Mother’s plea: Don’t give up on Madeleine, Inga Germany/Portugal

The mother of a 5-year-old girl whose disappearance was investigated for links to the man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann has described her hope that both girls are still alive.

Inga Gehricke vanished in 2015 during a family outing to a German forest, eight years after Madeleine vanished from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

Christian Bruckner, 43, was investigated over Inga’s disappearance and jailed after child abuse images were found during the search of a dilapidated former factory owned by him 40 miles from the forest.

The convicted paedophile’s camper van also had a large quantity of used girls’ swimming costumes.

Inga’s mother, Victoria Gehreckle, told the Volksstimme newspaper that she was not aware of his links to the Madeleine investigation until being informed by the media.

The McCanns, from Britain, were on holiday on the Algarve in 2007 when Madeleine, 3, vanished from her bed. Inga was collecting wood during a trip with her parents and other families at a forest in Wilhelmshof, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Bruckner had a car accident close to the forest the day before Inga disappeared. Investigators ruled out any link because his mobile phone was not in the area.

Gehreckle, from Schonebeck, said: ‘‘Finally, there is a suspect in a very similar case who also appears in Inga’s files. This needs to be investigated further. When the Maddie case is finally cleared up, I first hope that the child is alive. Perhaps a connection to the disappearance of Inga could then also be established.’’

‘‘We should all never give up hope that Maddie and Inga are still alive,’’ she added.