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CRIME

What we know so far about German suspect in ‘Maddie’ case

The man suspected by German authorities of murdering missing British girl Madeleine McCann has a history of child sex abuse and a conviction for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005, according to court documents.

Published: 5 June 2020 08:48 CEST
What we know so far about German suspect in 'Maddie' case
A police handout shows the type of camper van they believe belonged to the suspect. Photo: DPA

German police have revealed they are investigating a 43-year-old German with a long criminal past 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, is currently in prison in the northern city of Kiel serving a sentence for drug trafficking, DPA news agency reported on Thursday.

He has completed almost two thirds of his sentence and is therefore close to a decision on a possible release on probation, according to documents from Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) seen by AFP.

READ ALSO: German prosecutors assume Madeleine McCann is dead as they investigate new suspect

However, that decision depends on the outcome of another case against him concerning the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in 2005 — in the same seaside village of Praia da Luz.

Christian B. allegedly broke into her house, tied her up and gagged her, beat her for about 15 minutes with a metal object, then raped her and finally forced her to hand over cash.

A court in Braunschweig sentenced him to seven years in prison last December. However, this sentence has not yet been finalised pending a dispute about extradition technicalities.

Madeleine disappeared from her family's holiday apartment on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.

Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her kidnapping and no trace of her has been found.

'Angry'

Hans Christian Wolters, a spokesman for Brunswick prosecutor's office, said Thursday that the German suspect was being investigated “on suspicion of murder”.

“We assume the girl is dead,” he said, describing the suspect as “a sex offender with several previous convictions who has been sentenced for sexual abuse of children, among other things”.

According to police, the suspect, a white man with short blond hair, lived in the Algarve region of Portugal between 1995 and 2007.

He made a living doing odd jobs in the area where Madeleine was taken, and also burgled hotel rooms and holiday flats.

Police believe he was living in a white Westfalia camper van with yellow skirting at the time of the kidnapping and they are keen for witnesses who remember seeing the vehicle back then to come forward.

READ ALSO: German prisoner identified in disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann

Police are not ruling out that Christian B. may have broken into the McCanns' flat for a robbery before spontaneously taking the girl.

Speaking to Sky News, a former neighbour in Portugal said Christian B. was “always a bit angry, driving fast up and down the lane, and then one day, around 2006, he just disappeared without a word”.

According to a report in Der Spiegel magazine, Christian B. was first convicted of sexually abusing children when he was still a teenager.

His criminal record contains a total of 17 entries, the report said, including driving without a license, bodily injury, theft and drunk driving.

He went on trial for the first time in Bavaria in 1994 for “abusing a child” and “performing sexual acts in front of a child”, Spiegel said.

Then 17 years old, Christian B. received a juvenile sentence of two years, which he only partly served.

In 2016, the district court of Braunschweig sentenced him to one year and three months in prison for “creating and possessing child pornographic material”, according to Spiegel.

By Femke Colborne

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CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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