German prosecutors have been accused by Portuguese media of failing to properly investigate a claim that Madeleine McCann was run over by a drunk driver.

Portuguese officers allegedly received a tip about a British man who was ‘covering up a dark secret’ about his German wife running over Madeleine while drunk, then hiding the body.

But German authorities rejected a Portuguese request to use an undercover police officer to try to befriend the wife and firm up their suspicions, Portuguese daily Correio da Manha has claimed.

The report – which claims a sister of the British husband made the tip-off to police in the UK in 2018 – said: ‘German prosecutors were asked to authorise a covert police operation with someone posing as a friend of the woman’s and trying to get her to confess, but the courts refused.

‘It was decided to continue solely with the investigation into suspect Christian Brueckner, rejecting other possibilities.’

Correio da Manha said the mystery couple were ‘alcoholics’ and the wife had been drinking near the Ocean Club on the night Madeleine went missing.

It also claimed the couple’s neighbour had told police she heard them rowing the day after the three-year-old disappeared.

She said she heard the man yelling ‘Why did you bring her?’ over and over again.

Portuguese police are reportedly said to have got the knock-back from the Germans after urging them to look more closely into the possibility the ‘German wife’ had driven home ‘drunk’ with Madeleine after running her over, then enlisting her husband’s help in disposing of the body at sea.

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Members of the search teams at one of the base camps close to Praia De Luz, Portugal, where searches are being carried out by officers investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, in countryside a few miles from the resort where she was last seen in 2007

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German police yesterday wrapped up a three-day search on the ground near prime suspect Christian Brueckner’s old cottage home close to Praia da Luz

Correio said the unnamed British man had now died. It did not say whether his German wife was still alive.

In a front page report today, the newspaper claimed: ‘The German police refused to co-operate with Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria in the investigation of a clue that pointed towards Madeleine McCann being run over and the possibility a couple disposed of her body, hours later, in the sea.

‘In 2018 a British woman went to police in the UK to say she suspected her brother had been involved in the disappearance of the youngster.

‘She said her brother was an alcoholic and since the day Madeleine vanished had appeared to hide a painful secret.

‘When British police exchanged information with the PJ, a coincidence was discovered.

‘On May 4 2007 a woman told police she had heard her neighbours arguing.

‘They were both alcoholics, he was English and she was German, and she heard the man shouting repeatedly: ‘Why did you bring her?’

‘The neighbour discovered afterwards it was the man whose sister had reported him to police and was married to the woman who had been drinking in a cafe next to the Ocean Club where little Madeleine was staying with her parents and twin siblings.

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Undated family handout file photo of missing Madeleine McCann

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Gerry and Kate McCann, the parents of the missing three-year-old girl Madeleine McCann

‘Another report the police had indicated that in an identical car to the one the woman was then using, around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, a female and little girl had been seen inside.

‘The PJ concluded she could have run Madeleine over and panicked.’

The newspaper also claimed the mystery British man had always ‘refused to tell his sister if he had been involved in Madeleine’s death’ before she alerted the authorities.

The idea Madeleine left her holiday apartment to look for her parents who were eating tapas nearby – and then fell in an accident or was knocked over by someone who panicked and disposed of her body – has been put forward in the past.

Portuguese police have yet to respond to the Correio da Manha newspaper report.

German police yesterday wrapped up a three-day search on the ground near prime suspect Christian Brueckner’s old cottage home close to Praia da Luz where Madeleine disappeared.

The operation, supported by Portuguese police, was the first of its kind for more than two years following a May 2023 search at the Arade Dam a 40-minute drive from the Algarve holiday resort where Madeleine was last seen.

Nothing of any relevance is thought to have been found. Convicted paedophile Brueckner, 47, is due to be freed from prison in Germany in September after finishing a seven-year sentence for rape.

Although German authorities have named Brueckner as their sole Madeleine McCann suspect, and he is also an official suspect in Portugal, he has yet to be charged over the British youngster’s disappearance.

There were no immediate announcements on the outcome of the operation as vans with German license plates and a Portuguese vehicle left one of the search sites in the Atalaia neighbourhood.

A source involved in the operation said the searched area had included several derelict houses, wells and reservoirs covering ‘dozens of hectares’.