McCann disappeared during a family holiday to Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

However, Ralphs claimed Brueckner attempted to recruit a mutual friend to find a youngster to sell to a childless couple.

He also alleged that he travelled to Workington police station to report the disappearance.

Ralphs’s friend was supposedly living in remote woodlands in south-west Portugal.

However, local police officers poured damp water on the claim.

A spokesman for Cumbria Constabulary said: “There is no record on any of the Constabulary systems relating to information relating to this case being provided to police in Workington.”

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But Ralphs told Sky News: “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.”

He added: “The GNR [local police] asked me, ‘have you made your statement to the British police’?

“I said, ‘yeah’ and they said, ‘well, don’t worry, go home.

“If they need to contact you, they will’. And of course, over the years nobody contacted me.”

Brueckner was identified as the main suspect in the case back in 2022.

He is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany following a conviction for raping a 72-year-old woman.

Court documents say that he also allegedly abducted another child just days before Maddie was taken.

He will soon stand trial after being accused of more sex crimes unconnected from McCann’s disappearance.