Seven key pieces of bombshell evidence linking Christian B to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance as he’s made a suspect
GERMAN prosecutors believe convicted paedophile Christian B snatched Madeleine McCann as he was named an official suspect in Portugal.
Following a lengthy investigation by authorities in Portugal, Germany and the UK, there is now potentially crucial evidence that could solve the world's most-famous missing child mystery.
And now, cops investigating the 15-year case are said to be more hopeful after Christian B was informed he was now an 'arguido' - meaning a formal suspect - by local authorities in Portugal.
He could face trial in light of "extremely strong" new evidence from the tot's 2007 disappearance, according to Jim Gamble.
The former Chief Met Police Officer acknowledged the "false storms" which have plagued the Maddie mystery, but said this is "not just another case plucked out of the pile".
A source close to the investigation said Christian B remained "unmoved" by the announcement and continued to deny having "anything to do with the disappearance of Maddie."
The fresh Portuguese investigations come after the Met's £12million Operation Grange enquiry failed to provide answers for Madeleine's anguished parents Kate and Gerry.
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The pair are said to still hold out hope their daughter - who would now be 18 - is still alive.
But prosecutors in Germany are sure she is dead after looking into Christian B's past links to the Algarve.
He is currently in jail in Germany for raping a pensioner on the Portuguese sunshine coast in 2005 and is suspected of a string of other crimes.
But he has refused to cooperate with investigators on the McCann case, aside from insisting he was not involved.
As they search for the missing piece of the jigsaw, prosecutors are faced with a series of potential clues that link the German with the tot's disappearance.
CRIMES IN THE AREA
Christian B is being probed over at least five other sex crimes, a German prosecutor revealed last September.
Hans Christian Wolters revealed the convicted paedophile, 44, is being investigated over an attack on a girl, 10, as well as the murder of a teenager, 16, in Belgium.
In a book released last year, Wolters said German cops believed "there is good basis" to suspect the paedo is responsible for a sex attack on a girl aged 10.
He said the assault, which involved a naked man, happened six miles from where Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz just one month later.
Wolters also said officers in Belgium are probing the 44-year-old over the killing of Carola Titze, 16, in De Hana in 1996.
The sex offender is also a suspect in the 2004 rape of an Irish woman, 20 in Praia de Rocha, Portugal.
Speaking in the book My Search for Madeleine by Brit journalist Jon Clarke, released last year, Wolters said Christian B is being investigated over an incident in a children's playground in Messines just 40 miles from Praia da Luz in 2017.
He also said German cops were looking at whether the suspect is connected to the disappearance of “German Maddie” – Inga Gehricke who vanished aged five in 2015.
PHONE PINGED NEARBY
In January this year, it was claimed in a German documentary that mobile phone analysts had placed Christian B "five minutes" from where Maddie vanished.
The documentary team by German TV channel SAT.1 suggested that his mobile was "no more than five minutes away" from the Ocean Club on the night that the three-year-old vanished.
At the time, he was living in a battered hippy van which he was reportedly using to traffic drugs.
MODIFIED 'SNATCHER' VAN
In July 2020, it was reported that Christian B modified his VW camper van so that he could use it to hide a child.
The paedophile lived in the vehicle above a basement at an allotment in Hanover around the time three-year-old Madeleine disappeared.
Christian B once boasted he could have used his VW campervan to transport children.
Dein Ghafou, who owned a garage complex Hanover used by Christian B, told how he was visited by police investigating Madeleine’s disappearance.
"I told them he had been working on a Volkswagen Camper here and he would lift the roof up and then make it smaller again,"
"He was always cutting the roof, raising it and then lowering it. He came and went here.
"We really didn’t notice, we didn’t realise he was a complete criminal. If we had known he was like that we would not let him come and go so often.
"He said he had lived in Portugal at some point but I was not interested and did not ask him anymore."
PAEDO FANTASIES
Earlier this year, a study of Christian B's online chat history revealed he had disturbing fantasies about paedophilia.
The convicted rapist and paedophile allegedly discussed kidnapping and sexually abusing a child in a chatroom exchange in September 2013.
In one exchange with his online pal he reportedly claimed he would make a lot of films if he were to capture a “little one”.
While on the darknet in another exchange he is said to have written: "Capture something small and use it for days, that's it," reports .
When a pal responded to warn him this could be dangerous, Christian B reportedly responded: "Oh, if the evidence is destroyed afterwards."
It is not known if Christian B ever carried out this sick fantasy for real.
Cops became aware of the online chats after his then-girlfriend reported him for an attack in 2015 and his home was searched.
Officers discovered a video camera with a memory card loaded with horrific images of child pornography.
She also insisted that she was the man's "lover, not his accomplice".
SECRET CELLAR
The probe into Christian B has revealed he had access to a number of creepy lairs shut away from prying eyes.
One was a run-down compound on the Algarve with high fences not far from where Madeleine was snatched.
A former lover led cops to the secret bunker, which was previously guarded by four ferocious Kangal dogs - which have the strongest bite of any hound in the world.
The probe also led police to search his former address in Germany.
At one house, the suspect is said to have illegally dug a secret 10ft cellar under the floor.
Locals claimed he planned to live like Austrian cellar monster Josef Fritzl, although there is no evidence of any wrongdoing at the secluded property.
SINISTER FACTORY
Christian B also bought a former cardboard box factory a couple of years after Madeleine vanished.
Journalist Jon Clarke found what appeared to be a shallow grave inside after cops had searched it.
It was in this disused factory that police found more than 8,000 sickening photos and videos of sexual abuse he had hidden in a Lidl bag under the body of Christian B’s buried dead dog Charlie.
Scrawled on a wall in red, the words, "Mein freundin hat mich beloneen betrogen zum hass eerzogem," meaning: "My girlfriend lied to me, cheated on me and raised me to hate," were found.
Inside the lair, Clarke also discovered a pair of dirty mattresses propped up against a wall, a tub full of empty alcohol bottles, and a broken pair of women's sunglasses.
Last night a source close to the investigation said Christian B remained "unmoved" by the announcement.
He said: "Christian and his legal team's position is as it was this time last week and that is they deny he had anything to do with the disappearance of Maddie.
"As far as they are concerned this is the latest desperate roll of the dice following an expensive investigation which has so far failed to provide any evidence linking him to the crime.
"Christian and his legal team were also not surprised by this news. They'd been expecting it for a little while."
The source also questioned claims Christian B could be flown to the Algarve to be quizzed by cops.
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"There's virtually zero chance of this happening," the source said. "Officers have no new information to put to him or ask him about so it would be a waste of everyone's time.
"Christian's legal team believe detectives are basing their belief that he is involved in Maddie's disappearance on false evidence and are totally clutching at straws. This step will allow them to drag their investigation out for longer but none of the facts have changed."