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Madeleine McCann just shy of her fourth birthday (L) and as she would look today, about to turn 6 (R) - Source: Reuters -
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Private detectives involved in the missing Madeleine McCann investigation say they are "extremely interested" in claims by a convicted paedophile that she was stolen to order.
Raymond Hewlett, who was suspected in being involved in Madeleine's disappearance, has made a deathbed confession in England, claiming she was taken by gypsies.
The three -year old British toddler disappeared from the McCann's holiday flat while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007.
Hewlett's confession claims she was stolen by a gypsy gang who kidnap children for wealthy people unable to have children or to adopt.
Hewlett, who has a record of raping and abducting children, previously claimed to have seen Madeleine twice before she vanished in 2007.
Hewlett died from throat cancer in April 2010, aged 62. He had refused to meet detectives investigating Maddie's disappearance in 2007.
The claims were in a letter Hewlett sent to his estranged son builder Wayne, 40, before he died.
"He said a very good gipsy friend he knew in Portugal had got
drunk and 'let it out' that he had stolen Maddie to order as part
of a gang," Wayne told
The Sun.
"Maddie had been targeted. They took photos of children and sent
them to the people they were acting for. And they said Yes or
No.
"He said there were huge sums of money involved. And he totally
believed what this man was saying."
The account fits with others, of several strange men seen taking
photos of children around the Ocean Club resort in the days before
Madeleine vanished.
