Police search German allotment garden in Madeleine McCann case

BERLIN: Police are searching an allotment plot in the northern German city of Hanover in connection with the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Despite a huge international manhunt, no trace of her has been found, nor has anyone been charged over her disappearance.

“I can confirm that the search is being carried out in connection with our investigations into the Maddie McCann case,” Brunswick prosecutor Julia Meyer told AFP, when asked about the operation first reported by local Hannoversche Allgemeine newspaper.

Police began searching the site in the early hours of Tuesday morning, clearing trees and using an excavator, the newspaper report said.

Meyer gave no details of how the plot was connected to the case or what they were hoping to find.

Police revealed in June that they were investigating a 43-year-old German man over the 2007 disappearance of three-year-old “Maddie”, saying they believe he killed her.

The suspect, who was not named by police but identified by German media as Christian B., lived in Hanover from 2007, according to the Hannoversche Allgemeine.

Previous convictions 

Christian B. has a history of previous convictions including child sex offences and rape. He is currently serving a sentence for drug trafficking in Kiel.

He has applied to be released early on probation after having completed two-thirds of the sentence, with a decision still pending.

A court in Brunswick had separately sentenced Christian B. to seven years in prison last December for an assault against a 72-year-old American tourist in 2005 — in the same seaside village of Praia da Luz where Maddie went missing.

But that sentence has not yet been finalised pending an appeal by the defendant’s lawyers over extradition technicalities.

‘Concrete evidence’

According to police, the suspect lived in the Algarve region of Portugal between 1995 and 2007.

He made a living doing odd jobs in the area where Madeleine was taken, and also burgled hotel rooms and holiday flats.

German prosecutors said in June they had “concrete evidence” that Madeleine is dead, despite British police continuing to treat her disappearance as a missing persons case.

However, despite repeated appeals for information, prosecutors have no forensic evidence and have so far not filed any formal charges.

In a recent TV appeal, investigators said they were looking for the owner of a Portuguese mobile phone number that Christian B. had called in May 2007.

While living in Hanover, Christian B. received fines for forgery in 2010 and for theft in 2013, according to a report by German news agency DPA.

He split his time between Germany and Portugal from 2013 to 2015, the report said, citing prosecutors in Hanover.

At the end of 2012, he reportedly opened a small shop in Brunswick with his then girlfriend.

After they split up, he continued to run the shop alone until he gave it up 18 months later, along with the adjacent apartment.

Investigators have said Christian B. would only be questioned in connection with the Madeleine McCann case after the investigation is concluded, so that they could present him with the findings of the probe.