The First PostMadeleine: Paedophile ‘of interest’The McCann family’s private investigators are seeking Raymond Hewlett, a British paedophile who was staying near the resort where Madeleine disappeared
By Lara Ellington-Brown
LAST UPDATED 5:02 PM, MAY 22, 2009
A paedophile has become the latest "person of interest" in the Madeleine McCann case, after it emerged that he was living just an hour away from the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal when the toddler went missing, according to Clarence Mitchell, the McCann family's spokesma.
Raymond Hewlett, a 64-year-old former soldier who is currently being treated for throat cancer in a German hospital, has a long record of sex attacks on young girls and is wanted by police in the UK and Ireland. West Yorkshire Police are seeking him in connection with an indecent assault committed in 1975.
A couple who were on holiday at the resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 brought Hewlett to the attention of the McCanns' private investigators. They say the man was living in poverty with his wife and six children in a converted truck.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror, Alan and Cindy Thompson recall a conversation they had with him, in which he said he had been propositioned by some "Gypsy tourists" who offered to buy his daughter in the days leading up to Madeleine's disappearance.
Mrs Thompson told the newspaper: "We didn't think too much of this at the time. Ray and his family led a desperate hand-to-mouth lifestyle and someone may have thought he'd be tempted to sell one of his six children."
According to the couple, Hewlett also mentioned a "business trip" to Morrocco - where there were a number of alleged sightings of the toddler in 2007.
Although the McCann family have yet to make a statement, they are said to have known about the development for "some time".
