The German suspected of murdering little Maddie in Portugal has been officially named by the courts.
Christian B., the man allegedly involved in the murder of little Maddie McCann, has been officially named the main suspect in Germany at the request of the Portuguese justice. His status now makes him an “arguido”, that is, he is considered the prime suspect without being charged for the time being.
Also read: His name first appeared in 2020, when the German justice indicated that it had evidence against him †
Christian B., 44, is already serving a prison sentence for the rape of a 72-year-old woman, assaulted in Praia da Luz, in the same hotel where the little girl was at the time of her disappearance. “This person has become an ‘arguido’ to the German authorities, in response to the request for international judicial cooperation requested by Portugal,” the German justice system said in a press release. Little Maddie’s parents had also gone “arguido” in 2007, at the start of a controversial investigation that had the whole world turned eyes on them. This status was later lifted for lack of sufficient evidence linking them to the case.
A repeat pedophile
Maddie McCann disappeared on May 4, 2007 † During a family vacation in Portugal, her parents had left her in their rented apartment in Praia da Luz while she slept with her brothers. Returning from dinner with their friends, the McCanns could only notice the little girl’s absence. After years of wandering, full of twists and turns and disappointments, the name of Christian B., a recurring pedophile, was revealed.
At the time of the girl’s disappearance, the suspect was working in the seaside resort, “where he did odd jobs,” said Hans Christian Wolters, prosecutor of Braunschweig, in 2020. He also financed his lifestyle through housing inhabited by tourists and participating in drug trafficking. “We have serious suspicions that we cannot disclose. Or say why it seems to us that Maddie McCann was murdered. But we don’t have strong enough evidence yet to prove his guilt in court beyond a doubt.” explained to Match Hans Christian Wolters in June 2020. The man could also be involved in the disappearance of a little girl in Germany in 2015, two years after Maddie, and a boy in 1996 in Portugal. near Praia da Luz.
The decision of the German judiciary to make the suspect an “arguido” comes because the deadline to charge him would be in a few days. In July 2020, the McCanns’ lawyer, Rogerio Alves, had warned about this particular point, pointing out that in Portugal the term to charge a suspect in a criminal case is 15 years, meaning he is not just two years. would stay at the moment to take action against him. According to the “Mirror Christian B.’s lawyer also stated: “The decision of the Portuguese authorities should not be overestimated. Without knowing the legal situation in Portugal, I assume that it is mainly an artificial measure in this procedure, aimed at countering the prescription, which would take place in a few days’ time.”
The public prosecutor of Braunschweig (Germany) Hans Christian Wolters, in charge of the investigation into Christian B., confirms us: “The Portuguese judicial authorities informed the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Oldendurg, where Christian B. is detained, on Tuesday of his arrest. Apr 19. investigation into the Maddie file. It is a procedural act that allows the Portuguese to continue their investigation after May 4, the date on which they would have been legally obliged to stop their investigation into Christian B. The latter was not heard in the context of the child’s disappearance and no new element has yet been found, on the German and Portuguese side”.
