26th March 2014
Daily Mail
Convicted British paedophile revealed to have been living close to Portuguese resort when Madeleine McCann was abductedConvicted paedophile David Reid lived in the area at the time of abduction He moved to Algarve resort in 2004 after being freed from jail in Britain After this, a man broke into holiday homes and abused five British girls
A tanned, dark-haired man suspected of child sex assaults from 2004-2006
Madeleine McCann, aged three, was taken from Praia da Luz in May 2007 Police say paedophile is suspected of committing 12 break-ins in Algarve Four were in Carvoeiro, six in the Vale da Parra, and two in Praia da LuzA convicted British paedophile was living in the same area on the Portuguese coast at the time of Madeleine McCann's disappearance seven years ago, it has been revealed.
David Reid moved to Carvoeiro on the Algarve in 2004, after he was released from prison for sexually abusing young girls.
He was still living in the area in 2007, when three-year-old Maddie was snatched from her family's holiday apartment while her parents were having dinner nearby.
The same year Reid arrived on the Algarve, several British families on holiday suffered break-ins and five young girls were abused in their beds.
Chillingly, just months before Maddie McCann's disappearance, one of his victims had warned that Reid remained a threat to young girls and would offend again.
'It's part of his being. He'll never change,' the victim said, according to The Mirror.
'Get your kids and your family away from him, Never out temptation in front of him. He just won't be able to resist it.
Reid, from Northern Ireland, was living just 30 miles from Praia da Luz, the holiday resort where the McCann family were staying, in 2007.
He was convicted and jailed for gross indecency and indecent assault in Belfast in 1995, but was able to move freely and unmonitored in Portugal as the sex offenders' register was not set up at the time of his release.
According to locals in Carvoeiro, Reid died last year aged 61 or 62, but his family in Britain has not been informed of his death, The Mirror reports.
The police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann took a step forward last week when detective announced that they are looking for a prolific paedophile who sexually abused five girls at holiday homes in the Algarve before the British toddler went missing.
The man, described as tanned, dark-haired and speaking English with an accent, is suspected of breaking into holiday properties where British families were staying and sexually abusing five white British girls aged between seven and ten,
The sex attacks took place between 2004-2006, shortly before Madeleine vanished in 2007, and are among a series of 12 break-ins to holiday homes in the Algarve that police believe were committed by the same man.
In six of the break-ins, the man sat on or got into bed with young girls. On one occasion, he abused two young girls in the same villa.
Two of the attacks were in the resort of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine was staying in a holiday apartment with her family when she was taken.
There were also four in Carvoeiro, where Reid was living, and six in the Vale da Parra, Praia da Gale district.
Most of the attacks took place in low season, police said.
They had previously been discounted by Portuguese investigators because they are spread over a wide geographical area and there were no apparent attempts at abduction.
Nine of the 12 incidents were reported to Portuguese police at the time they happened, and details of three of those became known to British investigators only after they made televised appeals last autumn.
Witnesses describe the man as having dark, tanned skin with short dark unkempt hair. He spoke in English with a foreign accent, his voice was described as slow, or possibly slurred.
He was sometimes bare chested, some describe him as having a pot belly, and three victims said that he had a noticeable odour.
On two occasions in Vale de Parra and Praia da Gale he was wearing a distinctive burgundy long sleeve top, on one of those occasions it was described as having a white circle on the back.
DCI Redwood said: 'This is an offender who has got a very, very unhealthy interest in young, white, female children whom he is attacking whilst they are on holiday in their beds.'
Police said the suspect may have been in the villa or looking round the villa for some time before committing the offences or being disturbed either by a parent, or the child waking up, and said he remained calm, even when disturbed.
On two occasions, they said, the noise of a bin collection lorry could be heard nearby.
DCI Redwood said today that tracing the man is one of his priority lines of inquiry.
He said: 'We need to establish the identity of this man - these offences are very serious and no-one has been charged in connection with them.'
He said some of the offences were previously known about, but three of them, including what is believed to be the first in the series of 12 break-ins, were new reports to police and came about as a result of their appeal for more information last October.
Mr Redwood's team currently have 38 people classed as 'persons of interest' to the inquiry, and are also sifting through details of 530 known sex offenders whose whereabouts they cannot account for.
Of those 59 are classed as high priority, and some of those are British.
British investigators have so far sent three international letters of request to Portuguese authorities over the investigation, covering 41 priority areas for the team, involving 287 separate requests.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt showed his anger at the slow pace of the legal process, saying: 'That's causing us frustration because we know what we want to do and we are ready to go with that. But the process is the process.'
Another 30 letters have been written to other European countries, but the force would not reveal where.
Madeleine, who was then nearly four, disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007 as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant with friends.
British detectives launched a fresh investigation into the youngster's disappearance in July last year - two years into a review of the case - and made renewed appeals on television in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.
After shelving their inquiry into Madeleine's disappearance in 2008, Portuguese authorities said last October that a review had uncovered enough new information to justify reopening it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589664/Convicted-British-paedophile-revealed-living-close-Portuguese-resort-Madeleine-McCann-abducted.html
