A BRITISH ex-girlfriend of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B claims the night before the toddler’s abduction he told her: “I have a horrible job to do in Praia da Luz tomorrow.” She also told how she asked him if he snatched Madeleine McCann — and he warned: “Just don’t go there.” The woman is one […]
A BRITISH ex-girlfriend of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B claims the night before the toddler’s abduction he told her: “I have a horrible job to do in Praia da Luz tomorrow.”
She also told how she asked him if he snatched Madeleine McCann — and he warned: “Just don’t go there.”
The woman is one of two British former girlfriends of child sex offender Christian who were dating him while he was in the Praia da Luz area of Portugal and have now given evidence to police.
Both live in fear of the German drug dealer, who beat them up, and have asked not to be identified.
One has told of a chilling conversation she had with Christian over dinner on May 2, 2007 — the night before Madeleine, three, was abducted from her parents’ apartment in the Portuguese resort.
The then 30-year-old drifter told her: “I have a job to do in Praia da Luz tomorrow. It’s a horrible job but it’s something I have to do and it will change my life. You won’t be seeing me for a while.”
Christian disappeared at the same time as Madeleine — resurfacing three years later working in a bar in Lagos, around six miles from Praia da Luz.
It was in the bar in 2010 that his other British girlfriend suggested he was a dead ringer for some of the photofits of the Madeleine suspects — and jokingly asked: “You did it Christian, didn’t you?”
A friend of the girls said today: “He blanked the question and shrugged — then added, ‘Just don’t go there’.”
The pal added: “It was said at a time when everyone had a theory about the Madeleine mystery and everyone had a story.
“So everyone who knew him around that time kind of dismissed it.”
Christian’s cryptic comments the night before Madeleine vanished were similarly not taken seriously at the time.
The friend added: “The ex-girlfriend with him at dinner didn’t compute what he’d said because she didn’t believe him capable of doing something like that — even though he had been violent before.
“Then Christian went off the radar the day after the abduction. Both his exes became more suspicious when he didn’t return to the area for around three years.
“They read about the witness accounts and realised some of the photofits and artist’s impressions struck a chord.”
But the penny finally dropped last week when police in Germany announced they believed a criminal they identified only as Christian B had links to Madeleine’s abduction.
The friend said: “We knew exactly who ‘Christian B’ was, even when the first pictures of him appeared online with a black bar across his face.
“And now we all fear we know exactly what he’s done. All the pieces of the jigsaw have fallen into place. We’re horrified and traumatised. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.
The ex-girlfriend with him at dinner didn’t compute what he’d said because she didn’t believe him capable of doing something like that.
“What he said at that dinner suggests he planned the whole thing very carefully and that he might even have stolen Madeleine to order.
“But we also can’t help feeling guilty thinking we should have pulled together all the clues years ago and gone to the police.”
The friend, a man in his 40s from North Yorkshire who has lived in Lagos for more than ten years, met Christian when he worked at the expat bar, called The Tavern.
He said: “Christian had a camper van but wasn’t a hippy as has been said.
“He wasn’t a bad-looking bloke and was always well groomed.
“He was quite brash and loud and was also a bit of a charmer and I could see why women might be attracted to him.
“But I never liked him because I’m a close friend of both of the British girls he dated and they both told me he beat them up.
“They’ve both been beside themselves for days since the police appeals and don’t know what to do.
“Their first priority is to help police because they know a lot of things that probably join up a lot of the dots in the investigation.”
The friend said the women are desperate to ensure Christian, currently in jail after the rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz in 2005, remains locked up.
He added: “Their main concern is making sure he’s convicted and stays in prison because they know what kind of person he is.
“They’re terrified he might get out one day and come for them.”
One of the women is a mum of two from Berkshire. She lived in Praia da Luz when she dated convicted paedophile Christian in the early 2000s.
She is understood to have been questioned previously by detectives at her current home in Lagos but the nature of her evidence has not come to light until now.
She has now spoken again to police re-focusing inquiries on 43-year-old Christian, who is serving his prison sentence in Germany.
The ex-girlfriend is not a suspect but agreed to co-operate by giving a statement.
She is a friend of the other British woman, also in a relationship with Christian in the noughties.
There is no suggestion either of the women had any clue about any involvement he might have had in the abduction of the British toddler.
The ex-husband of one of the women, a businessman who still lives in Lagos, was also spoken to by Interpol last year as police pieced together Christian’s history.
He has refused to say what police asked or how he knew Christian.
The husband said: “We’ve decided not to talk. The police have been in touch and we’ve spoken to them. I spoke to Interpol last year.
“I’m speaking on behalf of my ex too. We don’t want to be involved.”
The women’s testimony was disclosed as German police announced they have evidence suggesting Madeleine was murdered.
They are also investigating Christian over the unsolved murder of nine-year-old Peggy Knobloch, whose childhood snaps display a resemblance to Madeleine.
She vanished on her way home from school in Thueringen, Bavaria, in May 2001. Fifteen years later parts of her skeleton were found in a forest 60 miles away.
Christian was freed from a two-year sentence for a child sex attack months before Peggy was abducted.
Peggy’s mum Susanne said: “The Madeleine case takes me back to this time, everything comes up again.”
In 2004 a man with learning difficulties who lived near Peggy’s home was jailed for life after confessing to her murder.
He later retracted his confession and was freed after ten years when his conviction was overturned.
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