Madeleine team fails in bid to interview British paedophile
Health fears prevent interview
Published:
FINAL attempts by private detectives searching for Madeleine McCann to interview a convicted British paedophile about her disappearance failed yesterday.
Retired UK policemen Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley flew to Germany on Tuesday hoping to speak to Raymond Hewlett, who is said to have been staying an hour’s drive from the McCann’s Portuguese holiday flat when the little girl vanished.
But negotiations between the private investigators and Hewlett’s German lawyer broke down yesterday.
Mr Edgar, who has been employed by Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann to look for their daughter, said he was “very disappointed”.
He went on: “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.
“I travelled to Germany yesterday in a final effort to interview Raymond Hewlett. Regrettably that interview is not possible. From information provided by his lawyer and other sources it is obvious that his health is such that any meaningful interview would not be possible.”
The detective said he had been told that the paedophile could only manage a 60-minute interview when to quiz him properly about Madeleine’s disappearance would take five hours.
Hewlett, 64, a former soldier who previously lived in Blackpool and Telford, is being 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.
Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from Praia da Luz, Algarve, on May 3, 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby.
Despite a massive police hunt and huge publicity , she has not been found.
