Madeleine McCann suspect’s ex-lawyer says he has ‘psychopathic traits’ and could be responsible for her abduction
PRIME suspect Christian B had “psychopathic traits” and could be responsible for Madeleine McCann’s abduction, his own ex-lawyer has said.
The German fiend’s former brief Serafim Vieira made the claims in bombshell TV interview.
Mr Vieira said: “I believe he could be behind the disappearance of Maddie.
“I can’t say he didn’t have a psychopathic temperament – on the contrary.”
Mr Vieira represented career criminal Christian B in 2006, when he spent eight months in jail in Portugal for petrol theft.
And the lawyer said that he believed the suspect may have admitted his guilt to that charge to stop police searching a farmhouse near Praia da Luz.
That meant the country’s authorities were not aware he lived there when Madeleine – who disappeared in May 2007 – later went missing from the family’s holiday apartment in the town.
At the time he was jailed in 2006, drifter Christian B was driving a blue Bedford van.
BUNGLING COPS
Yesterday it was revealed that bungling cops found the van abandoned in 2009 and unwittingly sent it to be crushed.
Christian B – being probed by German police who suspect he killed Madeleine – later used a VW camper van and went back to live in the farmhouse, two miles from the McCanns apartment.
Mr Vieira now believes Christian B pleaded guilty in 2006 to stop the spotlight falling on the ramshackle home where he lived with a friend and parked another vehicle he used, a Jaguar car.
His guilty plea meant that he was sent to prison immediately amid fears he could abscond, as he is foreign, if held on bail.
Speaking on Portuguese show Sexta as 9, Mr Vieira said: “He never said ‘this is my home’, he just said it was his friend’s house where he parked the car, or at least one of them, which was the Jaguar.”
The lawyer continued: “The van in the proceedings I dealt with was, if memory serves me right, a blue van – a Ford Bedford, something like that.”
Christian B – a drug dealer with a history of sex offences dating back to when he was 17 – was jailed in 2006 for stealing 300 litres of diesel.
And the lawyer believes Christian B effectively chose prison rather than let and inquiry drag out which could have led to searches bringing up evidence of other crimes.
Four months after his release, Madeleine – days before her fourth birthday – went missing, in a case which has been probed by Portuguese, British and German police.
Earlier this month, the German force dramatically revealed they had a prime suspect, who they named as Christian B.
And a key piece of evidence is a mobile phone call to the suspect, which placed him in Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters – heading the investigation – said they were probing the theory that a staff member at the Ocean Club resort could have tipped Christian B off that the McCanns’ apartment was empty.
PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS
He said: “We are investigating if an Ocean Club member of staff helped the suspect on the night Madeleine disappeared.
“This is of interest to us. The phone call made by the suspect could be between him and a member of staff who told him when to break into the McCanns’ apartment.”
A Sun on Sunday probe this week has found that at least two members of staff at the complex where the McCanns stayed had criminal records.
Both were interviewed by Portuguese police, whose probe was derailed as they wrongly focused on Madeleine’s parent Kate and Gerry, both doctors aged 52 from Rothley, Leics.
One of the staff members was in their apartment – 5A – carrying out repair work two days before Madeleine went missing.
He has a previous conviction – like Christian B – for drug trafficking.
A second worker had been convicted of theft, also like Christian B.
It is feared a member of staff could have tipped the German off that the apartment was empty, so he could burgle it – and that he snatched Madeleine after being disturbed.
Kate and Gerry McCann were dining nearby with pals – dubbed the Tapas 7 – with members of the group regularly checking their children.
Anguished Mum Kate has long suspected the booking details could have been passed to their daughter’s kidnapper.
In her book, Madeleine, she said they were “by definition accessible to all staff and, probably to guests and visitors, too.
“To my horror, I saw that the receptionist had added [that] … we wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently.”
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