Madeleine McCann suspect Christian B ‘told Portuguese judge he was a sexual predator’ a YEAR before she disappeared

THE key suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann told Portuguese police he was a sexual predator a YEAR before she went missing.

But cops searching for the youngster never considered Christian B as a potential kidnapper - until three years ago.

It's now claimed Christian B had told an investigating judge he had a criminal record in Germany, and that he had committed sex offences, the Daily Mail reports.

Despite that, his confession was not recorded by police and his name was never added to a list of known sex offenders living in the Algarve.

A year later, in 2007, Madeleine went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Her disappearance remains a mystery, although German police say they know she is dead.

And it's now come to light that Christian B told a judge: "When I was 17 years old I was convicted in Germany for theft and sexual offences."

As a juvenile in 1996, B fled to Portugal shortly after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Germany.

He was arrested in 2006 and later jailed for eight months for stealing diesel from commercial trucks.

Details of his confession that he was a sexual predator have emerged in documents of his interview by Judge Antonieta Nascimento.

His name should have been added to a list held by the Portugal’s investigative Policia Judiciaria [PJ].

Officers from the force were tasked with finding Madeleine McCann just a year later.

After the little girl disappeared, officials were tasked with listing all foreign nationals who had been convicted of sex crimes living in the area around the resort.

But Christian B's name never went on the list.

The failure was reported today by media in Portugal.

It comes after authorities in Germany, Portugal and the UK clashed during their work on the case.

Christian B only emerged as the key suspect a decade after Madeleine vanished.

CONFESSION 'WAS NEVER RECORDED'

His name was given to police after he allegedly boasted to a friend in a German bar that he knew what had happened to Madeleine.

Officers then discovered he took a 30-minute phone call just before the three-year-old vanished.

This week, the suspect's lawyer says B, 43, “denies any involvement” in the McCann case.

And it emerged the convicted paedophile kept kids’ clothes and swimwear in his mobile home.

He bought the red and white Allegro Bay RV in early 2010 — three years after moving back to his native Germany from Portugal.

Pals said he used it to drive regularly back and forth between Germany, Spain and Portugal and once boasted how he could “carry children and drugs” inside.

Cops found the clothes and swimwear after seizing the RV as part of their probe into missing Inga Gehricke, who disappeared in 2015 during a picnic with her parents.

Today, Sun Online reported that the suspect's van was CRUSHED by police and sold for scrap.

And Madeleine's parents were sent two letters by German cops - but bungling Brit police failed to pass them on.

The first, saying they were treating their daughter’s disappearance as murder after finding new evidence, was dispatched at the end of May.

The second was sent last week to update them on the investigation, according to German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters.