Madeleine McCann Missing-Praia Da Luz, Portugal 3/05/07 #2

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Maddie's possible abductor: Raymond Hewlett, the cunning predator with 30 years of depravity behind him
By Michael Seamark
Last updated at 11:40 PM on 22nd May 2009

Compile a profile of Madeleine McCann's possible abductor and there are few more suitable suspects than Raymond Hewlett. He's a convicted predatory paedophile - a man detectives describe as cunning and a danger to children - who flits from country to country.
Given that he speaks English and, crucially, was within striking distance of Praia da Luz when three-year-old Madeleine went missing, Hewlett ticks a a great many boxes.
From his hospital bed in Germany, where he is being treated for cancer, the 64-year-old protests his innocence. 'I've done nothing wrong, nothing nothing,' he says.

However, it is hardly surprising that Kate and Gerry McCann's investigators are now forensically examining any possible link between Hewlett and their daughter's disappearance in 2007.

 New McCann suspect: Raymond Hewlett (left) and an artist's impression of a man seen near Madeleine's apartment (right)
The former Scots Guardsman, trawlerman and fairground worker has been repeatedly jailed for a series of violent sexual offences against young girls.

Once featured on a Crimestoppers list of most wanted paedophiles, he is currently wanted for questioning by British police forces for the indecent assault of a young girl more than 30 years ago.

Several years ago Irish officers investigating a series of attempted abductions were seeking Hewlett, who had been posing as an undercover police officer to search for young girls or befriend their families to gain access to children.


 More...Is the net closing?: Paedophile named in search for Maddie faces quiz on second case

'To say we need to trace this man is an understatement,' said one detective. But, as in the past, Hewlett was one step ahead of the law and had fled.

He was born in Blackpool in 1945, the second youngest child in a family of seven, and left school without any qualifications and, at the insistence of his father, joined the Scots Guards in 1961.

His military career lasted nine months, before he was dishonorably discharged for causing disorder, being absent without leave and stealing a regimental bicycle.

He spent the next year wandering the country before ending up in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, where he held a series of menial jobs and made the first of his many court appearances, for assault.

He first married in 1963, to local girl Susan Ginley, and over the next five years they had four children. But a series of offences, ranging from burglary to firearms possession, meant regular spells behind bars.

In 1972 he carried out the first of a series of serious sexual crimes against young girls when he persuaded the 12-year-old daughter of a neighbour to get in his car, telling her that her mother needed to see her urgently.

Instead of taking her home, Hewlett drove her up to nearby moors and forced a rag soaked in paint thinner over her face. When she regained consciousness she was naked on the back seat of the car.

Hewlett, who hid in his attic for a week until his wife called in the police, insisted the girl had consented to sex but he was jailed and served 12 months of an 18-month sentence before returning to Todmorden.

 Hewlett with second wife Gabriella in Scotland in 1997

In 1978 he went to a nearby house on the pretext of delivering a parcel, after establishing by telephone that a girl of 14 was home alone. Once inside he pointed a handgun at the terrified teenager's face and forced her upstairs where, terrified and crying, she was made to lie face down on a bed.

He had started to strip her when the girl told him she was expecting friends. That quick-thinking saved her and Hewlett was arrested and sentenced to four years imprisonment, serving 16 months. In 1980 Hewlett left his long- suffering wife Susan for Anita Cox, and they had two children and married in 1982 - a partnership punctuated by regular vicious attacks by husband on wife.
Eight years later he was sentenced to six years imprisonment for kidnapping and indecent assault after snatching at knifepoint a girl of 14 on a paper round in Northwich, Cheshire.

'You know what is going to happen to you now,' he warned the terrified teenager after they arrived at a quarry 50 miles away in north Wales.

Naked apart from her socks and threatened with a knife, she was subjected to a brutal sexual ordeal when she feared she was going to be raped.

But then Hewlett told her to dress, bundled her into the boot of his car and dumped her a further 50 miles away at another quarry.

He fled to Ireland but was identified as the attacker by forensic evidence and brought back to face trial. But two years into his sentence, he was granted home leave from Leicestershire's Stoken Prison and absconded, only to be rearrested when he arrived back in Britain from Ireland in 1991.

The following year Hewlett was quizzed over the 1975 murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed, sexually assaulted, stabbed and dumped on moors at Ripponden after she set off for a loaf of bread in Rochdale.

Inland Revenue clerk Stefan Kiszko was wrongly imprisoned for the killing but Hewlett became a prime suspect given that he lived ten miles from Rochdale, that he had fled to the Irish Republic soon after the murder and had a record of attacks on young girls.

When questioned about Lesley's murder his response to most questions was 'No reply.'

He was linked to the crime scene by his ownership of a blue Morris 1000 van which matched descriptions given by 14 witnesses who saw one parked in a lay-by at Ripponden on the day of Lesley's abduction.

Previously unknown links between Hewlett's family and friends of the Molseed family raised the possibility that Lesley knew her killer and might have got in his car. But DNA later eliminated Hewlett and another man, Ronald Castree, was eventually convicted of the girl's murder in 2007 after Kiszko's death.

Hewlett returned to his 'safe haven' in the Irish Republic in 1993 living in a commune in County Donegal. He was eventually asked to leave by commune members worried by remarks made by their young children concerning Hewlett. He wandered across Ireland before heading for the Continent, eventually working as a candle maker in the Italian mountains.

While there, he met and married an Italian woman, Gabriella - the couple having a son Marco - but she had nothing more to do with him when she learnt the nature of Italian police inquiries about her new husband. Little more than a decade ago he was back in Donegal, this time with his pregnant German partner Marianna Schmuker.

They were still together, living with six children in a converted Dodge truck, when they met English couple Alan and Cindy Thompson in Portugal, who raised the possibility of Hewlett's links to Madeleine's disappearance.

Alan said: 'Hewlett befriended us but kept quiet about his terrible past. We were mortified and disgusted to discover the truth.'


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1186788/Maddies-possible-abductor-Raymond-Hewlett-cunning-predator-30-years-depravity-him.html

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Raymond Hewlett's youngest son disowned him  By Richard Smith 23/05/2009

Son: Dad beat his kids..I detest him

Raymond Hewlett's youngest son last night branded his paedophile dad "despicable" and told how he disowned him as soon as he knew about his sick crimes.

Builder Wayne Hewlett said he and his brothers and sisters were savagely beaten by him when they were children and were even targeted by violent hate mobs disgusted at the pervert.

The 40-year-old bachelor, who cut off all ties with his dad 20 years ago, added: "He is a monster.

"The crimes he has committed are despicable, he is a major embarrassment as a father and I'm ashamed of the things he has done.

"I know he has cancer but I don't care whether he lives or dies. I despise the man. How could anyone not? Just because he's my father doesn't mean I'm not disgusted by what he has done."

Hewlett, 64, has been jailed three times for kidnap, attempting to rape and molesting young girls. He is still wanted over alleged sex crimes going back nearly 30 years.

Speaking of the beating his dad would dish out when he was young, Wayne said: "He was a Jekyll and Hyde character.

"Sometimes he was funny like you would expect of any dad. But if he lost his temper he would be vicious. He beat all of us, with his belt. He would give you a good thrashing. Dad was not a drinker so he couldn't blame it on that."

Wayne, who grew up in Todmorden, Yorks, told how his mum Susan would shield her children from hearing about her husband's crimes. But he added: "Once I found the truth I was devastated and broke all ties with him. The last time I saw him was in a bail hostel. I told my dad what I thought of him and disowned him.

"I never had any idea he was a pervert because there was no way of telling. People have taken it out on his closest relatives even though we've done nothing, we just happen to be his kids.

"I've had bricks thrown at my house and my car was vandalised. When the local paper published a picture of my dad somebody burned his eyes out and stuffed the photo through my letter box with a message saying: 'You deserve to burn as well'. We moved seven times to avoid the stigma of being associated with him.


When Susan Ginley first clapped eyes on farm worker Raymond Hewlett, she was bowled over by his rugged good looks and charm. But the love-struck 18-year-old had no idea she had fallen for a pervert who would go on to abuse young girls, beat her up, become a serial love cheat and put their family in danger from crackpots seeking revenge.

Susan, 63, who divorced the paedophile in 1981 after 17 years of marriage, said: "I haven't seen him for 11 years and will never forgive him for the suffering he caused our children."

Speaking of when she met Hewlett, also 18 at the time, the retired cleaner and seamstress said: "He wore a black leather jacket and tight jeans and with his blonde hair in a quiff he looked the part. Lots of women fell for him.

"He was a good-looking lad who made me laugh. Unfortunately, I didn't realise what he was like at the time. He later gave me a few beatings and hidings. He'd lose it.

"The first time he assaulted a neighbour's 12-year-old daughter he blamed it on depression.

"He spent a year in jail but the kids never knew anything. We moved home when he was released and then he blew it again."

Hewlett tried to rape a 14-year-old girl after holding a gun to her head. He was jailed for four years - but only served 16 months.

Susan said: "My first instinct was to protect the kids, they really copped it.

"I had to move two of them out of school. When one of my daughters went to the toilet, other kids said they would rape her.

"We made another new start and moved south but he soon had a fling with a married woman - it was at least the third during our marriage and that finished us. I know he's got cancer but I do not feel sorry for him."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/23/raymond-hewlett-s-youngest-son-disowned-him-115875-21382104/

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MADDIE: THREE BRITS PROBED
 ABOVE: Hewlett was named as suspect last week 24th May 2009 By Jonathan Corke
THREE Britons are now being investigated in the case of missing Madeleine McCann.




Lancashire-born convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett was last week named as a possible suspect.



And the Daily Star Sunday can reveal that claims about two more people are being scrutinised by the team working for Maddie’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann.



A fourth Brit, also a convicted paedophile, has been ruled out.



The McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said yesterday that a “number of names” had been put forward after appeals on this month’s second anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance from Praia da Luz on the Portuguese Algarve.



He refused to comment on their nationalities.



But he did say: “A handful of calls with substantive information is being followed up. Raymond Hewlett is just one line of inquiry among several.”



Hewlett, 64, who was in Portugal when Maddie went missing, is currently in Germany being treated for cancer.



Reports in Portugal are saying that local police ruled him out of their investigation although he has been described as still dangerous to children and sources say he is wanted for questioning about an unsolved attack in Yorkshire.



The McCanns’ private team – retired detectives Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley – intend to interview him “within days”.



Our source said: “It’s important to remember that Hewlett is just one avenue in the investigation. There are other leads being looked at.”



Edgar and Cowley still need to trace the “Scarface” suspect featured in a recent mock-up photo release.



Meanwhile, the McCanns hope that International Missing Children’s Day tomorrow will spark more information on the case.



They will join other families at an event in London.



A statement from the couple said: “If global efforts are strengthened, more of these vulnerable, innocent children will be found.”

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/81870/Maddie-Three-Brits-probed/

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MADELEINE: THE MISSED CLUES AT £1M VILLA 



STATEMENTS: Witnesses tell of suspicious behaviour at house and toys in secret video den
Sunday May 24,2009
By EXCLUSIVE James Murray and Ted Jeory Madeleine McCANN may have been taken to a luxury villa just half a mile from where she was abducted, Portuguese detectives were told.


Suspicions were raised because of the behaviour of the people who rented the £1million villa and because video cameras were reportedly seen there along with pictures of children on a wall, the Sunday Express has learned.

Our revelations come as West Yorkshire police prepare to fly to Germany to question 64-year-old convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett over a sex attack on a girl 25 years ago.


Retired detectives working for Kate and Gerry McCann are also hoping to interview Hewlett to ask him directly whether he knows anything about three-year-old Madeleine’s abduction.

Hewlett is in intensive care at a German hospital recovering from an operation for throat cancer. In the last 24 hours his condition has worsened and there are concerns he may have only days to live.

If well enough, it is expected he will be asked if he ever met paedophiles in the Algarve town of Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine vanished.

One theory the McCanns’ investigators are examining is whether there was a paedophile ring operating in the area two years ago.

The Sunday Express has been conducting intensive inquiries in the resort town and asked scores of people if they saw anyone acting suspiciously.

One elderly British resident told us both she and a friend, a retired British woman detective, went to Portuguese police about a couple who rented the villa, which has its own swimming pool.


The resident told us: “I used to meet up with the retired detective to walk our dogs down by the seafront. Both of us became concerned about a couple aged about 30 who rented the villa.

     

“What struck us was that they drove a very tatty, British-registered small red saloon car. It was one those vehicles you would normally see on a gypsy camp, not going in and out of a very expensive villa.

“We only saw them coming and going in the car and not walking about, which is odd given the location of the villa. We both got the impression they were trying to keep a low profile.’’

Another source said that after Maddie disappeared, search teams combed the seafront, where luxury villas stand next to large areas of barren land.

Anglican priest Paul Luckman, owner and publisher of Portugal News, said: “The location and description of that villa mentioned by your source fits the one that a searcher told me about.

“The searcher told me the villa was empty and somehow they got inside some weeks after Madeleine disappeared.

“The search dog handler said the villa had a room with a kind of amateur studio with video equipment and cameras with children’s toys and pictures of children on the wall.

“He felt it was something to do with paedophiles. He told the police and they seemed to know something about it, but we don’t think they took it any further.”

The Sunday Express took him to the villa and he confirmed that it fits the description and location of the one he was told about.

Although we know where it is, we are not naming the villa for legal reasons as we have been unable to locate the owner.

The British woman resident said: “I know the owner was contacted after we raised our concerns with the police.


"The person was angry because she said she did not know the people who rented it and was annoyed about being contacted by detectives.


"We heard nothing more about it. The day after Maddie disappeared the couple moved out and we didn’t see them again.

“There was an older woman in a very expensive car who visited them during their stay.”

The McCanns’ private investigators have been conducting surveillance on several properties for some time. Retired det­ective inspector Dave Edgar returned from Portugal on Friday night and is pursuing a number of leads he is not prepared to discuss.

Meanwhile, paedophile Hewlett is said to be suffering internal bleeding.


A doctor at the Aachen hospital where he is being treated said: “He is very poorly. Fluid has been seeping into his lungs. He cannot speak. The next few days will be critical.”

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/103035

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FURY OF MADDIE PROBE PERVERT’S FAMILY

23rd May 2009 By Jerry Lawton
THE daughter of a sex beast being probed over Madeleine McCann’s abduction said last night: “I don’t care if he drops dead.’’



Police are waiting to quiz Raymond Hewlett, 64, in the hospital bed where he is fighting cancer.

But daughter Gina, 41, has revealed how his evil antics – including the 1972 rape of a 12-year-old girl he lured into a car – had ruined her life.

Vigilantes firebombed her home and blitzed her with hate mail over his crimes.

Fighting back tears, Gina said: “I will never forgive him for what he’s done.

“I have no sympathy for him – even on his death bed. We’ve spent a lifetime picking up the pieces from all the trouble he’s caused. Over the years we’ve had firebombs thrown through our window and hate mail sent.

“Now he’s being linked with taking Maddie, it will all kick off again.”

Gina, of Telford, Shrops, added: “We didn’t know if he was dead or alive, but now we have heard about all this we don’t really care.”

Hewlett was last night in the University Hospital in Aaachen, Germany, battling throat cancer.

Brit police are planning to jet out to quiz him about the abduction and sex assault of an eight-year-old girl in 1975.

He has been questioned by police before about Madeleine’s abduction, but he had an alibi and was freed without charge.

Ex-detectives hired by Madeleine’s parents Gerry, 40, and Kate, 41, to find their daughter are checking out that alibi after Hewlett’s description matched that of a man with a droopy moustache seen fleeing with a youngster.

When Madeleine vanished from her parents’ apartment in Praia da Luz, Hewlett was touring the Algarve with his German wife Marianne, 33, and six children in a converted Dodge truck.

He denies he had anything to do with the youngster’s disappearance and insists he was at a market 30 miles away in Fuseta when she vanished.

The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said Hewlett was “an individual of interest” to their investigators.

He said: “It’s a name that Madeleine’s parents are aware of.

“It is alleged he made comments to friends that indicated some degree of knowledge of what may or may not have happened to Madeleine. These people have now come forward.

“The investigators are liaising with police in Britain and Portugal and if there is any substance they will take that forward with the relevant authorities.”

Hewlett’s ex-wife Susan, 63, was last night too upset to talk at her home in Telford.

In 1972 Hewlett was jailed for raping a 12-year-old girl he had lured into a car.

The ex-Scots Guard, originally from Blackpool, Lancs, was caged for four years in 1978 for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl. In 1988 he was jailed for six years after abducting a 14-year-old Cheshire schoolgirl.

Police in Britain now want to quiz him about a sex attack on a girl in Prestwich, near Manchester, in 1975.


http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/81820/Fury-of-Maddie-probe-pervert-s-family/

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24 May 2009
MADDIE SUSPECT RAYMOND HEWLETT: I'LL TAKE LIE TEST
Russell Myers
Madeleine McCann suspect Raymond Hewlett is ready to take a LIE DETECTOR test to prove his innocence in the case.

The convicted paedophile has carried out a string of vile attacks on children but denies any link to Maddie's disappearance.

But police face a race against time to establish the truth, as last night doctors were battling to keep Hewlett alive after complications following a cancer op.

The fiend, 64, was said to have suffered massive internal bleeding, with a source adding: "His condition might worsen at any time which could end his life."


As Hewlett lay critical in hospital, his German wife Mariana Schmucker, 33 - mum to their six children - challenged Maddie's parents Gerry and Kate to come to see her.


She said: "I know about my Raymond's past and it is forgotten. He is a changed man. I know he didn't take Maddie.


"He is a very sick man and has said to me he will do anything to prove he is innocent - even take a lie detector test.


"Let the parents of Madeleine come here and ask him face-toface if he had anything to do with their child going missing.


"My husband has nothing to do with little Madeleine. He's an innocent man and he'll prove it not anyone."


Mariana shares a squalid twobedroom flat - overlooking a kindergarten - with Hewlett and their children.


Drifter


It is just a few miles from where the suspect now lies in University Hospital, in Aachen, Germany.


Again denying any link to Maddie's abduction by her husband, Mariana said: "These are lies all lies. I know my husband more than anyone in this world and I will tell you he has done nothing wrong.


"Those police should be looking for the real man who took that little girl and not Raymond, he's a sick man, a very sick man." Former soldier turned drifter Hewlett had been living near Praia de Luz in Portugal when Maddie vanished from her family's holiday apartment in May 2007.


By the time he was tracked to Aachen, near the Belgian border, this month he was already seriously ill with lung cancer.


But British police still want to interview him about a sexual assault on a child in West York-shire in 1975, and the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed that same year.


Hewlett served 12 months for abducting a 12-year-old girl, knocking her out with paint stripper and raping her in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, in 1972.


In 1978, he was jailed for four years after holding a 14-year-old girl and putting a gun to her head.


Last night, in a new twist, a British couple who first raised suspicions about Hewlett over missing Maddie a year ago claimed police had not taken them seriously until now.


Alan Thompson, 56, and his wife Cindy, 47, from Peterborough, Cambs, had met Hewlett while on holiday in Portugal.


Cindy told The People: "We cannot talk in detail about the police inquiry, but let's just say we are hoping they take this seriously now.


"We are utterly confused about the delay. It's a worry for us and it must be worse for the McCanns.


Alan said: "I only hope it is not too late." The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell, said the family's own investigators also wanted to speak to Hewlett, and to the Thompsons.


He said: "Mr Hewlett has denied any involvement in Madeleine's abduction.


"Our investigators hope he will see sense and co-operate by giving them whatever information needed so they can eliminate him from the investigation.


"It's clear the man is ill and it is clear he has information that our investigators need."

http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=maddie-suspect-raymond-hewlett-i-ll-take-lie-test&method=full&objectid=21384542&siteid=93463-name_page.html

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 Exclusive
He's evil enough to have snatched MaddieBy RHODRI PHILLIPS and ROBIN PERRIE

Published: 23 May 2009
THE latest major suspect in the Madeleine McCann case was branded "evil incarnate" last night - by his first known victim.
Bette Balfour, just 12 when Raymond Hewlett abducted and sexually assaulted her, added: "I believe he is quite capable of taking Maddie."





Yesterday The Sun revealed convicted paedophile Hewlett had been in Portugal when Maddie was snatched - and how investigators working for her parents Kate and Gerry had tracked him to Germany.


Last night he was said to be critically ill with lung cancer in hospital in Aschen, on the Belgian border.

Chill
Bette, now 49, said: "I don't care if he's ill. I don't care if he's dying. He deserves to be brought to justice if there are crimes he still hasn't been punished for."

Asked if she thought he could have abducted three-year-old Maddie, she added: "He was in the Algarve when she disappeared and he is evil enough.


"His name has never left my mind, but when I saw his picture and his name in The Sun this morning it gave me a chill."

Hewlett, 64, was a neighbour and friend of Bette's father in Todmorden, North Yorks. In 1972 he lured her in to his car, telling her his mother was ill, drugged her with paint thinner and assaulted her on a moor.

Bette, who bravely agreed to waive her anonymity, went on: "I haven't moved on since it happened. He still haunts me. He is a sick, devious man, who will use every trick he can to get his way."

Detectives working for Kate and Gerry have shown a photograph of convicted serial offender Hewlett to a schoolgirl who twice saw a man loitering near the family's holiday apartment - and asked: Is this him?

In the weeks after Maddie's disappearance Hewlett is said to have made comments implying he had knowledge of child trafficking.

Hewlett has cropped up across Europe and in Morocco, North Africa.


In May 2007 he was on the Algarve, an hour away from the resort of Praia da Luz where Maddie, of Rothley, Leics, was snatched.

He was quizzed by Portuguese cops but was given an alibi by a girl of 15.

British police also hope to question him about a sexual assault on an eight-year-old girl in Manchester in 1975.

Meanwhile disgraced Goncalo Amaral, 49 - former head of the Maddie police probe in Portugal - was yesterday given an 18-month suspended jail term for falsifying evidence in another missing child case.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/maddie/2445053/Victim-says-Raymond-Balfour-is-evil-enough-to-have-snatched-Maddie.html

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Madeleine McCann cops ask couple who raised alaram about paedophile Ray Hewlett if they have his mobile number  By Ryan Parry and Stephen Moyes in Aachen, Germany 25/05/2009

 
THE couple who raised the alarm about paedophile Ray Hewlett told yesterday how detectives who interviewed them asked: “Do you still have his mobile number.”

Alan and Cindy Thompson were questioned for three hours at the weekend by officers from Leicestershire Police’s Madeleine McCann task force.

Cindy, who handed over the foreign number, said yesterday: “The detective who interviewed me asked for Ray’s number. He didn’t say what they’ll do with it, I just hope it helps in some way.”

Officers could use the number to access phone company records dating back to May 3, 2007, the day Madeleine vanished from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

The records will show which mobile phone masts Hewlett’s phone connected to on specific dates.

The information may help officers track Hewlett’s movements the night Madeleine went missing and over the following days.

Alan said the detective who spoke to him was keen for information about the dilapidated Dodge truck Hewlett was driving at the time Madeleine vanished and which he later took to Morocco.

Alan said: “The officer asked what sort of truck it was and where I thought it was now. I told him it was a very distinctive blue Dodge truck with English plates, maybe beginning with a D or a G.

“I also told them that friends in Portugal told me that the truck is in Alvor, a town near Albufeira in the Algarve.”

The detectives who interviewed Alan and Cindy in East London’s Limehouse police station told them all the information would be passed on to Portuguese police.

Hewlett, who has been jailed three times for attacks on young girls, is currently in hospital in Aachen, Germany, recovering from throat cancer surgery.

Investigators working for Kate and Gerry McCann arrived in the city last night in the hope of interviewing Hewlett, possibly even today. Detectives from West Yorkshire are currently waiting for permission from the German authorities to question Hewlett in connection with an unsolved indecent assault from 1975.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/25/madeleine-mccann-cops-ask-couple-who-raised-alaram-about-paedophile-ray-hewlett-if-they-have-his-mobile-number-115875-21386723/

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News articles I've found today are simply recycling old news.

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Raymond Hewlett: The whingeing prison letters that sickened pervert's own family  By Richard Smith 25/05/2009

 
Paedophile Raymond Hewlett sent his family sickening letters from his prison cell, in which he whinged that his young victims were to blame.

Bemoaning "this wicked evil world" and desperate to convince relatives he was innocent, the wife-beater claimed he was not at fault before he was jailed for a third time for sex attacks.

In a spidery scrawl littered with grammatical errors, Hewlett wrote to his daughter: "I still feel as though I've been singled out to be tramped on and stamped on like some bloody insect."

He even tried to say a girl of 14 he attacked "had complete control of the situation, I just went along with it".

And the self-pitying sex beast complained he had been made out as "some sort of monster" and moaned about interfering social workers.

Son Wayne, 40, one of four children from Hewlett's first marriage, to Susan Ginley, said yesterday: "He was always in denial over what he had done, as if it was somebody else's fault."

Hewlett was jailed for 18 months in 1972 for sexually assaulting a neighbour's 12-year-old daughter.

He then attempted to rape a 14-yearold girl after holding a gun to her head and was caged for four years in 1978


Hewlett was locked up again for six years in 1988 after he kidnapped and assaulted another girl of 14.

Daughter Gina, 41, was 20 when Hewlett wrote to her from his cell at Risley remand centre in Warrington, Cheshire, in March 1988.

He said: "I do believe there is a God, there has to be something more than this wicked evil world, what I find hard to grasp is why me? Why when I've got everything I need why when I behave like any other normal person do I have to be destroyed? "What have I done that makes me have to pay over and over again, I still feel as though I've been singled out to be tramped on and stamped on like some bloody insect, tell me am I a human being or not? Well my Darling Daughter I just wish I could have a visit with just you or you and your mum."

In a second letter, Hewlett blames his latest victim, saying of her statement: "She does not describe the interior of the vehicle correctly, but says the seats were black plastic when they were brown cloth.

"She said the car was smaller than a Marina with a front like a Chevette, she's got loads either wrong on purpose or just forgotten to mention them, and yet everyone describes her as an intelligent girl, she... goes on to say how calm she was because she never panics, I know she doesn't she even says she was calmer than me, that's because she had complete control of the situation, I just went along with it.

"I seem to be back in the same situation putting my hands up and surrendering, but what's new, I always get sold down the river. I just wish I knew what was going to happen but I think I already know, more jail maybe for a long time, I've lost all faith, truth does not seem important but that's nothing knew. Your Loving Dad xxx In a third letter while awaiting sentence, Hewlett wrote: "I know I told the truth, when I made my statement to police they were laughing. I didn't find it at all amusing."

In a fourth letter, Hewlett moaned: "Outside of my family I haven't got a friend in the world, even my own brother and sisters have turned their backs on me... it's a good job I've got someone like you, mind you you was always my favourite girl, the only trouble is you grew up but at least your still there, people are trying to make me into some sort of monster but you know different Gina. I've got so much love to give but every time I give it something seems to go wrong."

In a letter from Gartree Prison in Market Harborough, Leics, in September 1989, Hewlett told Gina: "I'd give anything for you to put your arm round me... and say Dad I love you... Kids don't matter in this lousy world, when you love your kids and treat them right you get those Social Services B******* breathing down your neck. Why don't they pick on families that do mistreat kids?"

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/25/the-whingeing-prison-letters-that-sickened-pervert-s-own-family-115875-21387068/

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New Clues
10:33pm UK, Monday May 25, 2009

Martin Brunt, crime correspondent

New clues in the Madeleine McCann case are being ignored by Portuguese police, according to sources in Portugal.

Witnesses who have tried to pass on information about potential new sightings of Madeleine have been told by detectives they will not investigate "because the case is closed and Madeleine is dead."

It is understood details of four possible sightings were given to the Algarve detectives recently but were not followed up.

The Portuguese authorities called off their investigation last summer when they ran out of leads, saying they would re-open it only for a major development.

The revelation comes as the McCann's private investigators gave new suspect Raymond Hewlett, 64, an ultimatum to talk to them.



Madeleine Investigators In Germany


They spent the day trying to see him in the hospital in Aachen, Germany, where he is being treated for cancer.

They hoped his wife Marianna had paved the way for an interview, but they were not allowed in and Hewlett made no offer to speak to the detectives.

The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell told Sky News: "Raymond Hewlett has been made well aware of the investigators' desire to speak to him and the former detectives helping Kate and Gerry are still awaiting a definitive response from him.


 
Raymond Hewlett is in hospital

"Clearly, if he is to be eliminated in the investigation it is incumbent on him to speak to them while they are in Germany and they continue to hope he will do so.

"The investigators will overnight in Germany and they are hopeful they can talk to Mr Hewlett by Tuesday morning at the latest."

Hewlett, a paedophile with a string of convictions in the UK, was living on the Algarve an hour's drive from the resort where Madeleine vanished two years ago.

He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Madeleine-McCann-New-Clues-Are-Being-Ignored-By-Portuguese-Police-According-To-Sky-News-Sources/Article/200905415288536?lpos=UK_News_First_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15288536_Madeleine_McCann%3A_New_Clues_Are_Being_Ignored_By_Portuguese_Police%2C_According_To_Sky_News_Sources

[Toler]

Just a thought, if the Portuguese police know Madeleine is dead....shouldn't they be looking for her murderer? Case closed?   

[Nut44x4]

Exactly!! 

She is dead, Portuguese police tell new Madeleine McCann informants, as detectives are blocked from quizzing paedophile
Last updated at 10:16 AM on 26th May 2009

Portuguese police have dismissed up to four potential Madeleine McCann leads in the past week by telling informers: 'The case is closed, she is dead.'
All the witnesses who came forward offering information about the missing youngster were waved away by indifferent officers in the Algarve.
The revelation was described as a 'disgrace' by friends of Kate and Gerry McCann, who are spearheading a renewed appeal to find their daughter two years after she vanished in Portugal.

Yesterday two private detectives employed by the couple were rebuffed as they tried to question paedophile Raymond Hewlett in his hospital bed in Germany.
Former soldier Hewlett, 62, who was living in the Algarve when Madeleine went missing and has a history of sex attacks on girls, hid in his room and refused to see the pair.

Hewlett, who has cancer, is one of several fresh leads that have flooded in to investigators in the past few weeks.
The McCanns are privately furious that the Portuguese police - who in theory are still in charge of the inquiry - have refused to accept new tip-offs.
A source close to the investigation said: 'In the last week, three or four people have approached the Portuguese police with information, and they were told not to worry them because the case was closed and she is dead.'
It is understood these people later gave their information directly to the McCanns' private detectives.

But the source said: 'What if there are other people who tried to give information and then simply gave up when they were sent away? They could have been squandering potentially significant new leads.'

Although Portuguese prosecutors announced last year they were shelving the Madeleine case, Leicestershire Police still refer new leads to them and claim the Portuguese are still in charge of the inquiry.
A friend of the McCanns - both doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire - said: 'It's a disgrace frankly, it's beyond frustrating. It is exactly the attitude that we have been up against for months.

'They closed the inquiry and were not prepared to lift a finger.'
Two private detectives, former Detective Inspector Dave Edgar and former Detective Sergeant Arthur Cowley, employed by the McCanns flew to Aachen in Germany on Sunday night in an attempt to question Hewlett.
They spent ten minutes talking to his German wife Marianna Schmuker in her council apartment in the city.
But when they visited the hospital yesterday, Hewlett - who has spent much of his life in jail or on the run from police - made it plain he had no intention of cooperating.

Mr Edgar said: 'If he's got nothing to hide, he should speak to us. It is a matter of urgency because of his medical condition.'
The two investigators also came up against a wall of German bureaucracy.
Because Hewlett is not suspected of a crime in Germany, the authorities cannot compel him to cooperate - unless they receive a request from British Police.
However, West Yorkshire police have confirmed they are 'actively seeking' Hewlett in connection with an indecent assault on an eight-year-old in 1975.

Yesterday sick letters he wrote to his own daughter were revealed. Gina, 41, was 20 when he scrawled the self-pitying missives from his cell at Risley remand centre in Warrington, Cheshire, in March 1988.
In the letters he told her she was his 'favourite girl, the only trouble is you grew up'.
Hewlett's son Wayne, 40, a builder, said he was savagely beaten by him as a child. Wayne cut all ties with his father 20 years ago, and said: 'He is a monster.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187435/She-dead-Portuguese-police-tell-new-Maddie-informants.html?ITO=1490
LOTS OF Comments and more photos at the link

[cookie]

Thanks for all the articles on Madeleine...it is heartbreaking to say the least...has to be so frustrating for her parents...

[Toler]

Madeleine Investigation Turns To Farce
Breaking News12:57pm UK, Tuesday May 26, 2009

Martin Brunt, crime correspondent

Efforts by private investigators to quiz a new suspect in the Madeleine McCann case turned to farce today.
 
Hewlett had been refusing to speak to the McCann detectives



Raymond Hewlett, 64, this morning agreed to meet the detectives - but they were already waiting to board a flight back to the UK.

They then refused to return to the hospital in Germany where he is being treated for cancer.

Yesterday, the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell gave Hewlett an ultimatum to meet the investigators by this morning to "help clear his name".

Hewlett, a convicted paedophile, wheeled himself into the car park of the hospital in Aachen and told waiting reporters he would speak to the detectives.

"I have nothing to hide. I am willing to talk with them," he said, denying any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance from a holiday apartment in Portugal two years ago.

But it was too late.

Mr Mitchell told Sky News: "He should have indicated yesterday that he was happy to talk to us.

"We welcome his indication that he will speak to us, but it will have to be rearranged.

"That meeting will take place in the near future, but we won't reveal where and when."

The investigators arrived in Aachen on Saturday and tried to arrange a meeting through Hewlett's wife Marianna.

But the hospital authorities would not let them in - and Hewlett apparently made no effort to see the detectives over the weekend.

Yesterday, former Det Insp Dave Edgar, who is leading the probe, said: "If he's got nothing to hide, he should speak to us.

"It's a matter of urgency because of his medical condition."

Hewlett was living an hour's drive from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007.

He has since aroused suspicion through comments he is said to have made to a British couple who befriended him.

It is understood the Portuguese police were aware of Hewlett at some stage during their investigation, but it is unclear if they interviewed him.

Sources in Portugal have said that new, potential sightings of Madeleine are being ignored by police, who believe Madeleine is dead.

Portuguese police abandoned their investigation last year after unearthing no evidence of what happened to Madeleine.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Madeleine-McCann-Paedophile-Raymond-Hewlett-Denies-Involvement-In-Girls-Disappearance/Article/200905415288960?lpos=UK_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15288960_Madeleine_McCann%3A_Paedophile_Raymond_Hewlett_Denies_Involvement_In_Girls_Disappearance

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Paedophile to talk with McCann team
9 hours 9 mins ago

Two former detectives employed by the little girl's family flew to Aachen in Germany - where Raymond Hewlett is in hospital - in the hopes they could quiz him about his movements around the time that Madeleine went missing.

But they failed to gain access to him and were waiting for a "definitive response" to their interview request.

Earlier on Tuesday, Hewlett emerged from the hospital in a wheelchair and told reporters he would speak to the McCanns' private detectives. He denies having any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

The 64-year-old is alleged to have been staying around an hour's drive from the McCanns' holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "The investigators are pleased to hear that Mr Hewlett has agreed to speak to them. An interview with him will be arranged and will take place in due course."

He continued: "We will not be going into public detail about where or when that interview will take place.

"Mr Hewlett has again denied any involvement in Madeleine's abduction, and if it helps to eliminate him from the private investigation then he has done the right thing by indicating that he will speak to the investigators currently helping Kate and Gerry McCann."

Hewlett, a former soldier who previously lived in Blackpool and Telford, was jailed several times for sexually assaulting young girls and is now wanted for questioning by British detectives in connection with a separate indecent assault.

West Yorkshire Police also confirmed its officers want to speak to Hewlett, but did not reveal further details.

Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment while her parents dined with friends nearby. Despite a massive police investigation and huge publicity worldwide she has not been found.


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090526/tuk-paedophile-to-talk-with-mccann-team-dba1618_1.html

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Madeleine McCann hunters claim the Algarve is awash with paedophiles
By Sam Greenhill
Last updated at 1:49 AM on 27th May 2009


Detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann believe the Algarve is awash with child molesters, it emerged yesterday.

They have discovered there have been seven sexual assaults involving the children of tourists in the region in the last four years.

The detectives have narrowed their search to a handful of predatory paedophiles - two of whom still live in the resort of Praia da Luz.

 Raymond Hewlett outside a hospital in Aachen yesterday where he denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance
One is of 'significant interest' because investigators now suspect the alibi he gave Portuguese police is 'a bit shaky'.

The detectives, who are working for Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, are convinced the answer to her disappearance lies within 500 yards of the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz where she vanished in May 2007 days before her fourth birthday.

They are focusing on four or five paedophiles living in the Algarve who 'fit the bill' for the type of person they think snatched her. All but one is British.

The new leads emerged as convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett spoke for the first time about reports linking him to Madeleine's disappearance - he was in the Algarve in May 2007.
  Investigation: A police photo of convicted paedophile, Raymond Hewlett, left, and a sketch of a man allegedly seen close to the resort when Madeleine was abducted

Questioned outside the German hospital where he recovering from surgery for throat cancer, the 62-year-old Briton said he had 'done nothing wrong'.

Former British policemen Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, who are working for Mr and Mrs McCann, want to eliminate Hewlett from their inquiries.
A source close to the investigation said there were other, more significant, lines of inquiry than Hewlett.
 x

'There are 38 known sex offenders in the Algarve,' the source said. 'The area is a magnet for paedophiles. There have been seven sexual assaults involving the children of tourists in the Algarve in the last four years.
They all have the same modus operandi as Madeleine's disappearance - that is, a break-in at a holiday apartment and children molested.

'Five happened before Madeleine's abduction, and two afterwards. One took place a month before she vanished.'

 Madeleine McCann: The revelation that Portuguese police have dismissed new leads was branded a 'disgrace' by friends of Kate and Gerry McCann
The McCanns' detectives have learnt their names from a combination of the Portuguese police files and their own inquiries.

It is unclear to what extent any of the seven assaults were investigated by the local police.

But the McCanns' investigators want to know if they could be linked to each other - and to her disappearance.

The source added: 'We are looking at a man who is of significant interest. He has an alibi for the night Madeleine vanished, but it is a bit shaky. He has lived in an apartment in Praia da Luz for some years.

'His alibi was that his son was in hospital in Lisbon and there is a record of a bank withdrawal from a cashpoint machine in Lisbon.

But this could have been done by his wife, and she has a question mark over her character.'

 The McCanns are privately furious that the Portuguese police have refused to accept new tip-offs
The man has previously been investigated by Portuguese police in relation to Madeleine because of reports that he was spotted lurking near the family's apartment. But he was ruled out.

Last week, convicted paedophile Hewlett was named as being 'of interest' to the Madeleine investigators.

Yesterday, he finally spoke and offered to cooperate with the two British detectives who had flown to Aachen in Germany to see him in hospital. But by the time he made his offer, they had already set off empty-handed to the UK.

Hewlett, who was in a wheelchair, launched a tirade at reporters when they asked him if he knew anything about Madeleine's disappearance.

He snapped: 'It's got nothing to do with you. I don't have to speak to you. ****.' Asked why he had not spoken to the detectives, he said: 'I will. Just **** off, I've done nothing wrong.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187435/Madeleine-McCann-hunters-claim-Algarve-awash-paedophiles.html
 

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 ConfrontedFrom ALEX WEST
in Aachen, Germany

Published: Today
THIS is the moment The Sun confronted paedophile Raymond Hewlett over Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

We stepped in to grill the convicted child abuser after he stonewalled private eyes acting for Maddie's parents Gerry and Kate.


British fugitive Hewlett, 62, emerged as a suspect after it was revealed he lived near Praia da Luz at the time Maddie went missing from the Portuguese resort - and was said to be obsessed by the case.


We caught up with the foul-mouthed fiend as he sat in a wheelchair, gawping at passers-by including children, outside a hospital in Aachen, Germany. He is being treated there for throat cancer. This is how the confrontation unfolded:


THE SUN: Can you speak to us about Madeleine McCann?


HEWLETT: I don't know what you're talking about.


SUN: Did you have anything to do with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?


HEWLETT: No answer


SUN: Could you tell us where you were when Madeleine McCann disappeared?


HEWLETT: It's got nothing to do with you.


SUN: Why don't you eliminate yourself from the inquiry for the sake of the McCanns?


HEWLETT: I don't have to speak to you. F*** off.


SUN: Why haven't you spoken to the detectives?


HEWLETT: I will. Just f*** off out of here. I've done nothing wrong.


SUN: Well, you've been on the run for more than 30 years and you're wanted for questioning by West Yorks Police.


HEWLETT: What for? I don't believe it.


SUN: A sexual assault on an eight-year-old girl in 1975.


At this point Hewlett, who lives in Aachen with partner Mariana, 33, and their six kids, let fly with another four-letter volley before leaping from the wheelchair and dashing inside the hospital.


The McCanns' detectives flew home yesterday after their attempts to talk to Hewlett foundered.


But they insisted an interview WILL be arranged later.


Meanwhile in Portugal, the team was working on fresh information about another suspect seen lurking near the McCanns' apartment when Maddie, then three, vanished in 2007.



The man was the subject of 100 pages of the Portuguese police's file on the case - but was not pursued after insisting he was in the nation's capital Lisbon at the time.


A source close to the private probe said the suspect has a rented apartment in Praia da Luz and is of "significant interest". His alibi was described as "a bit shaky".


It also emerged there have been SEVEN sex attacks on children of British tourists in the Algarve over the last four years. All involved kids molested during break-ins.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/maddie/2450102/Paedophile-Raymond-Hewlett-confronted-by-The-Sun.html

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Madeleine McCann: Raymond Hewlett gives DNA sample to police
Raymond Hewlett, the convicted paedophile linked to the Madeleine McCann investigation, has voluntarily given a sample of his DNA to police in Germany.
 
Last Updated: 10:44AM BST 28 May 2009

 Raymond Hewlett has given a DNA sample to police from his hospital bed Photo: PA
The 64-year-old delivered a sample of his saliva to police in his hospital bed at the University Clinic in Aachen where he is being treated for throat cancer.

Hewlett, who has multiple convictions for offences against children, came to the attention of investigators hired by Madeleine's parents to try to find her after an English couple came forward with new information.

Bild newspaper in Germany reported that unidentified DNA was found at the scene of her abduction and that Hewlett's genetic fingerprint will be compared to it.

But Robert Deller, a spokesman for the Aachen public prosecutor, said he understood the DNA sample relates to two child abuse cases in Britain in 1975.

He said the DNA has been sent to police in Britain. On Monday this week Hewlett, who lives in Aachen with his German partner Marianne Schmuecker, refused to see the two private eyes hired by Madeleine's parents.

He later said he would talk with them because he had "nothing to hide."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/5398913/Madeleine-McCann-Raymond-Hewlett-gives-DNA-sample-to-police.html

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Portrait of a paedophile: So did Raymond Hewlett snatch Maddie?
By David Jones
Last updated at 11:52 PM on 29th May 2009

The British paedophile's likeness to the sketch of a Maddie suspect is uncanny - and he admits being just an hour away on the day that she disappeared. He furiously protests his innocence. But as this chilling dispatch reveals, he has a truly horrifying past... and some disturbing questions to answerAddressed to an internet agency which peddles stories to low-brow media outlets, the email seemed absurdly far-fetched.

During a road-trip through Pakistan a decade ago, the woman informant wrote, she and her husband had stumbled upon the secret lair of Osama bin Laden.
  Under suspicion: Raymond Hewlett, left and an artist's impression of a Maddie suspect

When they tried to report their sensational discovery to U.S. authorities, nobody would listen.

Oh yes, she added almost as an afterthought, and while travelling through southern Portugal more recently, the couple had become friendly with a British man whom they later discovered to be a serial child sex attacker.

What's more, they now suspected him to be the monster who abducted Madeleine McCann.

Quite whether the tipsters (a down-to-earth, middle-aged couple named Alan and Cindy Thompson, who spend their summers in East Anglia and their winters abroad in a camper van) really did have a close encounter with the Al-Qaeda leader is open to question.

Extraordinarily, however, when their claims about the McCann case were closely checked, it turned out that they were telling the truth.

Thus, a few days ago, began the latest twist in a seemingly interminable saga that never fails to astonish and perplex; and which, until then, seemed to be rapidly running out of steam, for all the best efforts of Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann and their team.

It has shone an unwelcome torch on the activities of the man the Thompsons met on their trek through Portugal, 64-year-old Raymond Hewlett - a thoroughly vile character with a record of serious paedophile offences dating back to the Seventies.

Despite the somewhat haphazard manner in which his name comes to be in the frame, detectives retained by the McCanns are taking his possible involvement in her disappearance seriously.

Last Monday, the former British police officers, Dave Edgar and Arthur Crowley, attempted to interview him in a German hospital, where he is recovering from an operation to remove a tumour on his oesophagus.
 Artist's impression: The McCanns recently released a picture of what Madeleine could look like today
Looking haggard and screaming obscenities at waiting journalists, the wheelchair-bound Hewlett refused to be questioned by the McCann team, changing his mind only after they had flown home to Britain. The police officers plan to return to Germany.

As Mr Edgar remarked, this is the first time since they took over the inquiry from the Spanish investigations agency Metodo 3 last autumn that they have felt the necessity to confront a suspect.
'It looked at one stage like he might die,' Mr Edgar, a former RUC officer, explained.

'The last thing we want is for the speculation to continue and for people to say he has taken the secret (of Madeleine's abduction) to the grave.'

Meanwhile, Hewlett's emergence has prompted West Yorkshire police to seek leave from the German authorities to quiz him about an unsolved attack on an eight-year-old girl in 1975.

Hewlett's defiant response this week was to supply a DNA sample which, he insists, will clear him of that assault.

Unfortunately it is unlikely to be of use in the Madeleine inquiry, for the Portuguese judicial police are not thought to have gathered any unidentified genetic material from the McCanns' apartment, against which it might be matched.
In any case, the inept 'PJ' - as the Portuguese police are known - are unlikely to be joining the queue to interview Hewlett in hospital, for they are clearly uninterested in him, or any other new suspect, for that matter.

In recent days, they have reportedly rebuffed several other new informants, informing them that they are wasting their time because the little girl is dead.

Furthermore, I am told the PJ ignore clues passed to them by Messrs Edgar and Crowley, and when the private detectives visit Portugal they are tailed as if they were the criminals.

The question is, by failing to investigate Hewlett (who has served three prison sentences for sexual assaults on children, once rendering his victim unconscious by smothering her with a rag soaked in paint-thinner; a method which some surmise might have been used to subdue Madeleine), could they be missing an opportunity to solve the McCann mystery once and for all?

Understandably, given all the false dawns they have endured over the past two years, the McCann camp remain cautious when discussing Hewlett's possible involvement.

However, spokesman Clarence Mitchell speaks of the 'eerie similarities' between the former Scots Guardsman and an artist's sketch of the gaunt suspect with lank, shoulder-length hair, who was seen near the McCanns' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on and around May 3, 2007, when Madeleine was snatched from her bed.

Mr Edgar says: 'From the information I've seen, he wouldn't be at the top of our list, but he is definitely of interest to us and we need to eliminate him.'

There are huge blanks in Hewlett's story, but he seems to have started wandering during the early Nineties after being released from his last jail term, for abducting and assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Cheshire.

After a period in Ireland (where he is suspected of attacking at least one other child), he journeyed overland through France and Spain to southern Portugal.

Home was a battered blue Dodge truck, which Hewlett, a dextrous mechanic, converted into a camper using parts he cannibalised from other vehicles.

He shared it with his pony-tailed German girlfriend, Marianne Schmucker, who, at 33, is half his age.

Significantly, perhaps, the Mail has learned that he sold the Dodge to Portuguese travellers for 300 euros, not long after Madeleine vanished, and replaced it with a white Iveco model.

 Haggard: Hewlett in Germany following his operation to remove a tumour from his oesophagus refused to speak to private detectives hired by the McCanns
If traced, his old camper could contain valuable forensic evidence.

Hewlett has at least two grown-up children from his first marriage - a daughter named Gina, 41, to whom he wrote self-pitying letters from prison, and a son Wayne, 40, who this week described his father as a 'monster' who beat him savagely when he was a boy.
On the road, however, he sired six more offspring by Marianne, who, one friend recalls, 'always seemed to be pregnant'.

The oldest, David, was killed last December, apparently falling out of the van as the family drove through Spain en route to Germany.

The Spanish authorities are investigating the incident and may charge Hewlett with negligence.

According to the friend, the family preferred the Costa del Sol to Portugal, but Hewlett grew tired of dodging Spain's 'social police', who asked questions about the children's welfare and wanted to know why the older ones didn't go to school (Marianne taught them herself).

By 2006, the family had decamped to the Algarve, basing themselves in a car park beside a supermarket in Tavira, a former fishing town between Faro and the Spanish border.

It was one of the few places where they weren't chased away by the authorities. They were allowed to wash in the supermarket toilets.

Since Hewlett and Marianne had so many blonde, blue-eyed children, their circle of bohemian friends were keen to help them, and one English woman gave them hundreds of pounds to buy their new mobile home.

In return for such favours, Hewlett would mend their vehicles while Marianne would don a pink bunny suit and play the flute on the town's Roman bridge, instructing her children to collect money from tourists.
But Hewlett was no easygoing hippy. Friends recall him as an overbearing 'control freak' who never let Marianne and the children out of his sight.

He was also furtive and 'never let one hand know what the other was doing'. Nor did he socialise much, preferring to chain-smoke cigarettes, and sometimes cannabis.

One friend says his children were 'immaculately' turned out and well-behaved. But another says they were 'cowed and mute', and now fears Hewlett may have abused them, too.

None of his close circle in Tavira had any idea about his sordid past - nor that he was wanted by police in England.

Rumours began to circulate only last summer, when he sneaked back to Britain because he needed documents to obtain free overseas hospital treatment and claim his old age pension, due next year.

One source says: 'He was driven by a friend and the police must have learned he was in Britain, because they raided the house he was staying in during the night.'

It is unclear whether the police arrived too late and Hewlett had fled, or whether they let him go.

 Hewlett's partner, Marianne Schmucker, is reported to have had no idea about the paedophile's past
But he hastily returned to Portugal, where the friend he'd driven with to Britain typed Hewlett's name into Google and learned the truth about his past.

The news then reached Alan and Cindy Thompson, who had met Hewlett a few months before Madeleine's abduction and remained loosely in touch after returning to East Anglia.

Their internet searches would have revealed that his name came up in November 2007 during a notorious 'cold case' trial - in which new evidence causes an old case to be reopened - when Ronald Castree was convicted of the frenzied sex murder of 11-year-old schoolgirl Lesley Molseed, more than 30 years ago.

After the murder in 1975, loner Stefan Kiszko was wrongfully convicted. He had served 16 years for murder before his conviction was overturned, and modern DNA testing techniques proved that Castree's semen was on Lesley's underwear.
However, Castree's barrister had maintained he did not kill her. He said there was 'overwhelming evidence' that Hewlett - whose car was allegedly parked close to the murder scene in the Pennines - was the 'probable' culprit.

Marianne knew nothing of Hewlett's past convictions until this week, I am told, and discovered the truth only when the McCann detectives descended on Aachen, where she and Hewlett have settled with their five surviving children in a council flat.

'She is absolutely beside herself,' one friend says.

Gullibly, one might think, this friend believes Hewlett and remains convinced he had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

So what is the evidence? We know Hewlett was within easy driving distance of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, for he admits to being on the Algarve on that date, and nowhere on the coast is more than 90 minutes' drive from the McCanns' resort.
 Hewlett and his third wife, Gabriella in Scotland in 1997
We know he looks like the 'hairy man' with a zapata moustache in the sketch.
We know, too, that he frequently took the sea crossing from Spain to Morroco, where there have been reported sightings of a girl resembling Madeleine and where some fear she has been sold to paedophiles.

Moreover, according to one source, Hewlett was adept at smuggling his children aboard the ferry to Tangier.

And as the source remarked: 'Would one more little girl have made that much difference?'

Others among Hewlett's old travelling circle have also emerged to incriminate him. The most compelling of these is Cornwall-based antiques dealer Peter Ferran, 46, who recalls meeting him in a Morocco campsite just after Madeleine was snatched.

He says Hewlett told him he was worried that people might think one of his daughters was Madeleine, because she bore such a strong resemblance to her, and added: 'Madeleine's not in Morocco.'

Hewlett had readily admitted having been in Praia da Luz 'many times'. He said he knew the layout of the Ocean Club, where the McCanns stayed, and was adamant Madeleine couldn't have been taken without her parents seeing.

Yet there are convincing clues that point to Hewlett's innocence. He maintains he has an alibi for May 3, 2007 - he and his family were trading at a flea market.

According to reports this week, Hewlett must have been mistaken - or lying - because the Fuzeta market is held only on the first Sunday of each month, and Madeleine was taken on a Thursday.

However, the Mail has established that there is also a sale at this site on the first Thursday of the month, though it usually attracts only gipsies.

 Madeleine McCann hours before she was abducted in Praia da Luz

Whatever the truth, he does seem to have been at the market three days after the abduction.
For the Mail has spoken to an English expat who keeps a detailed daily diary and says he logged the fact that he parked his camper near Hewlett's blue Dodge on Sunday, May 6, 2007.

He also noted a meeting with Hewlett and his family at another market at Mertola, 30 miles along the coast, on May 18, 2007.

These diary entries don't account for his movements on May 3, of course, and certainly not between 9pm and 10pm that evening, when the abductor is believed to have struck.

Yet as the source - who did not much like Hewlett and is no apologist for him - asks: 'Is it really possible that he drove into a small, out-of-season resort like Praia da Luz in a big blue truck that stood out like a sore thumb without being seen?

'If he did go there, maybe in another vehicle, could he have taken Madeleine without his family knowing?

'Marianne may be devoted to him, but I can't believe that if she did know he had done something so terrible she wouldn't have told someone.'

Any number of experts would question this bold assertion, for the evidence suggests that serial child molesters such as Hewlett rarely change their spots.

That doesn't make him guilty, of course, just as it doesn't prove the culpability of the 38 other convicted child sex attackers known to have been lurking in the Algarve when this terrible crime was perpetrated.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189597/Portrait-paedophile-So-did-Raymond-Hewlett-snatch-Maddie.html