Met police investigating Madeleine McCann disappearance probe British paedophile link An Algarve judge has yet to decide whether they can question eight people of varying nationality, including an intruder linked to a spate of sex attacks there
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are probing a theory that her abductor was a British holidaymaker.
Eight suspects Metropolitan Police cops applied to investigate include a British paedophile that was living on the Algarve when Madeleine went missing seven years ago, it was claimed today.
An Algarve judge has yet to decide on the application by the Met who believe an intruder linked to a spate of sex attacks on the Algarve may have snatched Madeleine.
The same judge recently banned British detectives from searching the homes of three former Ocean Club workers - but has approved the land searches and digs they requested across three sites in the town.
A local source said: “The eight people are of different nationalities and live on the Algarve.
“The British police want to question them as part of their line of investigation based on a sexual predator breaking into various houses.”
This shift in the investigation could mean Briton Raymond Hewlett, a convicted child rapist who was living on the Algarve when Maddie went missing, could once again in the frame.
The monster went to his death refusing to speak to investigators hunting for Madeleine McCann after he was sensationally linked to her disappearance.
The evil sex beast had been staying in their converted truck at a camping site near Praia da Luz at the time three-year-old Madeleine disappeared as her parents Kate and Gerry dined out with friends at the Ocean Club holiday complex.
British cops are also hunting another convicted child sex attacker Roderick Robinson, 77.
Our sister paper the Sunday Mirror revealed this week how vile Robinson was extradited from Portugal in 2010 to Australia where he was sentenced for abusing an eight-year-old girl.
Sources say he could have vital information concerning a paedophile ring in the Algarve while he was living there which could in turn be linked to Madeleine’s disappearance.
Scotland Yard detectives have previously spoken of their belief that a serial sex attacker on the Algarve could be behind the case.
They are linking 18 incidents when a male intruder broke into British families' holiday villas between 2004 and 2010 and sexually assaulted nine girls with three near-misses.
One of the victims, a ten-year-old girl, was assaulted in Praia da Luz two years before Madeleine vanished from the resort.
Sources told local Portuguese media they thought the paedophile their Met colleagues are trying to identify may have been a British holidaymaker.
A source close to the investigation said: "A sex attacker is someone who acts compulsively.
"If he only struck in the summer and he hasn't struck again, it's probably because he doesn't live here."
But in a blow to the British police inquiry, it was also reported Portuguese police are now ready to discount any link between the sex attacks and Madeleine's disappearance.
Porto-based detectives who led a cold case review into the seven year old mystery which led them to dead former Ocean Club worker Euclides Monteiro, are said to have concluded there is no evidence the Algarve sex attacker snatched Maddie.
Euclides' widow Luisa Rodrigues has insisted her partner, a convicted burglar who died in a tractor accident in 2009, has nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance and was cleared of any involvement in the sex attacks after police questioning the year before he died.
Scotland Yard detectives who arrived in the Algarve for a series of meetings with Portuguese investigators on Thursday returned to London today.
The team of six detectives, including two forensic officers who specialise in searching for bodies, boarded the 12.15pm British Airways flight from Faro airport to London Gatwick.
As part of their investigation they will study aerial photos of the Algarve resort taken on a helicopter ride with Portuguese detectives on Thursday.
Police photographers took the pictures from an air force helicopter on a flyover of Praia da Luz following a meeting about land searches and excavations.
Operation Grange officers leading the hunt for Madeleine commissioned the chopper to identify spots where earth may have been moved and where evidence like weapons - or a child's body - could be buried.
They will now study the images while they wait for Portuguese PJ police chiefs to tell them if they can take part in land searches of the areas of interest.
The PJ's top man - national director Almeida Rodrigues - will take the decision and rule on whether to use a Portuguese police ground-penetrating radar or a radar Met Police have offered along with sniffer dogs capable of detecting buried bodies.
He is expected to make up his mind over the weekend.
Scotland Yard hopes the initial land searches could begin by the middle of next week.
One of the areas Met Police have focused on is wasteland next to the Ocean Club holiday complex Madeleine vanished from.
Two others are understood to be a car park in front of an a cobbled road beside Our Lady of the Light Church in Praia da Luz where Madeleine's parents Kate, 46, and heart doctor Gerry, 45, from Rothley, Leics, prayed for Madeleine's safe return.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-metropolitan-police-investigating-3519393
