Portuguese authorities will not reopen their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, despite suggestions that a former Shropshire paedophile may have been in the area at the time, it was reported today.

Raymond Hewlett, 64, who used to live in Woodside, Telford, denies any involvement in the case.

Now living in Germany where he is being treated for throat cancer, he has offered to talk to private detectives working for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gery McCann.

The investigators identified him as “a person of interest”.

However, Portuguese officials say nothing that has emerged in recent days justifies them looking again into Madeleine’s disappearance.

The Portuguese authorities said there had been no “concrete and credible facts” to justify reopening the case.

Madeleine, then three, vanished from an Algarve holiday apartment on May 3, 2007 while her parents were dining with friends nearby.

The Portuguese police are no longer actively investigating the case, but the McCanns, of Rothley, Leicestershire, are conducting a private investigation.

In a brief written statement to journalists today, the office of Portugal’s attorney general said that “the case will be reopened if and when concrete and credible facts exist that justify it, which until now has not yet happened”.

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Gerry and Kate McCann, has said the interest in Hewlett is just “one line of inquiry” in the private investigation.

Hewlett, an ex-car dealer, is understood to have been living about an hour’s drive from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared.

He was previously jailed for kidnapping a schoolgirl in Cheshire while living in Wellsfield, Woodside, and also has several convictions for offences against young girls.

West Yorkshire Police has confirmed they are seeking Hewlett in connection with an indecent assault in 1975.

Questioned outside hospital in Aachen, Germany, Hewlett declared: “I have done nothing wrong.”

Meanwhile, it was reported yesterday that the focus of the inquiry was now on a predatory paedophile, still living close to the apartment in Portugal.

By Peter Johnson