Madeleine McCann cops preparing to dig up German paedo Christian B’s Portuguese lairs
COPS are readying to dig up land around two Portuguese lairs where Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B lived.
One home, a farmhouse, is just 25 minutes' walk from the hotel where the three-year-old went missing 13 years ago.
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The single-storey farmhouse property is littered with abandoned wells and sits on a hillside with a footpath to the beach where she played.
And the other is up in the hills above Praia da Luz on a secluded road surrounded by just a few other houses - a drive from there to the holiday club takes 11 minutes.
In June 2014, Scotland Yard detectives backed by a team of cadaver dogs excavated scrubland around 300 yards from the farmhouse building but unearthed no clues.
The beauty spot is also well known to the Kate and Gerry, who regularly jogged around Black Rock after launching their hunt for their daughter in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
But locals - who described Christian B as a “quiet, angry weirdo” - say the German suspect would have known the area well and they think vital evidence may have been missed.
A Portuguese source said yesterday: “It’s clear the German police have strong evidence that Christian B killed Maddie - but they do not have enough to charge him yet, and they do not have a body.
“Judicial Police have confirmed they have been approached by German authorities in connection with the case and they will undoubtedly be prepared to carry out fresh searches in the hope of giving the McCanns closure.
“The obvious focus would be around the hillside former farm building and another property nearby with links to him.”
You can help by calling Operation Grange with information on 0207 321 9251 or email [email protected]
What we know...
- The German, 43, was living in Praia de Luz, Portugal, when she disappeared
- German police are treating the disappearance as a murder inquiry and say the suspect is 'significant'
- He reportedly fantasised about wanting to "capture something small and use it for days" in a chatroom exchange
- Christian B is said to have dated a British woman for a year when i livid in Portugal
- Anyone with information for Operation Grange can ring 0207 321 9251 or email [email protected]
The 43-year-old couldn't legally be pictured in full in the UK initially, but we are now able to show the convicted rapist after a German newspaper published his photo.
German and UK police forces have appealed for anyone who knows him to contact them with information.
He was initially probed as part of the investigation into the youngster's disappearance but was discounted by Portuguese police despite having a criminal past, it has been claimed.
A former neighbour told Sky News Christian B rented a farm building from an English owner from the mid-90s, leaving a year before Madeleine disappeared.
They said: "He was always a bit angry, driving fast up and down the lane, and then one day, around 2006, he just disappeared without a word. I think he left some rent unpaid.
"About six months later, I was asked to help clean up the place and it was disgusting, absolutely vile. It had been trashed, with broken stuff like computers all over the place.
"We found a bin bag and inside were wigs and exotic clothing, whether just fancy dress or something stranger I couldn't tell."
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 has also been linked to a 1993 British Jaguar, model XJR 6, with a German number plate and registered in Germany, which is believed to have been in Praia da Luz and surrounding areas in 2006 and 2007.
The car was originally in the suspect's name but was re-registered to someone else in Germany the day after Madeleine's disappearance.
At the time of Madeleine's disappearance, he also had access to a distinctive VW T3 Westfalia camper van, from at least April 2007 until sometime after May 2007, which was used in and around the area of Praia da Luz.
Cops think the campervan or Jaguar were involved in the disappearance.
The suspect's extensive rap sheet includes sex attacks on kids, indecent images, sexual coercion, theft and breaking and entering, reports Bild.
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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."
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The neighbour, told German newspaper Bild he would mistreat women and that he had an underage girlfriend from Kosovo.
He said: "He was very bad with women.”
