Key Madeleine McCann witness reveals moment Christian B ‘confessed’ to snatching her… & real reason he wasn’t caught
A KEY witness in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has revealed the chilling moment Christian B "confessed" to snatching her.
Former pal-turned-police informer Helge B was the person who identified prime suspect Christian B to cops in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance.
Speaking about his former pal in a two-hour interview with German paper Bild, he revealed how his blood ran cold the day the convicted paedophile told him that "she didn't scream" shortly after Maddie disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
He also described chilling footage he saw on a video camera he stole from the suspect.
But in a shock twist, the pal described how Scotland Yard ignored him when he raised concerns about Christian B - years before the German was declared a suspect.
Recalling the moment he crossed paths with the German, he told Bild: "He asked me: 'Don't you go to Portugal anymore and do business there?'
"'I said 'no', since the girl disappeared there, there have been too many police checks for me and I don't need that at all.'
"We came to Maddie and I said, 'Anyway, I don't understand how the little one could have disappeared without a trace'.
"Christian had drunk two or three beers and then said: 'She didn't scream'.
"I immediately checked what he said. I thought, he knows that. He has something to do with it.
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"At 3 or 4am he left a packed festival with his mobile home. I looked for him the next morning, his neighbours said: 'He's gone'."
The petty criminal and burglar said he first met Christian B around the time Maddie vanished from her parents’ holiday home in Praia da Luz in 2007.
He said: "It was in the parking lot in front of a pub in Portugal.
“My friends Micha and Manni introduced me to Christian. He had helped them with a breakdown - I thought that was a good thing.
"The first impression was that he was a nice guy - personable, sociable."
The low-life pair at first talked about their criminal pursuits and Christian B boasted of his climbing skills - which enabled him to enter hotels via balconies.
But Busching fatefully decided to burgle his so-called pal’s home when he learned he had been jailed - and made the discovery which would later blow open the McCann case.
Busching and Manfred Seyferth went in search of diesel fuel they knew Christian B had stored.
But while ransacking his home the pair unearthed a gun and a video camera.
He told Bild how the pair discovered a video showing a tied-up woman "70 or 80 years old" being abused.
"At the end of the video, he sat down on the bed and pulled down the mask. Then I saw that it was B," he said.
Christian B is currently serving a seven-year sentence for the 2005 rape of a pensioner in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.
And Helge's evidence from what he saw on the video was crucial in securing the conviction by German federal cops now striving to charge the beast with Maddie's abduction and murder.
He added that he approached German authorities but he was urged not to get involved.
He said: "I spoke to a police officer I know in Germany. He said: 'Helge, keep your hands off it.'
"A lawyer told me the same thing.
"I wasn't sure what could happen to me - I would have incriminated myself."
The 48-year-old also claimed Scotland Yard initially ignored him when he raised the alarm about the fiend he befriended when both were engaged in petty crime in Portugal.
He said: "I called Scotland Yard back in 2008. At the Maddie hotline. I said I knew someone who might have something to do with it and gave them the name.
Christian will be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
Helge B.
"But nothing happened there. Nothing! I was never called back.
"In 2017 I had just served a prison sentence in Greece. When I heard about the 10th anniversary of the disappearance, I remembered.
"Apparently the call didn't help at all. So I contacted Scotland Yard again. Then they listened to me.
"A first meeting took place with two officials in a hotel in Athens. I then flew to London and gave my testimony there for the record.
"I never got any money for it. Not a penny. I didn't shorten my term of imprisonment with the statement either. I only contacted Scotland Yard afterwards."
In 2018, the German federal police used evidence gleaned from Helge’s viewing of Christian B.'s video to help convict him of the pensioner rape.
The former pals saw each other in court after a long time.
Helge B said: "We then saw each other in court in 2019. This whole situation took a toll on me. When I saw him, I thought: He's a pig.
"He's not sitting here without a reason."
German public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters named Christian B. as the prime Maddie suspect in June 2020 - and said he had evidence that proved the tot had been murdered.
Helge B said: "Christian will be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. My theory is that he was planning a burglary.
"It went wrong and he found the kids in the apartment. And then he took Maddie with him. It probably wasn't planned at all.
"From what I know about him, I definitely believe him capable of something like that. I think he kidnapped her. I don't know if he ended up killing her."
"I wish there would finally be peace. It is clear to me that Maddie is no longer alive. As sad as that is, it would be better if her body was found.
"I'm worried that Christian B. will get away with it."
Helge said his life has been ruined by the unbearable burden of what he knows.
Asked whether he had a message for the monster, he said: "Christian, I hope you don't get away with this story.
"With what you did You deny these videos exist. These videos existed. Unfortunately, they are missing. But I saw her."
He added: "In hindsight, taking these videos with me was the biggest mistake of my life.
“I would have preferred not to know anything about it. I'm also not proud that I started this investigation.
“I'm not doing well. I've gained weight, I have phases when I go crazy, I don't sleep at night. It ruined my life."
Earlier this month, cops conducted a search in the Barragem do Arade reservoir in Portugal, 30 miles from where three-year-old Madeleine went missing.
A "number of items" was discovered were found at the dam, near the area Christian B. called his "little paradise".
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But German prosecutors probing the new evidence have apparently hit a "roadblock."
German police sources revealed that cops are planning to place suspect Christian B under 24/7 surveillance as he may be released from jail before the end of the investigation into him- which could stretch to 2026.
