A German paedophile has been identified as a new key suspect in the case of Madeleine McCann, who has not been seen since 2007, when she disappeared from a family holiday site. The unnamed suspect is currently in jail for sex crimes and has been previously convicted twice for "sexual contact with girls", according to the statement made by German State Prosecutor's office of Braunschweig.
"This man is white and in 2007 is believed to have had short blond hair, possibly fair. He was about 6ft in height with a slim build. He is 43-years-old, but in 2007 may have looked between 25 to early 30s", a Metropolitan police statement described the suspect.
The new information was described by London Metropolitan Police as a "significant new line of enquiry", expressing belief that the new suspect might have been possibly connected to her disappearance.
"Following the ten-year anniversary, the Met received information about a German man who was known to have been in and around Praia da Luz. We have been working with colleagues in Germany and Portugal and this man is a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance", Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, leader of the investigation, said in a statement.
According to newly released details, the suspect had access to two vehicles in the area where the girl was last spotted - Praia da Luz in Portugal. One of the cars might have been used on the day Madeleine disappeared and then re-registered to some other person in Germany a day after.
Operation Grange
Madeleine disappeared nine days before her fourth birthday in 2007, after her parents left her and her siblings, Sean and Amely, in the apartment on the first floor to have dinner in a bar 50 metres away from the hotel.
It has been 13 years since Madeleine's parents returned from the tapas bar and failed to find the girl sleeping peacefully in her bed in the Portuguese holiday apartment. 3 May 2007 was the day when a large and costly police investigation into the case was started, fueled by big media attention driven to the incident.
As the case was investigated, Madeleine's parents were suspected to be related to the girl's vanishing, but were justified in June 2008, when Portuguese police halted the case. Only in 2013, Scotland Yard opened a new investigation which evolved into so-called Operation Grange.
UK authorities offer a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
