A German TV channel has discovered “shocking” new evidence against a man suspected of kidnapping Madeleine McCann, reports suggest.

       Authorities in Germany announced two years ago that Christian B, whose full name cannot be disclosed under German privacy law, was being treated as a prime suspect in the disappearance of the girl, who was three years old when she went missing in 2007.

       Journalists and former investigators working on a documentary for the German TV station Sat.1 have now claimed they have proof he was near Praia da Luz, when the British toddler went missing there on 3 May, 2007.

       Juliane Ebling, the channel’s editor, said: “The sad story of Madeleine McCann is a story that has many German facets.”

       She added that one of her reporters, Jutta Rabe, “has researched shocking material in Germany, Portugal and England over the past months, which heavily incriminates Christian B”.

       Recommended Madeleine McCann case set to collapse as investigators find suspect ‘was 30 minutes away’ Cleo Smith: Madeleine McCann’s parents say story ‘gives them hope’ Madeleine McCann suspect ‘believes investigators don’t have a shred of evidence’ to charge him with

       Christian B, who is currently serving a seven-year sentence in Germany for raping a 72-year-old American woman in the Algarve in 2005, is also being investigated in three other cases.

       These include the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Portugal in 2007 and the abuse of children in the Algarve town of S？o Bartolomeu de Messines in 2017.

       Friedrich Fulscher, Christian B’s lawyer, said his client “denies any involvement” in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.