Madeleine McCann suspect’s best pal tells cops Christian B is guilty and he may have sold her to a ‘sex ring’
THE ex-cellmate and best pal of Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B has told cops he knows he is guilty.
Michael Tatschl, 47, who lived with the convicted rapist in Portugal and Spain, helped him with a fuel-theft racket and they shared a remand cell.
He told The Sun: “I know he did it. I was living with him at the time. I was sure it was him the minute the police came to find me last April.
“He even talked about selling kids, maybe to Morocco, I think he probably sold Madeleine to someone. Maybe a sex ring. I didn't really think about it at the time. Perhaps I should have.”
After a two-day grilling by German police last year, Tatschl expected an imminent charge and “cannot believe” Portuguese cops still have not searched their former home in Praia da Luz, Portugal, the village where Madeleine disappeared in May 2007.
The ex-carpenter, who lives in Graz, Austria, said Christian B “was definitely a pervert and more than capable of snatching a child for sexual kicks or money”.
He added: “When I saw the Madeleine Netflix documentary a few days before I saw the police I knew immediately he was guilty.
'HE'D STEAL EVERYTHING'
“A female tourist talks about the man turning up at her door while her child played by the front door — the creepy guy with acne and blonde hair — I just knew it was Christian.”
Tatschl says Christian B “was a good burglar and would easily climb up to first-floor apartments when tourists were out. He’d steal everything — money, valuables, passports, watches”.
He admits being “sucked into some of his schemes” including the fuel theft that put them in a Portuguese remand jail for eight months in 2006.
He said: “He had a hiding place in the roof of his house.
“When we were jailed, he ordered a German friend to get rid of any evidence.”
The pal and another man found a video camera there with footage of Christian B raping three women, including one aged 70.
Tatschl says one clip showed “this elderly lady who was chained to a wooden post, being beaten and raped”.
The two men destroyed the video. He said: “I think they ended up burning it. I told the police.”
Later the Germans told what they had seen and at Christian B’s 2019 trial for raping a US woman their evidence contributed to him getting a seven-year sentence.
'HE LIKED TO BRAG'
Tatschl, a father of one, continued: “He liked to brag about his crimes. He aimed to steal as much money as he could until he reached his dream of having a million euros.
“But the German guy and his friend took everything.
“I came back to Praia da Luz in about February 2007 and found Christian camping wild near the town.
“He was going to raves and I think selling drugs. I stuck around for a bit and then went back to Spain.”
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Within weeks of three-year-old Madeleine’s abduction Christian B followed him to Orgiva, Andalucia.
Tatschl said: “In late May or early June he arrived in Spain with his big American camper van. He knew I had connections to the marijuana world and could help him make money.
“We just thought he was a pervert but didn’t think he liked young children.”
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