German authorities 'ignored tip-off about Madeleine McCann suspect in 2013'

German authorities ignored warnings from their own police in 2013 that suspect Christian Brueckner could have kidnapped and killed Madeleine McCann, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

A report from detectives monitoring Brueckner identified him as a key suspect in the Madeleine puzzle, but it was ignored by Germany's Federal Criminal Office.

The police report was triggered after detectives in the UK issued a fresh appeal seven years ago in the Madeleine case on a German crime TV programme.

Scotland Yard had just launched its own probe and was reaching out to tourists who might have been in Portugal when Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

The report was sent to the federal police by police in Braunschweig, who were assessing Brueckner's criminal behaviour.

Der Spiegel writes: "One person did submit a tip about Christian B, but the resulting report from police in Braunschweig to the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation was apparently not acted upon, much to the consternation of the local investigators."

In other news, authorities investigating Brueckner are examining any links to the disappearance of two other children, according to reports.

The 43-year-old convicted German child sex offender, currently in prison in his home country.

German news websites have now reported that authorities have contacted the family of Rene Hasee, who went missing in 1996.

According to reports the then six-year-old, from Elsdorf, Germany, went missing from a beach while on holiday with his family in the Portuguese Algarve.

It comes as an investigation has been opened into whether the suspect was involved in the disappearance of Inga Gehricke.

She was five years old when she vanished from a forest in the Saxony-Anhalt region on May 2 2015.

Prosecutors in the northern German town of Stendal confirmed to the PA news agency they are probing possible connections between the cases of Madeleine and Inga.

But they said the man, who has been partially identified as Christian B by local media due to the country's strict rules on the naming of criminals, is not currently a suspect.

He reportedly had a property in the town of Neuwegersleben, around 60 miles south-west of Stendal when she went missing.

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