In May 2007, Maddie McCann disappeared from the resort and has never reappeared. Then, two years ago, the breakthrough: a German is suddenly under suspicion. The Portuguese Public Ministry is moving forward with the investigation.
After 15 years, the search for Maddie’s murderer is not over: the Portuguese Public Ministry continues with the investigations. A German suspect has been officially charged, the prosecutor in Portimão said Thursday. She did not provide any information about the identity of the accused.
Maddie McCann disappeared from her family home at a holiday resort on the south coast of the Algarve, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday, while her parents were having dinner at a restaurant. Despite large-scale international searches, the case was never solved and to this day there is no trace of the girl.
In June 2020, there was a surprising twist: the Public Ministry in Braunschweig announced that it was investigating the murder of German Christian B. He has a criminal record for sex crimes and lived regularly in the Algarve from 1995 to 2007.
Defender assumes “procedural artifice”.
The suspect’s lawyer, Friedrich Fülscher, told Bild newspaper on Thursday: “The step taken by the Portuguese authorities should not be overestimated.” He assumes that the measure is “a procedural trick to avoid imminent prescription” in Portugal in a few days. A spokesperson for the Public Ministry of Oldenburg confirmed to “Bild” that a request for legal assistance had been received from Portugal.
B. is currently serving a seven-year sentence for raping a 72-year-old woman. He was extradited from Portugal to Germany in 2017 on the basis of a European arrest warrant for child sexual abuse. After serving a prison sentence, he left Germany in 2018, but was extradited by Italy a year later. The basis was a second European arrest warrant issued for a drug-related offence.
(APA/DPA)