MADDIE HOPE
COPS investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have found 'a number of items' during their search at the Algarve dam that may be linked to the missing tot's case.
Detectives have spent days combing the desolate Arade Dam in Portugal that the convicted rapist and paedophile called his "little paradise".
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Last week they found a "relevant clue" after they dug at the remote site 31 miles from Praia da Luz, where three-year-old Madeleine vanished in 2007.
And now investigators have sparked fresh hopes for answers on Maddie's case after they discovered a "number of items" that could be connected to her disappearance.
German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told the Mail Online: "A number of items were seized as part of the investigation. These will be in the evaluated in the coming days and weeks.
"Whether individual items actually have a connection to the Madeleine McCann case cannot yet be said.
"The investigations conducted here in Braunschweig against the 46-year-old suspect are expected to continue for a long time."
Soil from the area police have searched is being forensically analysed in Germany.
It is believed the analysis could take months.
But The Sun understands there could be other areas in Praia De Luz where Christian B spent time that could be checked out.
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A source said: “German officers have gone through more than 8,000 pictures belonging to Christian B.
“That forensic work led them to Barragem - but there are other places that have come up in the pictures too.
"Detectives are seeking to work out where they are and why Christian B was taking pictures of those places.”
Police scoured the dam for three days following a "very credible" tip-off amid claims he had been to the spot days after Maddie vanished.
The tip-off - plus geolocation clues found in Christian B's vile stash of 8,000 videos and images - is understood to have sparked the search.
Police were spotted removing what appeared to be large brown evidence bags from the search site, where The Sun's exclusive pictures show Christian B's sinister secret camp.
They have not revealed any information about what was found, however, following the first major search for Maddie in nine years.
The source also said German officers have long believed Portuguese cops who led the original probe didn’t do things properly.
They added: "German detectives remain hugely skeptical about the way the investigation has been carried out in Portugal which is why they are keen to carry on searching and looking at areas - even those where Portuguese cops claim to have examined.
"They believe fresh work could unlock new clues which move the case forward.”
Sources close to Christian’s legal team said any new probes or searches will be a “waste of time”.
The source said: “He didn’t kill Madeleine and all of this is taking attention away from the job of finding out who really did.”
Christian B, 45, is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Germany over the rape of a pensioner in Praia da Luz-the same area in Portugal where Maddie went missing in 2007 aged three.
He was charged with three offences of aggravated rape and two offences of the sexual abuse of children, in alleged crimes spanning 17 years between 2000 and 2017.
These charges have now been dropped by the Braunschweig court.
But it's believed the public prosecutor's office and the court in Magdeburg or Frankfurt could take charge of the case.
He is accused of taking a German-speaking girl, “aged at least 14”, to his apartment in Praia da Luz where he tied her up, raped her before hitting her with a whip.
Another rape allegation was an attack on a 20-year-old Irish woman at her holiday apartment in Praia da Rocha, where he is accused of breaking into the victim's home and raping her at knifepoint.
The alleged attack was filmed before the suspect escaped via the apartment balcony.
He is also accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old German girl on April 7, 2007, less than a month before Madeleine's disappearance.
A final charge against Christian B relates to an incident on June 11, 2017.
He was arrested after allegedly pulling down his trousers and performing a sex act in front of an 11-year-old girl during a festival in Bartolomeu de Messines, around a 40-minute drive from Praia da Luz.
Christian B, has denied any involvement in Maddie's disappearance and insisted the allegations were a “fairy tale”.
Maddie, from Leicestershire, went missing from her bed in an Algarve holiday apartment on the evening of May 3, 2007.
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Her disappearance sparked a massive international manhunt and would become the world's most well-known missing child case.
No trace of her has ever been found and no one has ever been formally charged over her disappearance.
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