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British and German police have appealed for information about a German child sex offender currently imprisoned in Germany. He was 30 at the time Maddie disappeared in Portugal in 2007, when she was aged just three.

The man, 43, has been described as white with short blond hair, possibly fair, and about 6ft tall with a slim build at the time she vanished.

Madeleine disappeared from her bedroom on May 3 during a family holiday in the Algarve while her parents were dining with friends nearby in the resort of Praia da Luz.

German police said the suspect lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007 – and for several years in a house near Praia da Luz – and burgled hotels and holiday flats as well as trading drugs.

They revealed the man has been “sentenced on numerous occasions to prison terms for sexual abuse of children in the past”.

Police also want to speak to anyone who has relevant information on the movements of two vehicles linked to the suspect during the period around the girl’s disappearance.

Both cars, a Volkswagen camper van and a Jaguar, are now in the possession of German police.

Police said they were treating the case as a suspected murder and had determined the method used to kill Maddie.

They did not believe the murder was pre-meditated and said the man was involved in crimes like break-ins and burglary.

It comes as the parents of Madeleine McCann said the announcement of a new suspect was a potentially very significant development in the 13-year worldwide hunt for their daughter.

Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the family, told BBC radio: “Kate and Gerry do feel it’s potentially very significant.

“They’ve never given up hope that she may still be found alive but they are realistic.”

“Whatever the outcome of this particular line of investigation maybe, they do need to know what happened to their daughter to find peace and to bring whoever is responsible to justice.”

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