I found horror video in Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B’s home – what I saw on it will haunt me for life
A KEY witness who named the Madeleine McCann prime suspect has detailed his bone-chilling dossier of evidence for the first time.
Former pal Helge B described the chilling footage he saw on a video camera he stole from the German sex fiend named as Christian B.
And he revealed how his blood ran cold the day convicted rapist and paedophile said of snatched tot Maddie: ”She didn’t scream.”
Crook Helge B, 48, also claimed Scotland Yard initially ignored him when he raised the alarm about the fiend he befriended when both were engaged in petty crime in Portugal.
And – telling all in a two-hour interview with German paper Bild – he claims his life had been ruined by the unbearable burden of what he knows.
The petty criminal and burglar said he first met Chrstian B around the time Maddie vanished from parents’ Kate and Gerry’s holiday home in Praia da Luz in 2007.
He said: “It was in the parking lot in front of a pub in Portugal.
“My friends Micha and Manni introduced me to Christian. He had helped them with a breakdown – I thought that was a good thing.
“The first impression was that he was a nice guy – personable, sociable.”
The low-life pair at first talked about their criminal pursuits and Christian B boasted of his climbing skills which enabled him to enter hotels via balconies.
But Helge B fatefully decided to burgle his so-called pal’s home when he learned he had been jailed – and made the discovery which would later blow open the McCann case.
Helge B and a friend went in search of diesel fuel they knew Christian B had stored.
While ransacking his home the pair unearthed a gun and a video camera – which laid bare their outwardly-personable pals’s black soul.
Helge B said: “I had heard that Micha [another pal] and Christian were in prison. It was in the newspaper: Two Germans arrested.
“Manni said: ‘I know where [Christian B] lives – he still has 1,000 litres of diesel there. Let’s take these with us.’
“We went there and tapped off a few canisters. The front door was open, so we just walked in.
“We searched the apartment, took a video camera, a bunch of film and a gun.”
Christian B is serving a seven year jail term in Germany for the horrific rape of a 72-year-old American woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
And Helge B’s evidence from what he saw on the video was crucial in securing the conviction by German federal cops now striving to charge the beast with Maddie’s abduction and murder.
He told Bild: “We went to my house, where I had a big TV, where I saw the first videos. Tourist s***, I thought – until I came across the older lady video.
“At first I thought, this is a feature film. It showed someone whipping the woman. She was tied up, lying on the bed and must have been 70 or 80 years old.
“She wore painted diving goggles and couldn’t see. She spoke English and was shouting, ‘You f***ing bastard!’
“At the end of the video he sat down on the bed and pulled down the mask. Then I saw that it was [Christian B].
“I couldn’t believe it. I said to Manni, ‘Come over here and see what’s going on.’
“He watched for two minutes and said, ‘I don’t want to know anything about that.’
“I said: ‘I saw it, he took off his mask!’
“On another cassette was the video with the old lady from a different position, and another film with a younger girl – 13, 14 years old.
“She was tied naked to a beam. [Christian B] sat behind it on the sofa and made fun of her.
“She said, ‘This borders on rape’ – and he just, ‘Shut up’.
“That’s when I knew what kind of guy he was.
“I spoke to a police officer I know in Germany. He said, ‘Helge, keep your hands off it’.
“A lawyer told me the same thing. I wasn’t sure what could happen to me – I would have incriminated myself.
“Manni threw the gun in a reservoir, I sold the camera. When I left Portugal later, I left the videos in my caravan. It’s unclear where they ended up.
“I had found out what he really does, I was speechless.”
He also told how Chrstian B made a confession about Maddie at a Spanish kite festival.
He said: “We saw each other again in 2008 at the Dragon Festival in Orgiva.
“I sat in my Mercedes, saw him in the rearview mirror. He joined us and we talked. That was difficult for me.
“He asked me, ‘Don’t you go to Portugal anymore and do business there?’
“I said: ‘No – since the girl disappeared there, there have been too many police checks for me and I don’t need that at all.
“We came up with Maddie and I said, ‘Anyway, I don’t understand how the little one could have disappeared without a trace’.
“Christian had drunk two or three beers and then said: ‘She didn’t scream.’
“I immediately checked what he said. I thought, he knows that – he has something to do with it.
“I knew his background from the video. I got really sick. The others didn’t understand it at all.
“But he also checked that I understood that and then left at night.”
“At three or four o’clock in the morning he left a packed festival with his mobile home. I looked for him the next morning, his neighbours said: ‘He’s gone’.”
Helge B also claimed in his interview that he told the Metropolitan Police of his suspicions about Christian B in 2008 – and that they failed to act for nine years.
He said: “I called Scotland Yard back in 2008. At the Maddie hotline. I said I knew someone who might have something to do with it and gave them the name.
“They took my personal details, my phone number. But nothing happened there. Nothing! I was never called back.
“I thought: ‘Well, they’ll take care of it.’
“In 2017 I had just served a prison sentence in Greece.
“When I heard about the 10th anniversary of the disappearance, I remembered so I contacted Scotland Yard again. Then they listened to me.
“A first meeting took place with two officials in a hotel in Athens. I then flew to London and gave my testimony there for the record.
“I never got any money for it. Not a penny. I didn’t shorten my term of imprisonment with the statement either.
“I only contacted Scotland Yard afterwards.”
In 2018, the German federal police used evidence gleaned from Helge B’s viewing of Christian B’s video to help convict the attacker of the pensioner rape.
And the former friends saw each other in court.
Helge B said: “We then saw each other in court in 2019. This whole situation took a toll on me. When I saw him, I thought, He’s a pig.
“He’s not sitting here without a reason.”
German public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters named Christian B is the prime Maddie suspect in June 2020 – and said he had evidence which proved the tot had been murdered.
Helge B said: “Christian will be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. My theory is that he was planning a burglary.
“It went wrong and he found the kids in the apartment and then he took Maddie with him. It probably wasn’t planned at all.
“From what I know about him, I definitely believe him capable of something like that. I think he kidnapped her. I don’t know if he ended up killing her.
“I wish there would finally be peace. It is clear to me that Maddie is no longer alive.
“As sad as that is, it would be better if her body was found.
“I’m worried that he will get away with it.”
Asked whether he had a message for the monster, Helge B added: “Christian, I hope you don’t get away with this story.
“With what you did, you deny these videos exist. These videos existed. unfortunately they are missing. But I saw her.
“In hindsight, taking these videos with me was the biggest mistake of my life.
“I would have preferred not to know anything about it. I’m also not proud that I started this investigation.
“I’m not doing well. I’ve gained weight, I have phases when I go crazy, I don’t sleep at night – it ruined my life.”
The Sun revealed earlier this month how police believe there could be “vital clues” in the rural Algarve village of Foral where Christian B used to live.
Cops conducted a search in the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal, 30 miles from where three-year-old Madeleine went missing.
A “number of items” was discovered were found at the dam, near the area Christian B called his “little paradise”.
But German prosecutors probing the new evidence have apparently hit a “roadblock.”
German police sources revealed that cops are planning to place suspect Christian B under 24/7 surveillance as he may be released from jail before the end of the investigation into him – which could stretch to 2026.
