Police who are looking for Madeleine McCann wanted to spy on the family of a dead suspect, it’s been claimed.
The Sun on Sunday revealed that Scotland Yard detectives had planned surveillance on the ex-wife and children of paedophile Raymond Hewlett, who lived an hour from the holiday complex where Madeleine disappeared.
Before he died of cancer in 2010, aged 64, Hewlett denied any involvement- but in a letter from his deathbed to his son Wayne, he claimed Maddie had been ‘stolen to order’ by a gang based in Belgium.
According to their source, detectives were keen to investigate whether there was a link between Raymond’s family and the gang, but there is no suggestion they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.
Wayne last night revealed that he had suspected that him and his family in Telford, Shropshire, had been ‘under surveillance’ last summer.
Wayne told The Sun on Sunday:
My partner and I thought someone might be watching the house. We would notice a car with somebody in it parked so they could see in. If it’s connected to Madeleine it’s the biggest waste of money I’ve heard of. What did they hope to find? I told detectives all I knew years ago.
Raymond was jailed three times for crimes against young children in the 70’s and 80’s, which included the rape and attempted rape of a 12-year-old and 14-year-old respectively.
This comes after reports earlier this month that Maddie’s investigators were looking into the theory that she had been abducted by a European child trafficking gang.
A source from the Met said:
This is an important new line of inquiry which could provide an explanation on whether Madeleine was abducted and transported away. It raises hope that she could still be alive.
The UK team of detectives working on Operation Grange have now been given extra cash to follow-up the lead.
