CHRISTIAN B was allegedly plotting to snatch another child and sell it to a couple a week before Maddie went missing in Praia da Luz.
The convicted sex offender even tried to recruit a man to help him execute his plan, it has been claimed.
Christian B is accused of planning to snatch another child a week before Maddie disappeared
Ralphs claims Christian B had tried to recruit his friend
Three-year-old Madeleine vanished from her parents’ holiday house in Portugal in 2007
Expat Ken Ralphs, 59, told Sky News that Christian B made the offer to a mutual friend who was living in a tent in the Algarve at the time.
He said: “We were sitting around the fire one night after a meal, we had a few beers and during the early hours of the morning my friend began to cry.
“I asked him what the matter was and, eventually, he confessed to me he was getting involved with Christian to steal a child from Praia da Luz from a rich family.”
Ralphs explained that he was part of a nomadic community – alongside Christian B and their mutual friend- who lived off- the grid in remote parts of Portugal.
He said his friend was living in a teepee with his family where he and his wife would bring them food.
He claimed that Christian B took advantage of the man’s financial situation and tried to convince him to participate in the kidnapping plot.
“Christian knew the guy was vulnerable and wanted to travel abroad, but he couldn’t leave because he couldn’t afford the air tickets,” he said.
He said he urged his friend not to get involved and offered to help him financially.
He continued: “I said you can’t get involved in kidnapping a person for ransom, that’s ridiculous, then he explained – ‘no, it’s not like that’. Christian had a customer, a buyer lined up, a German couple who couldn’t have children.”
The allegation comes as the paedophile was accused of kidnapping a child from a beach and sexually assaulting her in 2007.
The 47-year-old, currently serving a seven-year prison term in Germany for rape and drug trafficking, is set to stand trial next Friday.
His former pal-turned-police informer Helge B, who has been dubbed “the most important witness” is also expected to testify.
Mr Ralphs was back in the UK when he heard the news that three-year-old Maddie vanished from her parents’ holiday home in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
He claims he drove straight to a police station in Workington, Cumbria as soon as he heard the news and even gave the cops a “secret map” to the woods.
“I said to the police, here’s the secret map of how you get to this point in the woods here. I said that must be sent immediately to the Portuguese police,” he said.
Mr Ralph said upon returning to the Algarve, he found that both his friend and Christian B had disappeared while his friend’s tent had been burnt.
He repeated his story to the Portuguese cops who allegedly told him he would be contacted if needed.
When Christian B was identified as a suspect in Maddie’s case in 2020, Ralphs said he contacted the police again after recognising him in the media.
He said: “They told me someone had made contact with my friend abroad and he had denied knowing me, but I have a dozen witnesses who will say that he’s lying.
“I guess he just didn’t want to be interviewed by police.”
He said he contacted Scotland Yard and sent a statement for the Madeleine investigation which is now with the German prosecutors.
Ralphs said he knew Christian in the months before Maddie’s disappearance because they used to park their camper vans in the same location on Barranco Beach.
“I remember him clearly, he was good-looking, spoke very good English and was polite, though not particularly friendly. A bit of a loner,” he said.
Despite being the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine and German authorities investigating him for the past five years, he has not been charged.
Christian B has always denied the allegations made against him.
It comes after chilling notebooks with sick child rape pictures were discovered in Christian B’s lair.
The detailed notepads are called “Das Buch” and “Das Buch 1” – describe his sexual fantasies.
The site, in former East Germany, was bought by Christian B for €36,000 at auction a couple of years after Maddie vanished.
It was also there that police found more than 8,000 sickening photos and videos of sexual abuse he had hidden in a Lidl bag under the body of Christian B’s buried dead dog Charlie.
Madeleine went missing from Praia da Luz in May 2007
Prosecutors allege Christian B snatched another child from the beach before Maddie’s disappearance
Sick notepads showing child rape drawings were discovered
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