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CRIME

What we know so far about German suspect in ‘Maddie’ case

The man suspected by German authorities of murdering missing British girl Madeleine McCann has a history of child sex abuse and a conviction for raping a 72-year-old American woman in Portugal in 2005, according to court documents.

Published: 5 June 2020 08:48 CEST
What we know so far about German suspect in 'Maddie' case
A police handout shows the type of camper van they believe belonged to the suspect. Photo: DPA

German police have revealed they are investigating a 43-year-old German with a long criminal past over the disappearance of three-year-old “Maddie” from the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007.

The suspect, named as Christian B. by German media, is currently in prison in the northern city of Kiel serving a sentence for drug trafficking, DPA news agency reported on Thursday.

He has completed almost two thirds of his sentence and is therefore close to a decision on a possible release on probation, according to documents from Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) seen by AFP.

READ ALSO: German prosecutors assume Madeleine McCann is dead as they investigate new suspect

However, that decision depends on the outcome of another case against him concerning the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in 2005 — in the same seaside village of Praia da Luz.

Christian B. allegedly broke into her house, tied her up and gagged her, beat her for about 15 minutes with a metal object, then raped her and finally forced her to hand over cash.

A court in Braunschweig sentenced him to seven years in prison last December. However, this sentence has not yet been finalised pending a dispute about extradition technicalities.

Madeleine disappeared from her family's holiday apartment on May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

Her disappearance sparked one of the biggest searches of its kind in recent years.

Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her kidnapping and no trace of her has been found.

'Angry'

Hans Christian Wolters, a spokesman for Brunswick prosecutor's office, said Thursday that the German suspect was being investigated “on suspicion of murder”.

“We assume the girl is dead,” he said, describing the suspect as “a sex offender with several previous convictions who has been sentenced for sexual abuse of children, among other things”.

According to police, the suspect, a white man with short blond hair, 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.

Police believe he was living in a white Westfalia camper van with yellow skirting at the time of the kidnapping and they are keen for witnesses who remember seeing the vehicle back then to come forward.

READ ALSO: German prisoner identified in disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann

Police are not ruling out that Christian B. may have broken into the McCanns' flat for a robbery before spontaneously taking the girl.

Speaking to Sky News, a former neighbour in Portugal said Christian B. was “always a bit angry, driving fast up and down the lane, and then one day, around 2006, he just disappeared without a word”.

According to a report in Der Spiegel magazine, Christian B. was first convicted of sexually abusing children when he was still a teenager.

His criminal record contains a total of 17 entries, the report said, including driving without a license, bodily injury, theft and drunk driving.

He went on trial for the first time in Bavaria in 1994 for “abusing a child” and “performing sexual acts in front of a child”, Spiegel said.

Then 17 years old, Christian B. received a juvenile sentence of two years, which he only partly served.

In 2016, the district court of Braunschweig sentenced him to one year and three months in prison for “creating and possessing child pornographic material”, according to Spiegel.

By Femke Colborne

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CRIME

German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

A German court has convicted one of the country's most controversial far-right politicians, Björn Höcke, of deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan at a rally.

Published: 15 May 2024 08:43 CEST
German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

The court fined Höcke, 52, of the far-right AfD party, €13,000 for using the phrase “Alles fuer Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”) during a 2021 campaign rally.

Once a motto of the so-called Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the phrase is illegal in modern-day Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.

The former high school history teacher claimed not to have been aware that the phrase had been used by the Nazis, telling the court he was “completely not guilty”.

Höcke said he thought the phrase was an “everyday saying”.

But prosecutors argued that Höcke used the phrase in full knowledge of its “origin and meaning”.

They had sought a six-month suspended sentence plus two years’ probation, and a payment of €10,000 to a charitable organisation.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, after the trial, Höcke said the “ability to dissent is in jeopardy”.

“If this verdict stands, free speech will be dead in Germany,” he added.

Höcke, the leader of the AfD in Thuringia, is gunning to become Germany’s first far-right state premier when the state holds regional elections in September.

With the court ordering only a fine rather than a jail term, the verdict is not thought to threaten his candidacy at the elections.

‘AfD scandals’

The trial is one of several controversies the AfD is battling ahead of European Parliament elections in June and regional elections in the autumn in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony.

Founded in 2013, the anti-Islam and anti-immigration AfD saw a surge in popularity last year – its 10th anniversary – seizing on concerns over rising migration, high inflation and a stumbling economy.

But its support has wavered since the start of 2024, as it contends with scandals including allegations that senior party members were paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website.

Considered an extremist by German intelligence services, Höcke is one of the AfD’s most controversial personalities.

He has called Berlin’s Holocaust monument a “memorial of shame” and urged a “180-degree shift” in the country’s culture of remembrance.

Höcke was convicted of using the banned slogan at an election rally in Merseburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the run-up to Germany’s 2021 federal election.

READ ALSO: How worried should Germany be about the far-right AfD after mass deportation scandal?

He had also been due to stand trial on a second charge of shouting “Everything for…” and inciting the audience to reply “Germany” at an AfD meeting in Thuringia in December.

However, the court decided to separate the proceedings for the second charge, announced earlier this month, because the defence had not had enough time to prepare.

Prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen on Friday underlined the reach of Höcke’s statement, saying that a video of it had been clicked on 21,000 times on the Facebook page of AfD Sachsen-Anhalt alone.

Höcke’s defence lawyer Philip Müller argued the rally was an “insignificant campaign event” and that the offending statement was only brought to the public’s notice by the trial.

Germany’s domestic security agency has labelled the AfD in Thuringia a “confirmed” extremist organisation, along with the party’s regional branches in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

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