The neighbours of the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann fear a young girl known as ‘the German Maddie’ could be buried on land he once owned in Braunschweig.
Christian B was quizzed but never charged over the disappearance of five-year-old Inga Gehricke, who vanished from a nearby forest during a family barbecue.
The 43-year-old lived at the small garden house in from 2013 to 2016, with neighbours claiming he lifted floorboards to access a 20ft cellar and fear he may have hidden Inga's body there.
The current tenant of the home, tour guide Sabina Sellag, is said to be in “such a panic” that she has been sleeping outside.
The emergence of a second plot came on the same day that cops ended their probe of a first allotment in Hanover.
Investigators dug up an allotment where Christian B is believed to have once lived in a caravan for a short while between 2007 and 2008.
Follow our live blog for all the latest news and updates.
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CHRISTIAN B'S LAWYER BLASTS DIG AS 'PURE DESPERATION'
The lawyer of Madeleine McCann prime suspect Christian B has blasted as “an act of pure desperation” searches of his client’s former allotment
Friedrich Fülscher goaded cops and prosecutors in their bid to the nail 43-year-old paedo for killing Madeleine saying they’ve “backed the wrong horse”.
Fülscher insisted the search of old allotment plot in Hanover this week, which uncovered a secret cellar beneath the earth, was an elaborate show to revive interest in the investigation.
“The site has been known by prosecutors for years,” he said.
“It is an act of pure desperation by them to appear to be working on it now.
“It seems the public prosecutors office are finding it hard to admit they have backed the wrong horse.”
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COPS SEARCHING CELLARS FOR 'EVIDENCE OF MURDER'
Police searching the cellars of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B are looking for evidence of a murder and not just abduction, the editor of the Bild newspaper has claimed.
Cops in Germany have this week excavated an allotment known to have been used by the alleged killer, and are rumoured to be planning a search of a second.
Julian Reichelt, editor of German tabloid Bild, has claimed they are searching for evidence of a murder.
“What we are hearing from our sources is that they have moved into the direction of recovering and finding evidence that will make this a murder case clearly to everyone,” he told Good Morning Britain.
“The German investigation has declared this a murder case but so far it is completely unclear to the public how that is, what proof makes this a murder case and not a case of missing child to them.
“In the past 48 to 72 hours our sources have told us they are now looking at this one allotment and possibly the second one for that piece of evidence that will clearly publicly turn this into a murder case.
“What they have found there they have not commented on.”
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POLICE END GARDEN SEARCH
German police have ended their search of a garden plot on the outskirts of Hannover, northern Germany, prosecutors confirmed.
A spokeswoman for the Braunschweig prosecutor's office didn't give any further details on the specific motive for the search or whether police found anything related to their investigation.
Police started started searching the garden on Monday, but prosecutors only said that the activities on the site were connected to their investigation.
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NEIGHBOURS FEAR 'GERMAN MADDIE COULD BE BURIED IN CELLAR'
Neighbours of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B fear the 'German Maddie' could be buried in a cellar on land he once owned in in Braunschweig.
Christian B, 43, was quizzed but never charged after five-year-old Inga Gehricke vanished from a nearby forest during a family barbecue.
The current tenant of the home, tour guide Sabina Sellag, is said to be in “such a panic” that she has been sleeping outside
Her friend Thomas Tager told The Sun: “She is terrified.
“She has begged police to come with search dogs. She said to me ‘I’m worried I am sleeping on a dead body’.”
A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, told the Mirror: “She is convinced Inga is under there. That cellar was built by a previous tenant.
“Christian B removed the floorboards and jumped into it.
“There was loads of rubbish inside and he added to it. The new tenant is in such a panic.
“She has spent a week sleeping outside.”
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GARAGE QUIZ
British cops have questioned the owner of a garage where Christian B worked as a car mechanic.
Met Police officers investigating Madeleine McCann’s disappearance left with all paperwork relating to the German paedophile earlier this year.
Christian B rented a garage at Euro Hobbywerkstatt in Hanover, a few miles from the allotment currently being excavated.
The owner said yesterday detectives “took away everything” to do with him.
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CHRISTIAN B MODIFIED VW CAMPER
The suspect modified his VW camper van to be able to hide a child, it is feared.
The paedophile lived in the vehicle above a basement at an allotment in Hanover around the time three-year-old Madeleine disappeared.
He once boasted he could have used his VW campervan to transport children.
Dein Ghafou, who owned a garage complex Hanover used by Christian B, told police: “I told them he had been working on a Volkswagen Camper here and he would lift the roof up and then make it smaller again,” he told the Mirror.
“He was always cutting the roof, raising it and then lowering it. He came and went here.”
Neighbours of Christian B at the allotment said he lived in the VW LT camper van in 2006 and 2007.
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COPS COULD SEARCH SECOND ALLOTMENT
There has been speculation that police will soon launch a search of another allotment kept by Christian B in the city of Braunschweig, around 45 miles east of Hanover.
Christian B rented the land for around three years until 2016, and for a time is thought to have lived in a single-storey building on the plot.
The site is rumoured to have a cellar beneath it similar to the one found beneath the allotment in Hanover.
Forensic officers and sniffer dog have spent three days hunting through the first known allotment owned by the convicted paedophile in Hanover, Germany.
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CHRISTIAN B BURIED USB STICKS 'FILLED WITH CHILD ABUSE IMAGES'
The main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann buried USB sticks filled with child abuse images alongside his dead dog, reports say.
The stash was reportedly found when police searched the site of an abandoned box factory where the alleged killer is known to have stayed in his caravan.
The spot is only 48 miles away from the remote village of Neuwegersleben, where the abandoned box factory is situated.
In February 2016, more than 100 officers took part in a search of the site in search of Gehricke's body, German tabloid Bild reported.
No body was uncovered, but police did dig up 8,000 pieces of potential evidence relating to other crimes and thought to have been buried by Christian B.
Among that evidence is reported to a cache of child abuse images stored on a number of USB sticks which had been buried under a pile of animal bones.
Christian B was prosecuted in relation to the images.
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SUSPECT CHRISTIAN B SUBMITS ANOTHER REQUEST FOR PAROLE
Christian B has submitted another request for parole just days after withdrawing his application claiming he had ''lost confidence'' in the judicial system.
The convicted rapist and paedophile was eligible for release in June after serving two thirds of a 21 month sentence for drugs trafficking.
But his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher pulled that application saying he had no faith in the court that would consider the request as it was the same one that had convicted his client of rape.
Last night Mr Fulscher, who has refused to speak with British media, told German news outlets he had resubmitted the request but at the court in Kiel where Brueckner is currently jailed.
The U turn came just days after he definitely announced no charges would be brought against Brueckner and that prosecutors were chasing up a blind alley.
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CHRISTIAN B’S HANOVER CONNECTION
An allotment being searched in Germany's Hanover is an hour's drive from the town of Braunschweig, the last fixed home of Christian B.
The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig told The Sun Online the forensic investigation was linked to the probe into Madeleine, who vanished in Portugal 13 years ago.
Christian B, 43, was identified last month as being the prime suspect in her abduction.
German police have repeatedly said with confidence they know Madeleine in dead, and they believe Christian B is their man.
He settled in Hanover in 2010 after leaving Portugal, and began living in a caravan while working in a car repair shop before being convicted of forgery of documents that same year.
Hanover’s district court sentenced Christian B for falsifying documents in 2010, and then three years later he was sentenced for a joint theft.
Christian B is a lifelong paedo who chased a fantasy playboy lifestyle to cover up his warped sex crimes, The Sun reported last month.
The German criminal was first convicted of abusing children aged 17 back in 1994 – a year before he is believed to have moved to Portugal.
He moved to Braunschweig in 2014 and opened a kiosk in the city, which is around 40 miles from Hanover.
Staff at the kiosk recalled his bizarre and chilling behaviour.
A former neighbour of the career criminal said he was “often very aggressive”.
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WOMAN 'BEGGED POLICE' TO SEARCH SECOND PLOT
The woman who uses a second plot linked to Christian B, Sabine Sellig, has urged police to come and search the site.
Her friend Thomas Tager told The Sun: “She is terrified.
“She has begged police to come with search dogs.
“She said to me ‘I’m worried I am sleeping on a dead body’.”
It's been reported by Bild that Christian B. leased a second garden plot, in Braunschweig.
He is said to have rented it from the Kennelblick Allotment Garden Association from October 2013 until April 2016.
The association's boss, Juergen Kruimstoh, told The Sun he remembered Christian B when he frequented the site.
He said Christian B paid just £50 a year to rent the entire allotment – and he “never had a cross word” with him.
Recalling he owned a Mercedes sprinter van and had two dogs, Mr Kruimstoh told The Sun: “His departure from here in 2016 was strange.
“He gave me notice in the afternoon, got into his packed, small car, and after that I never heard from him again.
“Naturally there is a good deal of speculation about whether the police want to dig here like they have been doing in Hanover.”
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LATEST IN SERIES OF SEARCHES
This week’s forensic investigation of an abandoned allotment in Germany is the latest in a series of searches in relation to the abduction of Madeleine McCann 13 years ago.
- Sniffer dogs, ground-penetrating radars, aerial drone, along with a painstaking sift with rakes and shovels have helped in a three-day search of a garden in Hanover.
- The plot is four miles from prime suspect Christian B’s last known address in Hanover and just two miles from where the 43-year-old worked in a car workshop.
- The suspect is said to have been living at the site in around 2007 or 2008 after returning from Portugal, Haz.de reports.
- One neighbour recalled seeing his yellow and white VW Camper van, which German police last month appealed for information on.
- This week’s search comes days after searches were carried out on beaches where the prime suspect spent time in Portugal.
- A ten-person team of police, firefighters, and divers searched a network of wells in The Algarve as part of the hunt for Madeleine's body in mid-July.
- In June, detectives confirmed they had previously dug up 8,000 pieces of potential evidence which had been buried at an abandoned German box factory owned by Christian B.
- It is alleged at least some of this disturbing material includes videos and pictures of his suspected crimes – with the files found on hard drives and USB sticks in a plastic bag.
- The material was buried alongside his dead dog at the dilapidated and rubbish filed site in Neuwegersleben.
- But German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters would not confirm to Australian TV investigation show 60 Minutes whether any of the pictures and videos included evidence linked to the Madeleine case.
GARDEN OWNER SAID HE “NEVER HAD A CROSS WORD”
Local gardening association boss, Juergen Kruimstoh said Christian B paid £50 a year to rent the entire allotment in Hanover years ago.
MrKruimstoh said he “never had a cross word” with Christian B.
Recalling he owned a Mercedes sprinter van and had two dogs, Mr Kruimstoh told The Sun: “I was shocked when I suddenly saw his picture while searching for Maddie in the spring.
“His departure from here in 2016 was strange.
“He gave me notice in the afternoon, got into his packed, small car, and after that I never heard from him again.
“Naturally there is a good deal of speculation about whether the police want to dig here like they have been doing in Hanover.”
MEDIA CIRCUS REPORTED IN HANOVER AS COPS SEARCH FOR CLUES
German TV channel RTL reports that television teams and photographers from the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands “among others” flocked to Hanover to cover the search for clues in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
But, the station added, not much is known as yet about the three-day probe of an abandoned allotment.
The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig has not updated reporters on what – if anything – has been found during the forensic investigation.
Sky's crime correspondent Martin Brunt described the search, 13 years after Madeleine's abduction, a “dramatic development”.
LOCALSURGE COPS TO INVESTIGATE SECOND PLOT OF LAND IN HANOVER
Locals are urging police to come and investigate ANOTHER allotment on a plot that was also rented by Christian B.
The 43-year-old child sex fiend, who is the prime suspect in the search for Madeleine McCann, lived at the isolated garden house for three years after quitting the kiosk he ran.
Locals are now urging police to come and dig at the site after they uncovered a cellar at his other garden in Hanover last night, some 40 miles away.
The single storey building is at the end of a track close to a railway line in Braunschweig.
Christian B lived on site there between 2013 and 2016 and was often seen with girlfriend Nakscije Miftari.
He occupied the land at the same time when five-year-old Inga Gehricke, dubbed the ‘German Maddie’, vanished from a nearby forest during a family barbecue.
The site is rumoured to have a cellar beneath it – just like the one dramatically discovered in Hanover yesterday.
The Sun uncovered what appears to be a boarded up well at the property this morning.
FORMER CABIN REMOVED FROM GARDEN PLOT
German police who searched a garden on the outskirts of Hannover, northern Germany, used excavators, sniffer dogs, shovels and rakes to investigate the plot.
Investigators put up two tents and continued to dig even further into the ground after they had cut down trees and bushes earlier this week, the German news agency dpa reported.
Prosecutors did not say what the investigators were looking for.
At the garden plot, investigators even removed parts of the foundation of a former cabin from the
ground that once stood there, dpa reported.
A man on a neighbouring plot told the news agency that the garden, where blackberry bushes and a cheery tree grow, had not been used for the last two years.
The site was previously home to a German suspect linked to Madeleine's disappearance.
DISCOVERED CELLAR NOW FILLED WITH SAND
A hidden cellar that was discovered during a search for clues in relation to missing Madeleine McCann has been completely filled in with sand.
Updated site pics show the garden has been cleared of vegetation, and covered in sand.
The abandoned German allotment has this week been the scene of an intense search by about
100 cops and forensic experts, which started on Monday night and has now ended.
A picture taken on July 29 shows a sign on one tree reading “No entry to the property. Parents are liable for their children” after the police finished a three-day search in the northern German city of Hanover.
CURRENT OWNER OF CHRISTIAN B’S OLD ALLOTMENT: ‘I’M SCARED I’M SLEEPING OVER A DEAD BODY’
Cops in Germany could swoop on a second allotment plot rented by twisted Christian B after the new owner admitted: “I’m worried I’m sleeping over a dead body.”
Neighbours said the woman who now owns the plot, Sabine Sellig, recently urged police to come and dig her land.
Her friend Thomas Tager told The Sun: “She is terrified.
“She has begged police to come with search dogs. She said to me ‘I’m worried I am sleeping on a dead body’.”
HOW MANY MADDIE ‘SIGHTINGS’ HAVE THERE BEEN?
Potential sightings of the British three-year old followed up by British cops total 8,685 across 101 countries and territories, a Freedom of Information request by The Sun showed in October 2016.
A list of sightings from each of the 101 countries – nearly all of which have been labelled NFA or No Further Action.
Most serious were the alleged sightings in the hours and days following Madeleine's disappearance.
LATEST IN HANOVER
- German forensic officers have ended a three-day search of a garden plot in the northern city of Hanover.
- The dig is part of an investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal in 2007.
- A hidden cellar was uncovered and searched in the foundations of a building that was knocked down 13 years ago.
- German authorities said last month they had identified a 43-year-old German citizen as a suspect in the McCann case and are investigating him on suspicion of murder.
- Authorities have not released the suspect’s name, but he has been widely identified by German media as Christian B.
- He ran a kiosk in Braunschweig and also lived in Hanover for several years, dpa reported.
- The allotment is an hour's drive from the town of Braunschweig, the last fixed home of Christian.
- Diggers were brought on to the site, which had trees cleared to aid the search.
- Up to 100 cops, along with sniffer dogs and specialist ground radar equipment, were seen at the plot.
- Investigators – some of whom appeared visibly upset – were seen combing through the dirt with shovels and rakes.
- Cops have removed two skips full of concrete blocks and a child’s bucket.
- Prosecutor Julia Meyer said: “I can confirm that the search is in connection with our Madeleine McCann investigation.
- “However, I will not comment on the background and aim of this action or the status of the ongoing investigations.”
- McCann was three at the time of her 2007 disappearance from an apartment while her family vacationed in the seaside town of Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve region.
NEW PAROLE APPEAL
Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B has submitted another request for parole.
It’s been lodged days after he withdrew his last application for early freedom, claiming he had ''lost confidence'' in the judicial system.
The 43-year-old convicted rapist and paedophile's fresh bid comes as cops searched a secret cellar underneath an allotment he leased in Hanover – and could swoop on a second plot rented in Braunschweig.
Christian B was eligible for release in June after serving two-thirds of a 21-month sentence for drugs trafficking.
But his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher pulled that application saying he had no faith in the court as it was the same one that had convicted his client of rape.
Last night Fulscher, who has refused to speak with British media, told German news outlets he had resubmitted the request but at the court in Kiel where Christian B is currently jailed.
He added: ''This court is now the one responsible and will look at our application.''
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MISSING FOR OVER A DECADE
On May 3, 2007, Madeleine McCann, three, vanished from her bedroom in the apartment her family were staying in at the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal while her parents, Kate and Gerry, ate with friends at a nearby restaurant.
The apartment was broken into while Madeleine and her twin baby siblings were asleep, and local police concluded it was a kidnapping.
The family voiced concern at what they called was a slow initial police response and a failure to secure the crime scene.
The early investigation by Portuguese police produced no major leads.
The following July, they controversially dropped their investigation because of a lack of evidence.
In 2013, the British police began their own investigation – Operation Grange – saying they had identified 38 potential suspects.
Later that year, they released an e-fit image of a number of men, including one of an unidentified suspect they particularly wanted to trace.
Soon after, Portuguese prosecutors ordered the case to be reopened by local police.
The new inquiry led Portuguese police to interview four suspects, but they were later cleared of any involvement, and a search by British detectives of wasteland near Praia da Luz also failed to provide a breakthrough.
In June 2020, British and German police said they had identified a new suspect in the case, a 43-year-old German man.
Prime suspect Christian B lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 and burgled hotels and holiday flats as well as trading drugs.
REINFORCED CONCRETE IN CELLAR
The underground cellar found by a 100-strong team of cops and forensic officers in a Hanover, Germany, allotment had a reinforced concrete foundation, reports TV channel RTL.
A local journalist told the broadcaster they assumed it was an old cold cellar – an underground pit to store the likes of fruit and veg in a cooler environment.
Excavators, drones and sniffer dogs helped the three-search, which began on Monday and ended last night as the hunt for clues in relation to the abduction of Madeleine McCann continues.
WHO IS MADELEINE SUSPECT CHRISTIAN B?
German sex offender Christian B, who is currently serving time for drug offences, is being investigated following Madeleine McCann’s disappearance during her family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007.
He is a prolific burglar, who has previous convictions for sex crimes against young girls.
The prime suspect was already known to British and Portuguese police.
Christian B has 17 child sex convictions and is known to have videoed victims.
Yet recent information came from a witness who stepped forward following the appeal by the Met Police on the tenth anniversary in 2017.
He is in jail in Kiel on drugs charges and is appealing a conviction for the rape of a 72-year-old.
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