenant raised the alarm.
Christian B had lived at the home on the outskirts of Braunschweig when he ran a kiosk in the city between 2013 and 2016.
While living there he is said to have illegally dug a 10ft deep pit.
It was reported last year a pal of Christian B’s had claimed he wanted to build a dungeon, complete with soundproof walls, “like the guy in Austria,” in a disturbing reference to the evil Josef Fritzl.
There is no evidence though that he actually followed through with the idea.
Last year The Sun revealed what appeared to be a boarded up well had been discovered on the property.
Christian B though left the home to go on the run when he thought German detectives were close to finding him after he was wanted in connection with a number of offences, including a rape in Portgual.
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The current occupier of the house, Sabine Selig, 36, told the Mirror she had called the cops the moment she had heard about Christian B’s connection to the ongoing Maddie investigation.
She added officials had since scoured the basement.
Selig, who described Christian B as “grubby,” said he was desperate to get rid of the property when she took it over in 2016 and go on the run.
He even reportedly joked about going to Italy where he was eventually captured living on the streets of Milan in 2018.
Artist Selig told the paper: “If I had known what kind of guy he was, I never would have moved in here.
“He wanted to give up his little house, his allotment quickly – as quickly as possible. He wanted to run away to Italy. I had to pay him 800 euros to take over the garden.
“It all looked like a rubbish dump, not like a flat. I didn’t care, the garden was big, you could make something out of the hut.
“And I needed the space and Christian B was under stress.”
He had a fixed gaze, he stared at you almost motionless. There was something unpleasant and opaque about him.
Sabine Selig on Christian B
After she moved in she noticed the cellar had been dug out but gave it little thought at the time.
Although she learnt he was the prime suspect in the Maddie case she contacted the police at once who began to dig it up in the search for evidence.
She said it was a “strange feeling” knowing there was a hole under her feet and not knowing what was “buried” there.
While the secluded property which has a wooden structure and a distinctive blue roof is pretty from the outside, inside it is riddled with damp and neglected.
The house has a large garden with a number of fruit trees growing in it.
Tradesman Christian B fitted the property with a kitchen and wood-fuelled stove in an attempt to make it more homely.
'CREEPY'
Selig said the home was more like a child’s fairytale version of a house rather than where a single man would live, adding he had decorated it in a “creepy” fashion with a number of wooden dolls and fairy lights.
Talking about Christian B, she said: “He made a nervous, unsorted impression. He always had a beer in his hand, as far as I can remember.
“He was always very short-tempered, full of tension due to his personal circumstances, one clearly on the run – but from what, I don’t know. There were also friends of his in the allotment garden, but fortunately I haven’t seen them again so far. Strange characters.
“He was always in a jacket, according to my memory was always a bit dirty and he was totally under pressure and had to get away quickly.
“He had a fixed gaze, he stared at you almost motionless. There was something unpleasant and opaque about him. Today I can explain it, it seems to be the Maddie McCann case.”
Madeleine was just three years old when she was snatched from her bed in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.
She has never been found despite a mammoth police search to find her.
Christian B fled to Portugal in 1995 having served a two-year sentence for abusing a child.
He is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Germany after raping a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve in 2005.
German officials are currently compiling evidence against Christian B, who became the prime suspect in Maddie’s disappearance in June 2020.
They believe Maddie has been murdered.
Christian B branded the investigation against him as “scandalous” in a letter penned from his cell in May.
In the letter he claimed the public prosecutor had “brought shame to the legal system”.
REFUSES TO SPEAK TO COPS
He has constantly refused to speak to the cops or investigators about Maddie’s disappearance.
German police scoured another allotment linked to Christian B in Hanover, about an hour away from Braunschweig.
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The allotment was just a short drive away from the flat where he had once lived as well as the Havana Club bar where he often drank.
Cops spent two days in July 2020 using diggers and sniffer dogs to search the area and examine an underground tunnel but came up with nothing.