Police appeal receives hundreds of tips after new suspect revealed

German child sex offender being investigated over disappearance of Madeleine McCann

An appeal by police has generated almost 400 tips in the days since authorities said they were investigating a new suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The 43-year-old convicted German child sex offender, currently in prison in his home country, has been named in reports as Christian Brueckner.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “The Op Grange team have had just short of 400 pieces of information through, in calls and emails.”

Operation Grange refers to the force’s active investigation, which the spokesman said police still consider a missing person inquiry because there is no “definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead”.

Meanwhile, German prosecutors are reportedly examining any links to the disappearance of two other children.

They believe Madeleine is dead after she vanished in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007, and are investigating the suspect over her murder.

German news websites reported that authorities contacted the family of Rene Hasee, 6, who went missing in 1996 in the Portuguese Algarve.

An investigation has also been opened into whether the suspect was involved in the disappearance of Inga Gehricke, 5, who vanished from a forest in the Saxony-Anhalt region on May 2 2015.

Prosecutors in the German town of Stendal said they are probing possible connections between the cases of Madeleine and Inga, but said the man – identified as Christian B by local media due to strict rules on the naming of criminals – is not currently a suspect.

The Sun said a witness had identified the suspect as a man she saw acting suspiciously outside the McCanns’ apartment. According to the newspaper, the British woman – referred to as a “credible witness” – said “that’s the man I saw” when shown the suspect’s photo.

It comes after claims, reported by Sky News, that the suspect confessed to his part in Madeleine’s disappearance to a friend as they watched a news report on the 10th anniversary of her vanishing.

Scotland Yard said his name was already known to its investigation, but he did not become a suspect until after information was received as a “direct consequence” of a 2017 appeal.

Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said: “We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive.”

Pictures: PA/ Shutterstock. Madeleine McCann vanished from a resort in Portugal in 2007. German Christian Brueckner, who is currently in jail in his home country, is a suspect in her disappearance.