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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Kate Connolly in Berlin

Key Madeleine McCann witness says Met police ignored tipoff for nine years

Madeleine McCann
Madeleine McCann was three when she disappeared on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007. Photograph: AP

The man who tipped off police about Christian Brückner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has said his initial approach to the Metropolitan police in the year after she disappeared was ignored and he was only taken seriously when he contacted them again nine years later.

The German man, identified only as Helge B, said he had approached Scotland Yard in 2008, suspecting Brückner’s involvement in the child’s abduction, but he heard nothing back from them. Publicity around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2017 prompted him to contact them again, after which they acted on his information, he said.

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