UK police announce new Madeleine McCann suspect | THE DAILY NEWS

A German prisoner has been identified as a suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann by British police – a development the British girl's parents believe could be "very significant".
The 43-year-old German national is known to have been in and around Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve coast at the time Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.
According to The Telegraph, Portuguese sources have named the suspect as Christian Brueckner.
At around lunchtime on Thursday, local time, German prosecutors – who are due to give an update later – announced that they believe Madeleine is dead.

"The public prosecutor's office in Braunschweig is investigating a 43-year-old German national on suspicion of murder," Braunschweig state prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said.

"From this you can see that we assume that the girl is dead."

Madeleine had been on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry McCann and her twin siblings Sean and Amelie.
UK authorities described the identification of the suspect as a "significant new line of enquiry", while German authorities revealed the suspect has previously been convicted for sexually abusing children.

The family's spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, said earlier today that the British and German police appeal was "the first time in more than 13 years that I can recall [police] focusing on one individual".
"Kate and Gerry do feel it's potentially very significant," Mitchell told BBC radio. "This is another important chapter in the search for their daughter," he added.
A half-hour phone call was made to the German man's Portuguese mobile phone around an hour before Madeleine is believed to have gone missing.
The suspect, who is in prison in Germany for an unrelated matter, has been linked to a camper van that was pictured in the Algarve in 2007.
Scotland Yard said he was driving the vehicle in the Praia da Luz area in the days before Madeleine's disappearance.
He has also been linked to a 1993 Jaguar XJR6 with a German number plate seen in Praia da Luz and surrounding areas in 2006 and 2007.
The day after Madeleine went missing, the suspect got the car re-registered in Germany under someone else's name, although it is believed the vehicle was still in Portugal.
Both vehicles have been seized by German police.
Scotland Yard is launching a joint appeal with the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA) and the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria (PJ), including an STG20,000 ($A36,000) reward for information leading to the conviction of the person responsible for Madeleine's disappearance.
The Met's investigation has identified more than 600 people as being potentially significant and were tipped off about the German national, already known to detectives, following a 2017 appeal 10 years after she went missing.
Madeleine vanished shortly before her fourth birthday and would have turned 17 last month.
A Wednesday statement from Madeleine's parents, read by Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, welcomed the new police appeal.
"All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice," the McCanns' statement said.
"We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive, but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace."
Det. Chief Insp. Cranwell told reporters on Wednesday he was taking the unusual step of releasing two mobile phone numbers as part of the appeal.
The first, (+351) 912 730 680, is believed to have been used by the suspect, and received a call from another Portuguese mobile, (+351) 916 510 683, while in the Praia da Luz area on the night of May 3, 2007.
The caller, who is not thought to have been in the Praia da Luz area, is not being treated as a suspect, but is said to be a "key witness" in the case.
Det. Chief Insp. Cranwell appealed to anyone who knew the suspect and who may have information in relation to Madeleine's case to come forward.
"You may know, you may be aware of some of the things he has done. He may have confided in you about the disappearance of Madeleine," the police officer said.
Mitchell, in his interview with the BBC's Radio 4, underlined that although the German police are classifying it as a murder investigation, the British police are still treating it as a missing persons case.
"A British national is still missing and the British police have been at pains to say there is no evidence at all that she has come to harm, is dead, or indeed alive so they are literally keeping an open mind on it," he explained.