{"id":22178,"date":"2025-09-15T06:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/22178\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T06:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:01:07","slug":"prime-suspect-in-madeleine-mccann-case-refuses-to-speak-to-british-police-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/22178\/","title":{"rendered":"Prime suspect in Madeleine McCann case refuses to speak to British police | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has refused to be interviewed by the Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n

German drifter Christian B, as he is known under privacy laws, became a leading person of interest following the three-year-old British girl’s<\/a> disappearance from a holiday resort in Portugal in 2007.<\/p>\n

He is expected to be released from a jail in Germany as soon as Wednesday, at the end of a sentence for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.<\/p>\n

The Met said it sent an “international letter of request” to the 49-year-old for him to speak with them – but he rejected it.<\/p>\n

Madeleine vanished shortly after she was left sleeping by her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who went for dinner in a nearby restaurant in Praia da Luz.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Image:
\n The search for the British toddler has gone on for 18 years<\/p>\n

The Met said Christian B remains a suspect in its own investigation – with Portuguese and German authorities also probing Madeleine’s disappearance.<\/p>\n

He has previously denied any involvement.<\/p>\n

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, a senior investigating officer, said the force will “continue to pursue any viable lines of inquiry” in the absence of an interview with Christian B.<\/p>\n

He said: “For a number of years we have worked closely with our policing colleagues in Germany and Portugal to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann<\/a> and support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened…<\/p>\n

“We have requested an interview with this German suspect but, for legal reasons, this can only be done via an International Letter of Request which has been submitted.<\/p>\n

“It was subsequently refused by the suspect. In the absence of an interview, we will nevertheless continue to pursue any viable lines of inquiry.”<\/p>\n

\"Madeleine<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Madeleine was taken from her family’s apartment while her parents dined in a nearby restaurant<\/p>\n

In June, a hit-and-run theory emerged<\/a> in connection with Madeleine’s death.<\/p>\n

But her mother, Kate, has long dismissed the suggestion her daughter managed to get out of the apartment alone.<\/p>\n

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

13:29<\/p>\n

Sky’s Martin Brunt investigates the hit-and-run theory in the case of Madeleine McCann<\/p>\n

A number of searches have been carried out by German, Portuguese and British authorities since her disappearance – with the latest taking place near the Portuguese municipality of Lagos in June.<\/p>\n

In 2023, investigators carried out searches near the Barragem do Arade reservoir, about 30 miles from Praia da Luz.<\/p>\n

Christian B spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017 and had photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.<\/p>\n

In October last year, the suspect was cleared by a German court of unrelated sexual offences, alleged to have taken place in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.<\/p>\n

The total funding given to the Met’s investigation, titled Operation Grange, has been more than \u00a313.2m since 2011 after a further \u00a3108,000 was secured from the government in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has refused to be interviewed by the Metropolitan Police.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-22178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}