An upcoming documentary about Madeleine McCann alleges prime suspect Christian B was 'no more than five minutes' away when she disappeared.
Christian B, who is currently serving a prison sentence for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman, was identified as a suspect in the McCann case in June 2020.
The then-three-year-old was on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, in Praia da Luz, Portugal when she disappeared in 2007, at which time Christian B was reportedly living in a camper van near the town.
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Further details about Christian B's movements are set to be revealed in the documentary, which airs on German television channel SAT.1 tonight, January 31, after evidence was gathered by its creators.
A 'reliable' witness is said to have told the documentary-makers that Christian B 'repeatedly worked' at the resort where McCann disappeared, while creators explained that a 'reconstruction' found that he was 'very familiar with the Ocean Club area in Praia da Luz'.
As part of their research, creators said they had conducted 'on-site analysis' of phone records and found 'Christian B and his cell phone must have been no more than five minutes away from the Ocean Club [apartments] on the night of the disappearance'.
The suspect had previously been found to have received a half-hour phone call to his mobile in Praia da Luz around an hour before McCann vanished, The Telegraph reports.
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Christian B has denied any involvement in McCann's disappearance, with a series of letters cited by the documentary arguing that he was a drug dealer at the time and was striving to avoid police attention.
Per The Independent, he wrote, 'I was never caught by the police because I followed a few key principles. Where possible, only driving during the day so that my battered ‘hippy bus’ didn't attract attention, only driving on the roads I needed to and, most importantly, never provoking the police. So that means not committing any crimes, certainly not abducting anyone.'
Christian B described the notion of abducting McCann as being 'just as absurd to [him] at the time as starting a nuclear war or slaughtering a chicken'.
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Juliane Ebling, editor-in-chief of SAT.1, has described McCann's story as one that has 'has many German facets', adding, 'The case is being tried at the Regional Court of Braunschweig, as the German Christian B. is the main suspect. In his environment there are many German women and men who can describe individual details surrounding the crime.'
Evidence gathered by the creators of the documentary has been handed over to police.
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Topics: Crime, Film and TV, True crime, no-article-matching
Emily Brown