Satellite shots ‘show Madeleine suspect’s van near resort’

SATELLITE images taken shortly after Madeleine Mccann vanished appear to show the prime suspect’s camper van parked just a mile away from her resort, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

German police are now said to be examining the Nasa open source photos after Heriberto Janosch González, a Spanish criminologist, sent them the images from June 2007 − just weeks after the young girl disappeared.

“I have always had an interest in this case, and have degrees in psychology and criminology, so when I heard about the farmhouse I wanted to look into it,” he said.

The van, a white and yellow VW T3 Westfalia from the Eighties appears to be parked near a run-down farmhouse where the suspect lived until late 2006 and could offer clues as to where Christian Brückner went in the aftermath of Madeleine’s abduction. The farmhouse had been left “ramshackle with no sign of occupancy” in 2006, it’s British owner said. Mr González said police should now search the area.

Last night, the Mccanns’ lawyer in Portugal said Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, “don’t know much more than we know” about developments in the case and have not been shown any evidence that their daughter is dead.

In Germany, it emerged yesterday that Brückner’s ex-girlfriend Nicole Fehlinger, a foster carer, had been interviewed by police nine months ago.

She took him in when he turned up looking for work at a restaurant in a remote village 40 miles from Praia da Luz, where she looked after vulnerable German children. Yesterday, her father Dieter said: “My daughter was interviewed by German police between nine months and a year ago in connection with Christian.”

It came as a British ex-girlfriend of Brückner’s claimed he told her he had “a horrible job to do in Praia da Luz” the night before Madeleine disappeared. He told the woman who was not identified: “It’s something I have to do, and it will change my life. You won’t be seeing me for a while,” according to The Sun. Brückner dated two British women while he lived in Prai da Luz, both of whom have reportedly given evidence to the police. It is also claimed that he told friends “just don’t go there” when asked if he had anything to do with the disappearance.

The news comes as British victims of sexual assaults in the Algarve were urged to contact police, after an Irish woman said that her rape could be linked to the man suspected of abducting Madeleine. Hazel Behan said she was working as a holiday rep in Praia da Rocha at the time of the attack, and police had been in touch.

Police in Bayreuth, near Nuremberg, announced yesterday that Brückner is “under investigation” in the case of another girl who disappeared on May 7 2001 on her way home from school.

Partial remains of Peggy Knobloch were discovered in the Thuringian Forest on July 2 2016.