'Maddie perv' Raymond Hewlett dies with his secrets

10 April 2010
The Sun
Neil Syson

A PAEDOPHILE who was a prime suspect in the hunt for Madeleine McCann has died - taking any secrets he had to the grave.

Convicted child rapist Raymond Hewlett, 64, died of throat cancer and was cremated at a pauper's funeral in Germany four months ago. His ex-wife Susan, 64, and children in Telford, Shropshire, were unaware of his death.

Two private detectives hired by Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry went to Aachen, Germany, at least three times in a bid to interview Hewlett. But a source said: "He always wriggled out of it, saying he was too sick to see them. He was never eliminated from the inquiry."

Maddie, of Rothley, Leics, was three when she vanished on holiday in Portugal in May 2007. Ex-soldier Hewlett bore a close resemblance to a straggly-haired man seen lurking near the McCann apartment.

He was in Portugal when Maddie was snatched and left for Morocco three weeks later. And he told a pal he knew gipsies who sold children to perverts. Hewlett's German second wife Mariana, 35, refused to comment.