New evidence in the case suggests she is dead, it has been claimed. Christian Brueckner, the only suspect in the case, purchased a disused factory in Neuwegersleben, central , for £20,000 in 2008 - the year after the young girl went missing while on . The convicted child abuser kept children's clothes and toys, masks, chemicals, and guns there, according to an investigation by .

German investigators have revealed this information for the first time, but the contents of his hard drive remain a secret, as it is believed to contain evidence suggesting . A massive Europe-wide hunt for the girl was launched after she vanished on May 3, 2007, aged three.

Her parents, Kate and Gerry, left her and her two-year-old twin siblings alone in their accommodation while they went to dinner with friends 55 metres away, coming back to check on them throughout the night.

Kate discovered her daughter was missing one and a half hours after she went to dinner, sparking an investigation that did not lead to Brueckner until years later.

After a dog ran onto his property in 2016 and came across what looked like a grave, police were able to uncover his dead dog, along with a wallet, six USB sticks, and two memory cards.

This prompted 100 officers to launch a search of the factory after they saw the disturbing contents of the hard drives, in which there were records of .

He described drugging a mum and daughter outside a pre-school and abusing a four-year-old girl, and kept records of conversations with other paedophiles.

In one message, he told someone he wanted to "capture something small and use it for days".

On top of disgusting child abuse images of girls aged four and five, Brueckner also hoarded more than 75 children's swimming costumes, plus toys and bikes.

The paedophile also had creepy mock-up pictures of himself, a mask, and black-market guns and ammunition.

Brueckner's satnav placed him in the Algarve in the years , and a picture links him to a key location 35 miles from where she vanished in Praia da Luz.

The suspect also signed a car insurance claim after he had a crash at a festival, where he allegedly told witness Helge B that the girl "did not scream" - though questions of credibility have always surrounded this.

Months after the search, Brueckner was convicted of child abuse, and a year later, police were made aware of his potential connection to Madeleine.

In the years before the connection was made, Kate and Gerry were accused by Portuguese police of covering up their daughter's accidental death after her blood was found in a car they rented 25 days after she went missing.

This theory was axed in July 2008 when the Attorney General archived the case due to a lack of evidence.

The couple, both physicians, then employed private detectives until 2011, when the Metropolitan Police opened its own enquiry, Operation Grange.

From then on, her disappearance was treated as "a criminal act by a stranger" - likely a planned abduction or a burglary gone wrong, the senior investigating officer announced.

The force released e-fit images of men they wanted to trace in 2013, including one who was seen carrying a child towards the beach the night Madeleine disappeared.

While Portuguese police eventually opened their inquiry, in 2015, with the remaining detectives pursuing only a small number of inquiries.

Eighteen years after Madeleine was last seen, Brueckner remains the only suspect and will stay in prison until September this year while he finishes his seven-year sentence for raping a woman in 2005.