Double life of suspect who worked in fine food but dealt in drugs

OTHER PEOPLE may have “concrete knowledge” of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, German police said as they revealed a child sex offender is the prime suspect.

The unnamed man is described as white with short blond hair, about 6ft and was slim when she vanished in 2007.

Christian Hoppe, from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, said the suspect was serving a jail term for a sex crime and had two previous convictions for “sexual contact with girls”.

The German newspaper Braunschweiger Zeitung reported he was serving a seven-year prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005 after he was convicted at Braunschweig District Court in December last year.

And the German magazine

Der Spiegel has reported he was extradited from Portugal in 2017 and initially convicted of drug trafficking.

He is known to have frequented the Praia da Luz area between 1995 and 2007, with some short spells in Germany.

The suspect worked in jobs including in the gastronomy business but allegedly funded his lifestyle through crimes including thefts in hotels and apartments, as well as drug dealing.

At the time of Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3, 2007, he was known to have had access to a distinctive VW T3 Westfalia camper van, which was used around Praia da Luz. He has also been linked to a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 with a German number plate linked to the Praia da Luz area.

The suspect is believed to have been using a Portuguese mobile phone on the day Madeleine went missing.