A witness who has claimed that his friend confessed to abducting Madeleine McCann has been diagnosed with cancer, in a potential blow to the ongoing investigation.
Helge Busching had told told Scotland Yard Christian B, who cannot be fully named under German law, had "confessed" to Madeleine's abduction by revealing "she didn't cry when I took her".
Christian B is on trial trial for three rapes and two sex assaults, unconnected with the McCann case, which he denies.
Madeleine, 3, was on holiday with her parents and siblings in Praia da Luz in Portugal when she went missing in 2007. The disappearance captured the world’s attention and it remains one of the most high-profile missing persons cases.
Convicted criminal Busching has given evidence in Christian B’s current trial.
He was asked about his evidence in the McCann investigation and said that British detectives flew to meet him and spent three days interviewing him.
But another acquaintance giving evidence on Friday Busching had recently been diagnosed with intestinal cancer and didn't have long to live, Sky News reported.
Austrian carpenter Michael Tatschl told the court in Germany: "When we spoke four days ago on the phone, we discussed general things including his cancer. It's pretty bad. He got his diagnosis just a couple of months ago."
Madeleine vanished after she was left with younger twin siblings asleep in their apartment while their parents went to dinner with friends nearby.
During questioning of Madeleine’s parents in September 2007, detectives made them both “arguidos” – or suspects – in their daughter’s disappearance.
That status was eventually lifted and the investigation was shelved in 2008, but the couple remained under suspicion in Portugal for years.
Months after Scotland Yard launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine’s disappearance in 2013, Portuguese police confirmed that a review of their original inquiry had uncovered new lines of inquiry, and they reopened the case.
