The new suspect in the Madeleine McCann case is being investigated over the disappearance of a five-year-old girl in Germany.
The 43-year-old German national, who is a convicted child sex offender currently in prison in his home country, has been named in reports as Christian Brueckner.
German prosecutors believe Madeleine was killed after she vanished from an apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007, while on holiday with her family, and are investigating the suspect for her murder.
A preliminary investigation has also opened into whether the suspect is linked to the 2015 disappearance of a five-year-old girl in Germany, prosecutors in the northern town of Stendal told the dpa news agency.
Inga Gehricke vanished from a nearby forest in Saxony-Anhalt on May 2 2015.
The suspect, who was partially identified as Christian B by local media due to the country’s strict rules on naming criminals, reportedly had a property in the town of Neuwegersleben, about 60 miles south-west of Stendal when she went missing.
It comes after claims, first reported by Sky News, that the suspect confessed to his part in Madeleine’s disappearance to a friend as they watched a TV news report in a German bar on the 10th anniversary of her disappearance.
Scotland Yard said his name was already known to its investigation, but he did not become a suspect until after information was received as a “direct consequence” of a 2017 appeal.
The force’s Operation Grange is still conducting a missing person inquiry as there is no “definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead”.
But German prosecutors are investigating the child sex predator on suspicion of her murder.
The suspect is reportedly serving a seven-year prison sentence in the German port city of Kiel for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005 after being convicted at Braunschweig District Court last December.
Der Spiegel reported his criminal record contains 17 entries, including a conviction for the sexual abuse of a child in 1994 when he was 17, and a 2016 conviction for abusing another child and possession of child abuse images.
The details emerged after British, German and Portuguese authorities revealed a new suspect had been identified in Madeleine’s disappearance as a fresh appeal was launched on Wednesday night.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who leads the Metropolitan Police probe, said he was “pleased” after receiving more than 270 calls and emails by 4pm on Thursday.
Madeleine’s doctor parents Kate and Gerry McCann from Rothley, Leicestershire, welcomed the appeal in a statement saying: “We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive.”
Their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said yesterday: “They certainly will be encouraged to know the appeal is yielding results already and hopefully within that there will be crucial bits of information the police can act upon.”
He added: “They are trying to maintain as normal a life as possible under the circumstances, continuing their medical work where necessary and bringing the twins up as best they can, while shielding them from all the attention. They wait to hear any developments from police.”
The suspect is known to have been living in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007, where he funded his lifestyle through crimes that included breaking into hotels and holiday apartments.
His Portuguese mobile phone was in Praia da Luz when it received a half-hour phone call around an hour before Madeleine, three, was last seen.
It is thought he had been living in a distinctive early 1980s VW T3 Westfalia campervan at the time and re-registered a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 in someone else’s name the day after her disappearance.
Christian Hoppe, of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, has said German police have not ruled out a sexual motive for the alleged crime against Madeleine.
He said the suspect may have broken into an apartment in the Ocean Club complex, where she was on holiday with her parents and twin siblings, before spontaneously kidnapping her.
The revelations raise questions over whether mistakes in the Portuguese probe may have let the suspect slip the net. Portuguese police would not comment on whether Brueckner was spoken to in their initial investigation.
