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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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."

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.

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.

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."

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