JUSTICE for Maddie?
How German-born Christian B is suspected of killing the threeyear-old, but will he end up slipping through the net..?
Madeleine Mccann vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3 May 2007, just days before her fourth birthday as her parents, Kate and Gerry, dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.
For 13 years there were no firm leads – until now. After a tip-off in 2017, mobile phone records have placed German-born convicted paedophile Christian B in Praia da Luz on the day Madeleine went missing.
Christian B, 43, who was living in Portugal at the time, is currently in prison on drugs charges. He’s also appealing against a rape conviction for an attack on a 72-year-old tourist in Praia da Luz in 2005.
Convicted
But as Julie Etchingham investigates in this new documentary, why did it take so long for him to be linked to Maddie’s disappearance?
‘He was convicted of child abuse as early as 1994,’ says Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of German newspaper Bild. ‘And it wasn’t the only time. There are numerous other convictions, drug convictions, driving under the influence, driving without a licence. It’s a huge criminal record.’
However, although German investigators believe they have evidence that Madeleine is dead, there’s not yet enough to charge him, despite the fact he’s also been linked to other missing children, including five-year-old Inga Gehricke, who disappeared in Germany in 2015.
So could he escape trial? ‘We have evidence which leads us to believe that he killed Madeleine but this evidence isn’t strong enough at the moment to take him to court,’ says German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters. ‘One has to remain open to the possibility that our investigation could end without a charge.’