Maddie McCann

[pintsofguinness]

A pervert lived a hour from where Maddie was abducted?
Is that the only link? 

[balladmaker]

A pervert lived a hour from where Maddie was abducted?
Is that the only link?

.....as well as the resemblance to the photo fit of the man seen carrying a young girl on the night, plus the known history of Mr. Hewlett and his previous convictions, plus the fact he lived in a motor home an hour from where Maddie was taken....very circumstantial yes, but worth investigating I would say.....

[balladmaker]

'Paedo Knew Madeleine Holiday Complex Well'

A paedophile who is being investigated over Madeleine McCann's disappearance has reportedly said he was familiar with the holiday complex where she went missing.

Raymond Hewlett is alleged to have been staying around an hour's drive from the McCanns' holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal when she vanished on May 3, 2007. The McCanns' investigation team wants to interview the 64-year-old in the next few days in the hope he can shed some light on her disappearance.

A former soldier who met Hewlett at a campsite in Morocco in May 2007 told the Sunday Mirror he admitted parking a van close to the McCann's complex on several occasions. Peter Verran, 46, said: "He brought Madeleine up straight away. He said his three-year-old daughter looked like her.

"He was worried that because there had been reports that Madeleine may have been spirited away to Morocco, people might think his child was her. Then he suddenly said, 'Madeleine's not in Morocco'.

"I asked him what he meant and he said he knew Praia Da Luz really well. He knew the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns had been staying.

"He said he'd been there many times and had often parked his van close to the apartment.

"He said he knew the layout of the place, the flat and the restaurant where the McCanns and their friends had been eating when Maddie disappeared.

"He had a lot of detail about the layout. He said there was no way that the child could be taken without the parents seeing. He said they were lying."

UK-born Hewlett, a former soldier who previously lived in Blackpool and Telford, is reportedly being treated for throat cancer in hospital in the German city Aachen. He 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 case.

The McCanns hope their investigators will be able to speak to Hewlett, despite reports he is seriously ill in intensive care.

Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby. She has not been found despite a massive police investigation and huge publicity worldwide.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Madeleine-McCann-Convicted-Paedophile-Knew-The-Holiday-Complex-Where-Was-Staying---Report/Article/200905415287494?lpos=UK_News_Article_Related_Content_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15287494_Madeleine_McCann%3A_Convicted_Paedophile_Knew_The_Holiday_Complex_Where_Was_Staying_-_Report

[Rufus T Firefly]

Has this debate about leaving the children on their own not been done to death. Noone is going to agree, there are plenty of people who think it was irresponsible downright stupid and neglectful and there are others who think its something that happens all over the world. Maybe it does maybe it doesnt. Before this case it would have happened a lot more and if it hadnt been madeline mc cann it could well have been another child in another place another time.
What matters is it has happened and that little  girl is out there somewhere dead or alive and no matter what the parents should or shouldnt have done it cant be changed. That one action has devastated and destroyed little madelines life, their twins lives their own lives and their immediate families and i for one feel its just terribly sad and feel nothing but pity for the raw grief they are living with every day of their lives and will until they day they die should their daughter be found or not.

Great post. Agree with you 100%.

[The Real Laoislad]

Sweet Geez Gnevin, are you seriously telling me it's ok to leave a child in a hotel bedroom while you head downstairs from dinner with a child monitor?

Why not get the meal brought to the room if you're starving.

It would depend on the child's age but from about 7 + . Yes

Why not take them with you?

To quote the mother when I was younger "Can I not have just 5 minutes alone" . Your on holidays , it's nice to have dinner with just the missus some times

I'd say that had more to do with the fact she had a son like you...

[Rufus T Firefly]

A pervert lived a hour from where Maddie was abducted?
Is that the only link? 

I would have to confess that that was my first thought too.

But the more I thought about it, the more it might be important. Stop and think what percentage of the population would be prepared to go into an apartment and snatch a young girl, in the circumstances that Madeleine McCann disappeared. The numbers must be miniscule. Consider now that one such person who could and indeed would have form for this sort of thing was in close relative proximity and it suddenly assumes (in my eyes) greater significance.

Anyway, as balladmaker said, given that there is very little else to go on, it is worth pursuing.   

[ludermor]

If you were the parent of a missing child what would be the best ( prob wrong choice of word) outcome?
1) the child to remain missing forever, not knowing what happened
2) A man/gang to confess to kidnapping the child, rape and abuse the kid indefinitely and then kill the child. The child body returned to be buried and a place for you to grieve.

I really don't know what i would want if i was a parent.

[tyrone girl]

Thats a tough one. People will all differ and i think its tough to say really unless you find urself in that situation which i trust in god none of us ever do.

Lots of people would want closure and may prefer the childs body returned, and a place to grieve however heartbreaking and distressing it may be.

On the other hand i feel id want to cling on to any kind of hope i could. I think hope would be the only thing that would keep me motivated to even get out of bed in the morning in a situation like that. I watched Kate Mc Cann say that there are days she wishes she could go into a coma and never wake up to try and forget whats happening but she knows they have to continue fighting as best they can.
Hope is  a word people can call corny and a fantasy notion etc but to me its such a big word in this case. Ultimately noone knows whether madeline is dead or alive but while theres hope she still is id prefer to keep living with that than have a police officer come to tell me they found her body.
Its happened before in the world, though the cases are rare and few and far between it has happened that a child has gone missing and been found several years later. I sincerly hope it turns out to be the case here.

[balladmaker]

Its happened before in the world, though the cases are rare and few and far between it has happened that a child has gone missing and been found several years later. I sincerly hope it turns out to be the case here.

What a news story that would be!

My gut feeling is that Madeleine is dead, and has been from a short time after she was abducted, maybe within a couple of hours or less.  I just can't imagine how anyone could still have her given the publicity that surrounds the case.  But it's a strange world, and what would I know.  Sure they can't find Bin Laden, even with all the technology and man power the U.S. have, so what chance finding a little girl who falls much further down the authorities list of priorities.

The thought of her still being alive, held in a cellar somewhere, being abused, that would be a living hell to live with thoughts like that....it's a messed up world we live in!

[Norf Tyrone]

If you were the parent of a missing child what would be the best ( prob wrong choice of word) outcome?
1) the child to remain missing forever, not knowing what happened
2) A man/gang to confess to kidnapping the child, rape and abuse the kid indefinitely and then kill the child. The child body returned to be buried and a place for you to grieve.

I really don't know what i would want if i was a parent.

It's a choice you would not want to wish on your worst enemy. The thing is re the first one, that nont knowing will only be you constantly imagining number two anyhow.

The ideal scenario... and I know it's far fetched, is that someone has taken her to sell to a couple or whatever who can't have children of their own. It means she's alive, and being treated well. As TG says.... Hope.

[deiseach]

If you were the parent of a missing child what would be the best ( prob wrong choice of word) outcome?
1) the child to remain missing forever, not knowing what happened
2) A man/gang to confess to kidnapping the child, rape and abuse the kid indefinitely and then kill the child. The child body returned to be buried and a place for you to grieve.

I really don't know what i would want if i was a parent.

You'd want to see the body, whatever the price. Scenario 1) is a living death

[Capt Pat]

Has anyone ever noticed the similarities between the McCann cas and the O'Toole case. That is the Timmy O'Toole case where Bart Simpson throws a walkie talkie down a well and pretends that he is Timmy O'Toole and has fallen down the well to get the attention of people. The media get involved and celebrities come along to help dig him out.

[ardmhachaabu]

Has anyone ever noticed the similarities between the McCann cas and the O'Toole case. That is the Timmy O'Toole case where Bart Simpson throws a walkie talkie down a well and pretends that he is Timmy O'Toole and has fallen down the well to get the attention of people. The media get involved and celebrities come along to help dig him out.

Most stupid comment I have ever read on here.  Well done!

[seanf]

The search for Maddie seems to have gone quiet!

I thought after the reconstruction on TV this story would have been back in the news over the summer

[Minder]

They haven't gone away you know. Cameron has bullied the Met into carrying out a review, that could cost millions and the parents have a book out and are in the midst of a publicity blitzkrieg. In fairness Cameron was probably bullied by Rupert Murdoch as The Sun have teamed up with the McCanns.