translated from Spanish: German prosecutor investigates possible link between suspected disappearance of Madeleine McCann and another 5-year-old

German prosecutors have opened an investigation into whether a 43-year-old who has become a possible suspect in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in Portugal may have been involved in a similar crime in Germany.In this sense, the persecutors in the northern city of Stendal, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Berlin , they told the DPA news agency on Friday that they had opened a preliminary investigation to determine if there was anything linking the suspect to the disappearance of another 5-year-old blonde girl in 2015.Authorities have not revealed the suspect’s name, but German media widely identified him as Christian B. It reportedly had a property 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Stendal in the town of Neuwegersleben when the girl disappeared. For his part, McCann was 3 years old at the time of his disappearance in 2007 from an apartment while his family vacationed in the coastal town of Praia da Luz, in Portugal’s Algarve region.German authorities said this week that they had identified the 43-year-old German citizen as a suspect in the McCann case and are investigating him on suspicion of murder. The suspect, who is currently in prison in Germany, spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz, at the time of McCann’s disappearance, and has two previous convictions for “sexual contact with girls,” authorities said. The description of the suspect is in line with that of a 43-year-old man who was convicted in December in the city of Braunschweig for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old American woman in his department in Portugal, based largely on DNA evidence. The suspect denied the charges during his trial and appealed his conviction. According to a copy of the rape verdict, which has all the names drafted, sent by the Court of Braunschweig in response to a question from The Associated Press about mcCann’s suspect’s conviction in December, the German man was a career criminal in and out. prison. His crimes included the sexual abuse of a child in 1994, when he was about 17 years old and tried in juvenile court, as well as a 2016 case in which he was convicted of abusing another child and possession of child pornography. Other convictions include drug trafficking, theft and gun violations.

Original source in Spanish