Madeleine McCann case: Sky News tracks down woman at centre of hit-and-run theory investigated by police
A woman investigated over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has told Sky News she was shocked by the police interest in her.
Portuguese and British police investigated the German woman seven years ago while their focus was on a theory Madeleine woke up, got out of her family’s Praia da Luz holiday apartment through an unlocked patio door and was killed in a hit-and-run accident.
This was just before Christian B emerged as the prime suspect over the three-year-old British girl’s disappearance in 2007. He is expected to be released from a German jail next week at the end of a sentence for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
The German woman said she was not aware she had been under suspicion
The hit-and-run theory was leaked to Portugal‘s Correio da Manha newspaper in June. It didn’t identify the woman, but the report suggested the investigation fizzled out because German authorities refused to get involved and deploy an undercover detective to befriend the suspect.
We tracked down the German woman, and she said she was not aware she had been under suspicion.
She told us she’d been working in a restaurant near the beach in Praia da Luz and got home after the time Madeleine was discovered missing from her bed. Her British partner was a chef at the Ocean Club who had served dinner to the McCanns and their friends.
“I don’t even know if there was a car accident, because I was working,” she said. “I came home at half ten, and my boyfriend was home already.”
Their flat, like the homes of many residents, was searched by Portuguese police in the days after Madeleine vanished.
‘Do you think I’ve cut her up?’
The German woman said she got angry during a second search when she was asked to empty her freezer and asked a police officer: “Do you think I’ve cut her up in little pieces and I’m going to have her for dinner?”
The woman said that more than 10 years later, German police contacted her, but only to ask her if she knew Christian B and had seen him near the McCanns’ apartment.
The German woman said she was unaware about press reports on her
She said: “They wanted to know if I ever saw this German bloke around this area where I was living for a long time. Other people obviously saw his van, but I never saw it.”
The woman told us a German police commissar – equivalent to an inspector – called her several times over more than a year.
He asked for the SIM card from a phone she used when she was living in Portugal. That might suggest the officer was fishing for more than information about Christian B.
Christian B raped an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005
Local reports alleged the woman may have borrowed a car, but she said: “Do you think I ran her over? I didn’t even have a car at the time.”
She was unaware of the Portuguese newspaper report in June until we told her.
“Why didn’t my friends tell me and call me about this?” she said.
The family of the woman’s British partner, who has since died, told us they had been questioned by detectives from Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange, which is supporting the German and Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
The tapas restaurant where the McCanns ate on the night Madeleine went missing
The German woman said her British partner served the McCanns at the restaurant
When asked about the investigation into the German woman, a Met Police spokesperson said: “We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May 2007 in Praia da Luz. This includes working with our colleagues in Germany and Portugal.
“Our thoughts remain with the family and it would be inappropriate to comment further while enquiries continue.”
Christian B warned not to return to Portugal
The night before Madeleine’s disappearance, her parents said she had woken up crying, and the next day she had asked where they had been. Part of the hit-and-run theory is that she might have gone looking for them.
But Madeleine’s mother, Kate, has long dismissed the suggestion that her daughter managed to get out of the apartment alone.
Madeleine McCann went missing on 3 May 2007
In her book entitled Madeleine, she wrote: “To give any credence whatsoever to the idea Madeleine could have walked out on her own you would have to accept that she had gone out the back way, pulling aside the sitting room curtains and drawing them again, then opening the patio door, the child safety gate at the top of the stairs on the veranda and the little gate to the road – and carefully closing all three behind her.
“What three-year-old do you know who would do that?”
Kate McCann dismissed the theory her daughter left the apartment by herself
It appears police played down the hit-and-run theory when their case against Christian B began to look more promising.
Christian B remains under investigation and has been warned not to return to Portugal when he is freed from jail.
Ex-pat Ken Ralphs, who knew the German drifter at the time Madeleine vanished, told us: “I think he’s a danger to society.
“It’s going to make a lot of children and women feel vulnerable again. He’s an injurious monster as far as I’m concerned.”
Ken Ralphs says if Christian B returns to the Algarve ‘I’ll be watching him 24/7’
Mr Ralphs, a former community campaigner from Stockport, told Sky News last year about a mutual friend, a fellow Briton, who claimed to have got involved in a plot with Christian B, a convicted child sex offender.
The alleged plan, a week before Madeleine vanished, was to steal a child to sell to a childless couple.
All three men were part of an off-grid community living in camper vans near Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished.
Madeleine was taken from her family’s apartment while her parents dined in the resort restaurant
Mr Ralphs, who lives outside Luz, said: “Christian wouldn’t be welcomed back by many people here. I’m not worried about him personally, but there are others who are concerned. If he turns up here, I’ll be watching him 24/7.”
Christian B, 48, who cannot be fully identified under German privacy laws, is thought by investigators to have kidnapped and murdered Madeleine, but he hasn’t been charged and denies any involvement.
Christian B ‘will be forever connected with Madeleine case’
Mr Ralphs’ damning view of the suspect echoes that of the German prosecutor investigating the Madeleine case.
Hans Christian Wolters said a psychiatrist had assessed Christian B as dangerous and “similar crimes, especially sexual offences, are to be expected from him again”.
“We do consider him very dangerous and assume there is a risk of reoffending,” he said.
He added: “For us, he is still the only suspect in the case. We continue to assume that he is responsible for her [Madeleine] disappearance and ultimately also for her death.”
Ahead of Christian B’s release, the German authorities are to try to persuade a judge to impose restrictions on him: an electronic tag, a curfew, a fixed address or even a travel ban.
Christian B is due to be released from jail next week
The Portuguese lawyer who represented Christian B when he was convicted of diesel theft in the Algarve in 2006 believes he will never shake off the suspicion over Madeleine.
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At his office in Portimao, Serafim Vieira said: “His life is not going to be easy, not just because of the crimes he’s committed, but he’ll be forever connected with the Madeleine case, to the murder of Madeleine.
“When anyone sees him on the street, or sees his picture, they will connect him with Madeleine.”
A young woman who claimed to be Madeleine McCann has been convicted of harassing the missing toddler’s family.
However, Julia Wandelt, 24, was cleared of stalking the couple.
A Polish national born three years after Madeleine, Wandelt said she suspected she had been abducted and brought up by a couple who were not her real parents.
She was having mental health issues at the time and had been abused by an elderly relative.
The relative looked like an artist’s drawing of a man who was once a suspect in the Madeleine case, which she stumbled across during internet research on missing children.
She went to Los Angeles and told a US TV chat show audience: “I believe I am Madeleine McCann.”
Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from the family’s rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
She had been left sleeping with her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelia, while her parents dined nearby with friends, making intermittent checks on the children.
Madeleine is the world’s most famous missing child, the subject of three international police investigations that have failed to find any trace of her.
Wandelt claimed to have a blemish in the iris of her right eye, like Madeleine’s, and to resemble aged-progressed images of her.
Madeleine McCann went missing during a family holiday to Portugal in 2007. Pic: PA
Over three years, she attracted half a million followers on her Instagram account, iammadeleinemccan, and posted her claims on TikTok.
Police told her she was not Madeleine and ordered her not to approach her family, but she ignored the warning.
The McCanns and their children gave evidence in the trial at Leicester Crown Court, describing the upset Wandelt had caused them.
Her co-defendant, Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, was found not guilty of stalking and harassment.
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Public safety is “at risk” because more inmates are being sent to prisons with minimal security, a serving governor has warned – as details emerge of another manhunt for a foreign national offender.
Mark Drury – speaking in his role as representative for open prison governors at the Prison Governors’ Association – told Sky News open prisons that have had no absconders for “many years” are now “suddenly” experiencing a rise in cases.
It comes after a man who was serving a 21-year sentence for kidnap and grievous bodily harm absconded from an open prison in Sussex last month.
Sky News has learned that Ola Abimbola is a foreign national offender who still hasn’t returned to HMP Ford – and Sussex Police says it is working with partners to find him.
WARNING: Some readers may find the content in this article distressing
Ola Abimbola absconded from an open prison. Pic: Sussex Police
For Natalie Queiroz, who was stabbed 24 times by her ex-partner while she was eight months’ pregnant with their child, the warnings could not feel starker.
Natalie sustained injuries to all her major organs and her arms, while the knife only missed her unborn baby by 2mm.
“Nobody expected either of us to survive,” she told Sky News.
Babur Raja was sentenced to 18 years for attempted murder, but Natalie has recently been told that he’s set to be moved to an open prison four years earlier than planned.
“Any day now, my ex who created this untold horror is about to go to an open prison,” Natalie said.
Open prisons – otherwise known as Category D jails – have minimal security and are traditionally used to house prisoners right at the end of their sentence, to prepare them for integrating back into society.
With overcrowding in higher security jails, policy changes mean more prisoners are eligible for a transfer to open conditions earlier on in their sentence.
Natalie Queiroz was stabbed 24 times by her ex-partner
“It doesn’t feel right, it’s terrifying, and it also doesn’t feel like justice,” Natalie said, wiping away tears at points.
Previously, rules stated a transfer to open prison could only take place within three years of their eligibility for parole – but no earlier than five years before their automatic release date.
The five-year component was dropped in March last year under the previous government, but the parole eligibility element was extended to five years in April 2025.
Raja, who is due for release in 2034, has parole eligibility 12 years into his sentence, which is 2028.
Under the rule change, this eligibility for open prison is set for this year – but under the new rules it could have been 2023, which is within five years of his parole date.
Another change, introduced in the spring, means certain offenders can be assumed suitable for open prisons three years early – extended from two years.
Natalie says her ex-partner Babur Raja caused ‘untold horror’
Natalie has been campaigning to prevent violent offenders and domestic abuse perpetrators from being eligible to transfer to an open prison early.
She’s had meetings with ministers and raised both her case and others.
“They actually said – he is dangerous,” she told Sky News.
“I said to [the minister]: ‘How can you make a risk assessment for someone like that?’
“And they went: ‘If we’re honest, we can’t’.”
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What’s wrong with our prisons?
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The government told Sky News that Raja’s crimes were “horrific” and that their “thoughts remain with the victim”.
They also insist that the “small number of offenders eligible for moves to open prison face a strict, thorough risk assessment” – while anyone breaking the rules “can be immediately returned”.
Mark Drury, a representative of the Prison Governors’ Association
But Mr Drury describes risk assessments as an “algorithm tick box” because of “the pressure on offender management units”.
These warnings come at an already embarrassing time for the Prison Service after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly freed last month.
This week, it emerged two others have been freed in error since then, amid new release checks.
In response to this report, the Ministry of Justice says it “inherited a justice system in crisis, with prisons days away from collapse” – forcing “firm action to get the situation back under control”.
The government has promised to add 14,000 new prison places by 2031 and introduce sentencing reforms.
The US Congress has written to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor requesting an interview with him in connection with his “long-standing friendship” with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it is investigating the late financier’s “sex trafficking operations”.
It told Andrew: “The committee is seeking to uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers, and to understand the full extent of his criminal operations.
“Well-documented allegations against you, along with your long-standing friendship with Mr Epstein, indicate that you may possess knowledge of his activities relevant to our investigation.
“In the interest of justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, we request that you co-operate with the committee’s investigation by sitting for a transcribed interview with the committee.”
The congressional committee wants to understand any ‘activities’ relevant to its Epstein investigation. PA file pic
Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her after being introduced by Epstein. Andrew has always vehemently denied her accusations.
The letter to the former prince, is addressed to Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park, the home he agreed last week to leave, when he was stripped of his royal titles.
It outlines his “close relationship” with Epstein and references a recently revealed 2011 email exchange in which Andrew told him “we are in this together”.
And it says the committee has identified “financial records containing notations such as ‘massage for Andrew’ that raise serious questions”.
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The committee said Andrew’s links to Epstein “further confirms our suspicion that you may have valuable information about the crimes committed by Mr Epstein and his co-conspirators”.
The letter, signed by 16 members of Congress, requested Andrew responds by 20 November.
It came as the King officially stripped his disgraced brother of both his HRH style and his prince title.
The move followed the publication Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs, and the US government’s release of documents from the paedophile’s estate.
Ms Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times – once at convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in London, once in Epstein’s address in Manhattan, and once on the disgraced financier’s private island, Little St James.
The incident at Maxwell’s home allegedly occurred when Ms Giuffre was 17 years old.
Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
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