Madeleine McCann suspect makes chilling claim to friend before being reported to police

In an effort to clear his name, Christian B has written several letters which contain complaints about his treatment in prison, where he remains incarcerated for seven years after raping a 72-year-old woman.

One letter attacked informant Helge B who initially contacted police in 2017 to say he had information on the case while he was serving a jail term for people trafficking in Greece.

In the early 2000s, the two were friends in Portugal but Christian B explained in his latest letter that they fell out after a drugs deal went wrong the year Madeleine went missing and never spoke again.

He wrote: "The following sentences from the 'witness' Helge B in 2017 were responsible for all the public hunting and hatred against me by the German authorities."

Quoting Helge B he writes: "I was at the hippy festival in 2008 in Spain. Manfred (Seyferth another witness) was also there as well and Michael (Tatschl another witness), Manfred, Christian and I then started talking about Portugal.

"It was then Christian made a comment about the missing girl. Christian asked me if I was still going to Portugal, I replied; 'I'm no longer going to Portugal because there are too many problems there, Portugal has too many police for me on account of the missing child.

"It is indeed strange that she disappeared without a trace. Christian replied:' 'Yes, she did not scream'."

Blasting the claims he added: "It's not even worthy of comment," before going on to discuss how they fell out over a drug deal.

"In 2007 Helge B sole one kilo of hashish to me and when I arrived in Germany with it, I saw it was only 750g. After that he wasn't existing for me anymore," he said.

"There wasn't any conversation in 2008. Not even Manfred existed for me anymore after this. The point is that the main leader of all the investigations Helge B, who came free a long time before the regular end of his prison in Greece."

Helge B was convicted of people trafficking in Greece and in 2017 media there reported that he had been released so he could meet with officers from Scotland Yard after telling them he had valuable information.

According to a Greek police report, his evidence was "given voluntarily and without monetary or other consideration" and it is unknown what his final sentence for people trafficking was and whether her served it all.

Christian B's lawyer Friedrich Fulscher said: "It remains to be seen whether this conversation took place at all as we have other witnesses who said it didn't."

It comes days after German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters confirmed items had been found following a search last month at the Arade dam which is located 35 miles from where then three-year-old Madeleine was last seen.