‘Shocked’ Madeleine McCann cops claim German prosecutors have ‘no evidence’ Christian B snatched toddler in leaked memo
AN international row broke out today as a leaked memo reveals Portuguese cops have rubbished a German probe into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
Local officers insisted counterparts in Germany have no solid evidence that prime suspect Christian B was involved in snatching the British toddler in 2007.
Officials from the Policia Judiciaria in Portugal, Germany's BKA and Scotland Yard met to discuss the state of the probe.
In June, the convicted rapist and paedophile was identified by German cops as the prime suspect for Madeleine's disappearance in Portugal 13 years ago.
Prosecutors said they had ''concrete evidence'' she was dead but since then there has been no significant development in the long running saga, leaving parents Kate and Gerry facing an agonising uncertainty.
Now a leaked memo from the Policia Judiciaria, seen by The Sun, has revealed dismissive comments made in an internal email following the top secret conference in Lisbon.
In it an unidentified Portuguese officer claimed that the German BKA have no solid leads and are just holding the suspect in jail in the hope they can make two other sex cases against him stick.
He wrote: ''There is no evidence, just speculation. When reading the German case I was shocked. I never thought that the BKA would investigate so badly.
"It is not a serious and objective investigation, but only just to keep the suspect in prison at all costs.
''The meeting was to get the point of the situation, the BKA wants to investigate the other two cases of possible sexual harassment, so that the suspect does not leave prison until the end of the year and they will drop the suspect.''
Portuguese cops have been accused of bungling the investigation and lead officer Goncalo Amaral was later fired after pursuing a false theory that Kate and Gerry were responsible.
Christian B is currently in jail after being convicted of raping a 72 year old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005 - two years before the Brit youngster vanished from the same resort in May 2007 aged three.
He was given seven years but is appealing. German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters hit back at the Portuguese cops, saying: "We don't want to comment on this.
"The accused will have to stay in prison for the next few years anyway."
Last month Christian B's lawyer Friedrich Fulscher - who insists his client is innocent - called on prosecutors to reveal their evidence to be ''fair'' to his client and the McCann family.
He added: ''The prosecutor has not revealed anything to us about the investigation.
"They are adamant but they are chasing someone who is just convenient to them.''
Madeleine disappeared from her holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast.
Three wells near the resort are known to have been searched in July but police and firefighters failed to find any trace of Madeleine.
The abandoned wells are a 15-minute drive from Christian B's rented cottage on the outskirts of Praia de Luz, on a narrow road leading down to a beach where the paedophile used to park his VW camper van.
Christian B is also being probed in Germany over a 2004 Algarve rape and a sex attack on a beach near Praia da Luz a month before Madeleine vanished.
In Portugal, prosecutors have reopened their investigation into a sex crime in a playground he was arrested over in 2017.
He was held on suspicion of exposing himself to young children at a playground in Sao Bartolomeu de Messines a 40-minute drive from Praia de Luz.
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Police discovered after his detention that he was wanted by Germany on an international arrest warrant for child sex abuse and possession of child pornography.
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He was extradited to his homeland and was never prosecuted in Portugal following his Algarve arrest.
The criminal probe was mothballed despite protests from the youngsters’ angry parents but reopened in September.