A photo emerged yesterday showing how Madeleine McCann suspect Christian Brueckner looked around the time of her disappearance.
A 2006 police mugshot of the German paedophile sporting longer hair than in other snaps could lead to new witnesses coming forward.
It was taken 11 months before three-year-old Maddie vanished in Praia da Luz, when he was 29.
The pic was unearthed in court papers about his arrest for stealing diesel from lorries in Portimao, in the Algarve.
Another snap, thought to be a passport photo, was taken in 1996 after his release from a German prison.
Brueckner, 43, was jailed for molesting a six-year-old girl in a playground.
At the time of his 2006 arrest he was living in a farmhouse on the edge of Praia da Luz.
His Austrian pal Michael Tatschl reportedly told police Brueckner “was a very good burglar” who targeted rich tourists’ apartments.
He left Germany and turned up in Lagos, Portugal.
Meanwhile, a lawyer friend of Gerry McCann accused sacked detective Goncalo Amaral of “fantasy” after he claimed Brueckner was being made a “scapegoat”.
Amaral also made slurs against Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry, of Rothley, Leicestershire.
The lawyer, Rogerio Alves, said: “I don’t want to give any stage to that guy.”
