Police are appealing for the public's help in solving the Madeleine McCann case, after they announced a child sex offender was the new suspect.

"Someone out there knows a lot more than they're letting on," said the officer leading the Met Police inquiry.

The day after Madeleine vanished in 2007, the suspect transferred the Jaguar to someone else's name.

On Wednesday, Germany's federal criminal police office - which is leading this stage of the case - said the man was serving a jail sentence for a sex crime.

The Met Police, who are working with German and Portuguese police, said the case remained a "missing persons" investigation because it does not have "definitive evidence" as to whether Madeleine is alive or not.

"There is reason to assume that there are other persons, apart from the suspect, who have concrete knowledge of the course of the crime and maybe also of the place where the body was left," said German police.

And appealing to the public for details about the suspect, he added: "Some people will know the man we are describing today, the suspect in our investigation.

German police said the suspect is thought to have worked jobs including as a waiter, but also committed burglaries in hotels and holiday resorts and dealt drugs.

Christian Hoppe, from the German police, said the suspect may have broken into an apartment before spontaneously kidnapping Madeleine.

Three years ago, during the last major police appeal, Scotland Yard said it was working on one final "critical" line of inquiry?

Police said the suspect was one of 600 people that detectives on the UK inquiry, known as Operation Grange, originally looked at, though he had not been a suspect

The force said it was trying to "prove or disprove" his involvement in the case and retained an "open mind"