Madeleine McCann police in new probe on Shropshire paedophile
Police are making fresh investigations into whether a former Shropshire paedophile was involved with the disappearance of missing Madeleine McCann, it was reported today.
Raymond Hewlett, who died of throat cancer in 2010, is alleged to have been staying near the McCanns' holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when Madeline went missing in May 2007. Ex-car dealer Hewlett, formerly of Woodside, Telford, was jailed for sexually assaulting young girls.
Scotland Yard detectives are now said to want to speak to a couple who Hewlett befriended while they were on holiday. Alan and Cindy Thompson, from Nottingham, only discovered the former soldier's history after their trip to Portugal and spoke to police when they realised he had been living close to where the three-year-old went missing.
Hewlett is said to have boasted to them of making a 'good business trip' with his family to Morocco to make a sale, but would not elaborate on the nature of his trip.
Numerous people contacted authorities to say they had spotted a girl matching Maddy's description in North Africa. But Hewlett, who was living with his wife and six children on a camp site when Maddy disappeared, is said to have refused to answer the Thompson's questions when they contacted him in 2009.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "We are not prepared to discuss any particular lines of enquiry."
