Madeleine McCann prime suspect visited reservoir 'just days after Briton vanished’
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case visited a remote reservoir in Portugal days after she went missing
PA
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case visited the remote reservoir in Portugal currently being searched just days after she went missing, a police informant has said.
A former friend of Christian B gave officers the tip-off which influenced their decision to carry out a detailed search of specific areas.
The search has now entered a third day after the informant's details matched photographs and videos showing the suspect close to the Arade dam of the Barragem do Arade reservoir.
The area, which Christian B described as a “little piece of paradise”, is about 30 miles from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished in May 2007.
The search has now entered a third day after the informant's details matched photographs and videos showing Christian B close to the Arade dam of the Barragem do Arade reservoir
PA
Based on information from the former friend, teams have been given maps showing detailed locations about where to search.
He told German police that the suspect visited the site — possibly with other people — “some days” after Madeleine’s disappearance, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Investigators believe Madeleine could have been alive for two or three days after she vanished, the source added.
German and Portuguese police are carrying out the searches, with Scotland Yard officers present on a “watching brief”.
Hans Christian Wolters, the German prosecutor involved in the investigation, told the broadcaster NDR: “We have indications that we could find evidence there. I don’t want to say what that is exactly, and I also don’t want to say where these indications come from.
“The only thing that I would clarify is that it doesn’t come from the suspect.”
The reservoir is near the town of Silves, where a lorry driver claims he saw a woman handing a child matching Madeleine’s description to a man two days after she went missing.
Christian B remains in prison after being convicted of raping a 72-year-old American tourist in 2006 after breaking into her villa half a mile from the McCanns’ holiday apartment.
The reservoir is near the town of Silves, where a lorry driver claims he saw a woman handing a child matching Madeleine’s description to a man two days after she went missing
PA
The criminal was identified after two former friends told German police they had found video tapes at the farmhouse where he lived on the outskirts of Praia da Luz showing the rape and two other sex attacks.
He was charged in October last year with raping an unidentified woman at her Portuguese holiday apartment and a German-speaking girl aged over 14 who was allegedly tied naked to a wooden pole in his farmhouse between December 2000 and April 2006.
Christian B also allegedly raped a 20-year-old Irish holiday company representative at her apartment in Praia da Rocha in June 2004 and was said to have “ambushed” a ten-year-old girl on a beach five miles from where Madeleine was abducted the following month.