Christian B: Former cellmate said Madeleine McCann suspect ‘bragged about a Portugal abduction,’ German court hears
The prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case boasted he had abducted a young girl in Portugal, a German court has heard.
Christian B – whose surname cannot be published due to German privacy laws – is suspected by German investigators of having abducted and killed then-three-year-old Madeleine McCann from her parent’s holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Christian B is currently on trial for a range of non-related sex offences committed in Portugal, including three rapes and two cases of exposing himself and masturbating in front of children.
Speaking at Braunschweig Regional Court on Tuesday, Romanian national Laurentiu Codin, 50, who shared a prison cell with Christian B in 2020, told a story which resembled the night when Madeleine disappeared.
“He told me that in Portugal, that he had stolen there… he was in a region of hotels where people are there, not sure how you say, rich people, where rich people live,” he said.
“And when he was in the area of the hotels where the rich people live, there was somewhere an open window, he told me this, and this was the reason he asked me whether fingerprints could be left when he went out of the window.
“He said he went into the flat because of money and said that he didn’t find any money, but found a kid, and took the child, and that two hours later, the place he was, it was then surrounded by police and dogs.
“And he then went away, out of the area, I am just saying what he told me… and he took the child in Portugal in his car, and in the time when the police and dogs were there at the house, he drove away, and he was gone, he asked me if the DNA from a child can be found as evidence and I answered yes.”
Madeleine McCann was last seen at her parent’s holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007. Pic: AP
In court, Codin also said Christian B had told him how he had used a van to have sex with young girls near Hanover.
The Romanian national said: “There was the talk of a girl… he said that he had a bus and that he had taken her with it, and the kids, he kept some of them, but not others, but he never said that he had killed them.
“He had sex with her… but he didn’t kill her… He had her, and had done her business with her.”
The judge then asked how old the girl was, to which he replied: “I don’t want to say anything wrong, but she was very small.
“And I told him that it was out of order – what he had done. With small, I mean young, nine, 10, 13, I don’t know.”
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Codin went on to make several other claims, including that Christian B had sex with an elderly woman who he had hit and strangled, as this was his sexual preference.
He also said that Christian B had asked him whether a strand of hair was something that could be traced back to him and used as evidence, and that he had also said he needed a “large house” burning down.
Speaking outside of court, the defendant’s lawyer Philipp Marquart refuted the testimony and said: “All of these claims are completely new. All of them. He has never said anything like this before, and they all contradict each other.”
Laurentiu Codin told the court Christian B, pictured, said he ‘found a kid, and took the child’ during a hotel invasion. Pic: Reuters
In court, Codin also claimed that Christian B had asked him how much it would cost to get a fraudulent passport so he could get back into Portugal, saying: “I can remember that he asked, that he needed a passport and also a driver’s licence.”
Presiding judge Ute Insa Engemann then asked: “And if I put it to you that in 2020, in your witness statement, there was talk about prices, a falsified one costs 1,500 euros and an original costing 2,500 euros, and he said he needed it for Portugal, to go to Portugal.”
“Yes, yes I remember. Yes, he said that,” Codin replied.
It has previously been reported that Codin is supposed to have heard that Christian B had boasted to him that he had committed rapes in Portugal and got away with it.
But in court, Codin refused to be drawn concerning the report, constantly repeating that he “did not want to incriminate” the defendant.
After being pushed on the matter, he said: “We had a few drinks and we walked but that is it” but refused to give any details.
He tried twice to say that he was not prepared to answer any questions. The judge reminded him he was under a legal obligation to do so.
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Madeleine McCann was three years old when she disappeared. Pic: Handout/ PA
In court, Christian B also watched as a video clip was displayed on two large screens at Braunschweig Regional Court, showing the scenes of the apartment in Portugal where Madeleine disappeared in 2007.
The footage included interviews with Kate and Gerry McCann, as they described their horror on realizing that Madeleine was no longer in her bed on the night of 3 May 2007.
It also featured a clip from Aktenzeichen XY, the German equivalent of the UK’s Crimewatch television show, where the German Federal Criminal Police (BKA) launched a public appeal for info on Christian B, showing photos of his house and the cars he drove.
The videos and photos were shown at the request of Christian B’s lawyer, Dr Friedrich Fulscher, who argued it was important to understand that the witnesses may have been egged on by such media reports to misinterpret the defendant’s behaviour as a sex offence.
The video was played straight after the court read out the testimony of the Portuguese girl who claimed that Christian B had been in a playground, pulled down his trousers and masturbated while calling out to her.
However, the prosecution objected to the video being shown in court and said that they could not see the relevance of it.
Codin’s testimony against Christian B comes as there are indications the defendant could be acquitted.
The presiding judge, Uta Inse Engemann, who the prosecution has already tried to have removed on the basis that she is allegedly biased in favour of the defence, has already stated that there is no longer “sufficient suspicion of guilt for all of the charges”.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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