New German suspect in Madeleine McCann mystery disappearance.

[John]

Madeleine McCann police 'have enough evidence to charge suspect with abduction and murder'
Christian Hoppe, director of Germany's National Crime Agency, said police think they have enough evidence to charge the prime suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance with murdering her

By Jeremy Armstrong & Martin Fricker
21:49, 3 JUN 2020 UPDATED 22:11, 3 JUN 2020

Prosecutors in Germany have already begun building a strong case against the main suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, a drifter with a record of burglary and offences against young girls.

The man, now 43, had been living a “transient” life in a camper van, and working in and around Praia da Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance from a holiday flat in the Algarve resort on May 3, 2007.

In the documentary Case Files XY Unsolved on German TV tonight, Christian Hoppe, director of the National Crime Agency, said German police believed they had almost enough evidence to charge him with Madeleine’s abduction and murder.

Herr Hoppe said that there may be some people associated with the suspect who were aware of his ­movements on the night Madeleine disappeared, and he appealed to them to come forward and “clear their conscience” now.

Police appealed to anyone in the resort at the time to fill “the final gaps” in the case, releasing photos of the man’s camper van and Jaguar car and details of a phone call he made on the night the three-year-old vanished.

Police had been aware of his ­presence in the resort and had been building up a case against him since parents Kate and Gerry McCann made an appeal for information on German TV in October, 2013.

The suspect had faced sexual and drug-dealing charges in Germany before he arrived in Portugal.

He had also been involved in theft and burglary in the country, where he lived from 1995 to 2007, when he returned to Germany.

Police are unclear if the suspected motive was a simple burglary and he had found Madeleine in the flat after he had broken in, or if he went with the intention to abduct her.

Police revealed the man’s Portuguese-registered phone was in the resort the night Madeleine vanished.

He received a half-hour phone call from another Portuguese number an hour before Madeleine was last seen.

His number, +351 912730680, and the caller’s number, +351 916510683, were released. The caller is not a suspect but is a “crucial witness” police now want to trace.

The programme revealed details of properties the suspect used in the area, one an apartment between Praia da Luz and Lagos, the other an empty property around 15km from Lagos.

Viewers were asked to send police any holiday snaps or video which could help their inquiries. In a reconstruction, Kate and Gerry McCann relived the moment they realised Madeleine was gone.

Kate told the programme, a version of Crimewatch, how they had returned from a tapas restaurant to find ­Madeleine’s bed empty.

She said: “It just seemed a very calm and peaceful place when we arrived there. When I went into her bedroom, I could not see her.

“I thought she was in our bedroom but she was not there either. The curtain went ‘pssh’ and I just remember seeing that the window had been opened.”

Gerry said from that moment they knew the “worst thing imaginable” had happened.

Scotland Yard Detective Chief Insp Mark Cranwell said the suspect had lived a “transient lifestyle” living in his camper van for “days on end”.

Police released photos of the man’s 1980s VW camper and Jaguar XJR-6, both were in Praia da Luz in 2007.

The Jaguar was re-registered in Germany to another person the day after Madeleine disappeared.

 The vehicles have since been seized in Germany and checked for forensic clues linking them to Madeleine.

The suspect had rented a ramshackle farm building from a British man two miles from the resort and had made money selling cars.

Former neighbours told Sky News he “disappeared without a word” from the Algarve farmhouse in 2006.

One said: “He arrived in the mid-90s and rented the place from the English owner.

"He went back to Germany at one stage and moved another German guy in to look after it, then came back and threw him out on the street.

“He was always a bit angry, driving fast up and down the lane. And then one day, around 2006, he just disappeared without a word.

"I think he left some rent unpaid. About six months later I was asked to help clean up the place and it was disgusting, ­absolutely vile.

“We found a bin bag and inside were wigs and exotic clothing.”

German authorities are treating their investigation as a murder inquiry, while Scotland Yard say it is still a missing person case.

Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said: “It’s now 13 years since Madeleine went missing. Today is a significant point in time for the Met’s investigation.”

Kate and Gerry welcomed the breakthrough, saying: “All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice. We need to find peace.”

Scotland Yard said they were “aware” of the man before getting a tip-off in May 2017, but he had never previously been a suspect.

They worked alone on the tip for four months before agreeing to liaise with German colleagues.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cundy said since then “a huge amount of work” had been done by the Met and German police.

“The outcome of that is that he is a suspect in the Met’s investigation.

"We will not be giving the name or the identity of this man, but I do recognise that some people will know this suspect.

"Somebody called his phone. We don’t know who that caller was.”

Det Chief Insp Mark Cranwell, who is leading Operation Grange, issued a description of the suspect.

He said: “He is white, has short blond hair, possibly fair, about six foot in height with a slim build. In 2007 he was 30 and may have looked somewhere between 25 and early 30s.”

Appealing to anyone who personally knows the man, he added: “This individual is in prison and we are conscious that some people may have been concerned about contacting police in the past.

“Now is the time to come forward.”

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-police-have-enough-22135055

Operation Grange would not have gone public with this unless they had hit a brick wall. They have no tangible proof that this German was in any way involved in Madeleine's disappearance, their so-called evidence consists merely of coincidences.

They are hoping someone reads this story and chooses to come forward with incriminating information.

[Billy Whizz Fan Club]

Wow.  Someone Abducts a small child and then spends 30 minutes talking to the other person that helped.  I don't suppose we could know where he was at the time, could we?  And how Madeleine was.  Still asleep was she?

Not sure what you’re implying here. According to your narrative MM was alive at 7:30pm. We don’t know the significance of the call but I believe the German authorities are right to try to trace the recipient.

[John]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8385667/Madeleine-McCann-suspect-vanished-suddenly-rented-home.html
The suspect in Madeleine McCann's disappearance is serving a seven-year jail sentence for the rape of 72-year-old American woman, according to reports.

The 43-year-old German criminal was convicted in Braunschweig district court last year for a rape he is said to have committed in Portugal in 2005.

He lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, including for a few years in a house between Lagos and Praia da Luz, according to Braunschweig Zeitung.

Just two years before Maddie's disappearance, the criminal raped an American tourist, the newspaper reported......(article continues, seems he used to deal in cars)

Doesn't sound much like a paedophile if he targeted older women.

[steve_trousers]

interesting article, that claims his residence was alongside the route the Mccanns would have used from their hotel to the beach.
And sheds more light on the Jaguar, apparently he was a second hand car dealer.

[misty]

Doesn't sound much like a paedophile.

Further details here - you can download the English pdf to read. He had several previous sexual convictions.
https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/BekanntePersonen/43_Jaehriger_Deutscher_TV/Sachverhalt.html?nn=26874#detailinformationen132470

He had to be extradited from Italy before he was convicted in Braunschweig last year. The case against him was based on DNA results which were only verified at the end of 2018.
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/niedersachsen/braunschweig_harz_goettingen/Vergewaltigung-in-Portugal-Mann-vor-Gericht,aktuellbraunschweig3482.html&prev=search

[Eleanor]

Operation Grange would not have gone public with this unless they had hit a brick wall. They have no tangible proof that this German was in any way involved in Madeleine's disappearance, their so-called evidence consists merely of coincidences.

They are hoping someone reads this story and chooses to come forward with incriminating information.

Sadly I think that you are right.  But I can't be dealing with this at the moment.  And most of it probably isn't true anyway.

[John]

Sadly I think that you are right.  But I can't be dealing with this at the moment.  And most of it probably isn't true anyway.

Operation Grange previously took great pains to inform us all that they would not be giving a running commentary on this case but now they arrange for details relating to this latest scapegoat alleged suspect to be plastered all over the news channels. IMO this is the end for Grange.

 

[misty]

Christopher Davis

https://twnews.co.uk/uk-news/is-this-the-final-twist-of-the-madeleine-mccann-mystery-i-ve-investigated-for-13-years

During my 40 years as a reporter I have covered countless epoch-defining events.  Yet the question that most people ask me is invariably the same: ‘What really happened to Madeleine McCann?’


 
For 13 of those years I have striven vainly, like many others — Portuguese and British policemen, privately hired detectives, investigative journalists — to provide the answer.

The trail has taken me from Praia da Luz — that far-flung Algarve holiday resort whose name will be forever associated with the most disquieting and astonishing child abduction case in history — all across Europe, and even to North Africa.

It has led me, sometimes literally, down countless blind alleys, and thrown up more red-herrings than a capsized trawler.

But perhaps significantly, given last night’s dramatic Scotland Yard briefing, one of the myriad oddballs whose name came up repeatedly during my inquiries lived in a battered camper-van, and had a young German girlfriend with whom he shambled around southern Portugal.


So UK press know who this man is....

[Eleanor]

Not sure what you’re implying here. According to your narrative MM was alive at 7:30pm. We don’t know the significance of the call but I believe the German authorities are right to try to trace the recipient.

What narrative?  I have never said any such thing.  Although Madeleine almost certainly was.  But don't you be putting words into my mouth, unless you can prove it, of course.

However, there will be No discussion of Paedophillia because I won't have it.  Hopefully you weren't going there.

[Eleanor]

interesting article, that claims his residence was alongside the route the Mccanns would have used from their hotel to the beach.
And sheds more light on the Jaguar, apparently he was a second hand car dealer.

What Jaguar?  Surely not the Jaguar that was owned by Goncalo Amaral?  Oh My. this is getting really interesting  now.

[Eleanor]

Operation Grange previously took great pains to inform us all that they would not be giving a running commentary on this case but now they arrange for details relating to this latest scapegoat alleged suspect to be plastered all over the news channels. IMO this is the end for Grange.

Well there you go, Love.  You can all get back to the aberration of The Bamber Forum.  I am not having anything to do with that.

I wouldn't Moderate that Forum if you paid me.

I will stick with what little there still is for Madeleine .

[Eleanor]

Operation Grange would not have gone public with this unless they had hit a brick wall. They have no tangible proof that this German was in any way involved in Madeleine's disappearance, their so-called evidence consists merely of coincidences.

They are hoping someone reads this story and chooses to come forward with incriminating information.

You are almost certainly right.  But I am now a bit beyond the pale.  I am only certain that The McCanns had nothing to with the disappearance of their daughter.

[Eleanor]

Fingers crossed we find out!! Police have published the number.

What Number?  The man is in prison.

[Myster]

What Jaguar?  Surely not the Jaguar that was owned by Goncalo Amaral?  Oh My. this is getting really interesting  now.

Can you not read?!!!  German and/or British forensics will no doubt have been through both the Jaguar and VW Campervan with fine tooth combs and electrophoresis gel in the search for Madeleine McCann's DNA... and possibly found it, but just keeping the results up their sleeve at the mo.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8384769/Major-breakthrough-hunt-Madeleine-McCann-police-identify-German-suspect.html

[barrier]

Operation Grange would not have gone public with this unless they had hit a brick wall. They have no tangible proof that this German was in any way involved in Madeleine's disappearance, their so-called evidence consists merely of coincidences.

They are hoping someone reads this story and chooses to come forward with incriminating information.

Indeed End of the line,if it's a false lead then what? the supporters already have him guilty.