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”.
The twin threats of climate change and Russian malign activity in the Arctic must be taken “deadly seriously,” David Lammy has warned.
Sky News joined him on the furthest reaching tour of the Arctic by a British foreign secretary.
We travelled to Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago that is the most northern settled land on Earth, 400 miles from the North Pole.
It is at the heart of an Arctic region facing growing geopolitical tension and feeling the brunt of climate change.
Mr Lammy told us the geopolitics of the region must be taken “deadly seriously” due to climate change and “the threats we’re seeing from Russia”.
We witnessed the direct impact of climate change along Svalbard’s coastline and inland waterways. There is less ice, we were told, compared to the past.
David Lammy and Norway’s Foreign Minister Barth Eide view the melting Blomstrandbreen glacier. Pic: PA
The melting ice is opening up the Arctic and allowing Russia more freedom to manoeuvre.
“We do see Russia’s shadow fleet using these waters,” Mr Lammy said. “We do see increased activity from submarines with nuclear capability under our waters and we do see hybrid sabotage of undersea cables at this time.”
In Tromso, further south, the foreign secretary was briefed by Norwegian military commanders.
The foreign secretary visiting SvalSat, a satellite ground station which monitors climate in Svalbard. Pic: PA
Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, the Chief of Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Sky News the Russian threat was explicit.
“Russia has stated that they are in confrontation with the West and are utilising a lot of hybrid methods to undermine Western security,” he said.
But it’s not just Vladimir Putin they’re worried about. Norwegian observers are concerned by US president Donald Trump’s strange relationship with the Russian leader too.
Norwegian observers are concerned about the Russian leader – and Trump being ‘too soft’ on him. Pic: AP
Karsten Friis, a Norwegian defence and security analyst, told Sky News: “If he’s too soft on Putin, if he is kind of normalising relations with Russia, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I would expect Russia to push us, to test us, to push borders, to see what we can do as Europeans.”
Changes in the Arctic mean new challenges for the NATO military alliance – including stepping up activity to deter threats, most of all from Russia.
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In Iceland, we toured a NATO airbase with the foreign secretary.
There, he said maintaining robust presence in the Arctic was essential for western security.
“Let’s be clear, in this challenging geopolitical moment the high north and the Arctic is a heavily contested arena and we should be under no doubt that NATO and the UK need to protect it for our own national security.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
This is also about distracting Russia, drawing away resources that could have been used in the war in Ukraine and deterring it in the future.
Because the more Arctic opens up, the more this once pristine wilderness is becoming the arena of national rivalry and potentially conflict.
World
‘What did they do to be burned and bombed?’: Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment
A British charity has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary, urging them to allow seriously ill children from Gaza into the UK to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Warning: This article contains images readers may find distressing
The co-founder of Project Pure Hope told Sky News it was way past the time for words.
“Now, we need action,” Omar Dinn said.
He’s identified two children inside Gaza who urgently need help and is appealing to the UK government to issue visas as a matter of urgency.
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Britain has taken only two patients from Gaza for medical treatment in 20 months of Israeli bombardment.
Children are among the bulk of the casualties in Gaza
“Most of the people affected by this catastrophe that’s unfolding in Gaza are children,” he continued. “And children are the most vulnerable.
“They have nothing to do with the politics, and we really just need to see them for what they are.
“They are children, just like my children, just like everybody’s children in this country – and we have the ability to help them.”
Sky News has been sent video blogs from British surgeons working in Gaza right now which show the conditions and difficulties they’re working under.
They prepare for potential immediate evacuation whilst facing long lists, mainly of children, needing life-saving emergency treatment day after day.
Dr Victoria Rose is a British surgeon working in southern Gaza’s last remaining hospital
Dr Victoria Rose told us: “Every time I come, I say it’s really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It’s mass casualties. It’s utter carnage.
“We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don’t have the personnel. We don’t have the medical supplies. And we really don’t have the facilities.
“We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.”
One of her patients is three-year-old Hatem, who was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family apartment.
Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
His pregnant mother and father were both killed, leaving him an orphan. He has 35 percent burns on his small body.
“It’s a massive burn for a little guy like this,” Dr Rose says. “He’s so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.”
Hatem’s grandfather barely leaves his hospital bedside. Hatem Senior told us: “What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries? To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.”
Hatem Senior
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The second child identified by the charity is Karam, who, aged one, is trying to survive in a tent in deeply unhygienic surroundings with a protruding intestine.
He’s suffering from a birth defect called Hirschsprung disease, which could be easily operated on with the right skills and equipment – unavailable to him in Gaza right now.
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Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
Karam’s mother Manal told our Gaza camera crew: “No matter how much I describe how much my son is suffering, I wouldn’t be able to describe it enough. I swear I am constantly crying.”
Children are among the bulk of casualties – some 16,000 have been killed, according to the latest figures from local health officials – and make up the majority of those being operated on, according to the British surgical team on the ground.
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