German authorities reportedly ignored warnings from their own police seven years ago that suspect Christian B could have abducted and killed Madeleine McCann.
Police revealed last week that they are investigating a 43-year-old German convict with a long criminal history over the disappearance of three-year-old “Maddie” from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.
The suspect, named as Christian B. by German media, has a history of previous sex offences including child abuse and rape.
A report from detectives monitoring Christian B identified him as a key suspect in the Madeleine mystery, but it was ignored by Germany’s Federal Criminal Office, according to news magazine Der Spiegel.
The 2013 police report was triggered after British detectives made a new appeal in the Madeleine case on a German Crimewatch-style TV show.
Scotland Yard had just launched its own investigation and was appealing to European tourists who might have been in Portugal when Madeleine vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007.
The report was sent to federal police HQ by police in Braunschweig, who were monitoring Christian B’s criminal behaviour. By that time he already had convictions for child sex abuse.
Der Spiegel writes: “One person did submit a tip about Christian B, but the resulting report from police in Braunschweig to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation was apparently not acted upon, much to the consternation of the local investigators.”
It comes as German police are said to be investigating the new Madeleine suspect for possible involvement in the disappearance of a boy in Portugal in 1996.
They are re-examining the disappearance of Rene Hasee, according to German media.
The then six-year-old from Elsdorf, Germany, went missing from a beach while on holiday with his family in the Portuguese Algarve.
It follows the launch of an investigation into whether the suspect was involved in the disappearance of another child – Inga Gehricke.
The five-year-old vanished during a family barbecue in the Saxony-Anhalt region on 2 May 2015.
She is thought to have wandered into a forest in search of firewood, and is known by German media as “the German Maddie”.
Officers have named the suspect – a convicted child sex offender – only as Christian B and have not revealed his surname for legal reasons.
A Sky News investigation discovered last year that he was already being considered as a potential suspect for Inga’s disappearance.
It is understood his home was searched by police in 2016, but no action was taken.
He reportedly had a property around 60 miles (100km) southwest of Stendal in the town of Neuwegersleben when Inga disappeared.
A year later, he became a suspect in the Madeleine case after police were tipped off by a man who claimed Christian B had indicated he was responsible for her abduction.
Christian B is currently in a German prison serving a seven-year sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal 15 years ago. He was convicted of the offence at Braunschweig District Court in December last year.
The suspect had lived in the German city of Braunschweig before going abroad.
Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her bedroom on 3 May 2007 during a family holiday in the Algarve, Portugal, while her parents were dining with friends nearby.
German police said he lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007.
