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I've only seen missing Madeleine in posters, claims paedophile
A convicted British paedophile – who was known to be in the area from which Madeleine McCann disappeared – has insisted he has never seen the missing girl other than in posters and on television.
Raymond Hewlett, whom detectives working for the McCann family have tried and failed to interview, claims he has an alibi but would not reveal what it was.
In the interview with a national newspaper, he said: "I'd take a lie-detector test. I'll take any test you like. The only time I've seen Madeleine McCann is on missing posters. And I saw her on TV in a bar once. But I've never seen her in real life."
Final attempts by the McCann detectives to interview Hewlett failed on Wednesday. Retired policemen Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley flew to Germany the day before hoping to speak to Hewlett, who is said to have been staying an hour's drive from the McCanns' Portuguese holiday flat in Praia da Luz when the little girl vanished.
But negotiations between the private investigators and Hewlett's German lawyer broke down, leading Mr Edgar, who has been employed by Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann to look for their daughter, to say he was "very disappointed" with the lawyer's behaviour.
He said: "I have been attempting to speak with Raymond Hewlett to eliminate him from our investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
"He is not a suspect but I was keen to interview him because of his failing health."
The detective said he had been told that the paedophile could only manage a 60-minute interview when to quiz him properly would take five hours.
Hewlett, 64, a former soldier who previously lived in Blackpool and Telford, has been treated for throat cancer in Aachen.
He was jailed several times in the UK for sexually assaulting young girls, including an attack in 1978 where he put a gun to his victim's back.
Reports yesterday said Hewlett had been discharged from hospital by doctors who said there was nothing more they could do for him.
In the interview, he said: "It's obvious why they're interested in me. But they can all think what they like. I didn't kill the McCann girl. It's the truth and it's never going to change."
The newspaper confirmed Hewlett admits he was in the Algarve at the time of Madeleine's disappearance and he resembles the description a pock-marked suspect seen lurking around the apartment.
But he refuses to give an alibi for the night Madeleine vanished.
"There is a person who can say where I was that day, but why should I bring them into this? I've done nothing wrong," he said.
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from the Algarve resort on May 3, 2007, while her parents dined with friends nearby.
Despite a massive police investigation and huge publicity worldwide, she has not been found.
Officers from West Yorkshire Police have questioned Hewlett over an indecent assault on an eight-year-old girl more than 30 years ago.
Hewlett, who used to live in Todmorden and has been jailed for sex crimes in the region, was interviewed about the attack in 1975.
Prosecutors are to consider whether to bring fresh charges against the 64-year-old, who last week agreed to help the British investigation by giving a DNA sample to German police.
The indecent assault was committed in Manchester, but West Yorkshire Police agreed to lead the inquiry in tandem with its investigation into the 1975 murder of Lesley Molseed.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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