UK NEWS

EX-SOLDIER PROBED IN THE SEARCH FOR MADDIE

QUESTIONING: Hewlett

Friday May 22,2009

By Gareth Bebb

A FORMER Scots Guardsman with a long record of sex attacks on young girls is being investigated in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, it emerged last night

Raymond Hewlett, 64, who was living just an hour’s drive from the resort of Praia da Luz, on Portugal’s Algarve, when she disappeared in May 2007, is said to be receiving treatment for cancer in a German hospital

Detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann flew to Portugal after a tip-off.

Sources close to the investigation said they were told he spoke to friends about Maddie in such a way that they suspected he was involved or knew what had happened to the three-year-old.

Described by detectives as ‘cunning’ and a ‘danger to children’, he operates by cruising in a van. He has posed as a police officer and befriended families to get access to their children.

He is wanted by police in the UK and Ireland.

The McCanns have never given up hope of finding their daughter.

Earlier this month, they marked the second anniversary of her disappearance from the family’s holiday apartment by releasing two new pictures including a computer-generated image of what she would look like today, at six.

Another was a detailed sketch of a suspect seen acting suspiciously near the holiday complex.

The team searching for Maddie is headed by two retired policemen, former Detective Inspector Dave Edgar, 52, and former Detective Sergeant Arthur Cowley, 57, who has worked on cold case reviews of old crimes.

Last night, the McCann family spokesman, Clarence Mitchell said: “We are aware of this man and the claims that have been made surrounding him.