I saw Maddie in MaltaJun 23, 2007 00:00
By North Wales Daily Post
THE possible sighting by a North Wales man of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann has triggered a huge police search on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta.
Home from his holiday, heating engineer Ray Roberts of Llangefni was yesterday besieged by the media over his claims.
Mr Roberts, 49, had alerted British police to his suspicions that on Sunday he saw the girl in what looked like a wig with an “Arab-looking man” in a Maltese street.
He emailed Leicester police on Wednesday and his account was passed on to the Maltese authorities, triggering a huge police response on the island.
Yesterday, his wife Norma told the Daily Post he had “acted out of the kindness of his heart” in informing the police about the alleged sighting.
In an interview Mr Roberts said he thought he saw the girl with an “Arab-looking man” and a younger woman in the street at 11.30pm last Sunday.
The girl had tripped, and the man – who was holding on to her arm – had barked “get up, little girl!”
“It was obviously not his first language so it seemed odd that he had to speak to her in English,” said Mr Roberts.
“As a father, their reaction did not seem natural.”
He added: “Then I noticed the little girl’s hair.
“It was pitch black, very thick and cut in an unusual style for a child that age – very much like a wig rather than real hair.
“The more I think about what I saw the more convinced I become that it may well have been Maddie.
“The oddness of it all played out in my mind until I got home then I realised I had to do something.”
Last night, Maltese police revealed they were dealing with details of 11 separate possible sightings of the missing girl, dating back as far as May 27.
Two more witnesses came forward yesterday to report seeing Madeleine McCann in Malta – but police said their investigations had so far come to nothing.
The reports differ on where the young girl was seen and who was with her, with some witnesses saying she was with a man and others with a woman.
One Maltese man used his mobile phone to take a picture of a child he believed to be Madeleine at a parish feast in the central town of Zejtun on June 17.
Police analysed the photograph but it proved not to be the abducted British girl.
In a statement Maltese police said: “A full-scale investigation, involving different sections of the force co-ordinated by our serious crime investigations department is ongoing to confirm or otherwise the alleged sightings, which efforts have so far yielded a negative outcome.
“However, investigations are still actively in progress in order to shed more light upon the reported sightings.”
The Maltese authorities are keeping their foreign counterparts informed and have put officers stationed at ports on full alert to check people leaving the country.
The first sighting was reported to police on May 27 by a Maltese woman who said she believed she saw Madeleine with a man in the Maltese capital Valletta a week earlier.
On June 17 two female British tourists said they saw a girl fitting Madeleine’s description boarding a bus with a middle-aged woman at Floriana, near Valletta.
After this report a formal inquiry headed by a magistrate was launched.
Yesterday the Maltese newspaper In-Nazzjon (The Nation) reported these sightings, and seven further reports from Maltese citizens came in to police.
Members of the McCann family last night marked the 50th day she has been missing with a worldwide balloon release in Liverpool.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/i-saw-maddie-in-malta-2872503
