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| George Brooks / Burke |
11 August 2008
Mirror
Victoria Ward in Praia da Luz
Newly-released evidence reveals a man tried to abduct a child at McCanns' flat 8 months before Maddy was taken..
A SUSPECTED abductor was spotted spying on Madeleine McCann's flat before she vanished - but Portuguese police ignored the tip-off, it emerged yesterday.
British babysitter Margaret Hall was caring for a girl aged six in the same apartment when she saw the prowler lurking in the dark and peering inside.
A statement and his description were passed to officers - who dismissed it as irrelevant, their files on the bungled probe reveal.
Last night a friend of Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry branded the police reaction "astonishing".
The couple's private Metodo 3 detectives will now urgently pursue the potentially vital lead.
Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said:
"Kate and Gerry hoped from the outset that police were following up every lead in the most thorough and professional manner possible.
"Where any information is found to not have been followed up, our private investigators are working on it, all of it."
Their zeal is in marked contrast to that of local cops, who shrugged off the report as "of no relation to the...investigation" and never bothered to contact Margaret.
British police intelligence has suggested Madeleine may have been snatched on May 3 last year days after being snapped by a spotter for Belgian paedophiles.
Margaret had reported her autumn 2006 sighting to Metodo 3 in November 2007 and they informed police. Parents of the youngster she was looking after were out for the night and had warned her about rodents in Apartment 5A at Praia da Luz's Ocean Club complex.
Margaret encountered the prowler as she went to check for rats at about 12.30am.
The Metodo 3 statement given to official detectives reveals:
"She left by the main entrance and, in a dark area, with movement sensitive lights, she noticed something moving and thought it was a rat.
"She was shocked when on closer examination she saw it was the brown shoe of a man who was peeping in the dark area outside the apartment.
"She shouted and the man came out of the darkness, activating the lights. He walked towards her and said, 'No, no'."
The prowler was said to be aged 23-25, of Mediterranean appearance and with long, black curly hair. He wore light trousers and a checked blue shirt.
Margaret is convinced he had a Portuguese accent.
Kate and Gerry's pal Jane Tanner has told police that on the night Madeleine vanished she saw a dark-haired man in beige trousers carrying a child and hurrying from the direction of the flat.
Margaret reported her sighting to her boss but he was more bothered about a rat infestation.
The babysitter - who spent six months working for the Ocean Club complex until November 2006 - contacted Metodo 3 via their helpline.
The Spanish private sleuths met Portuguese police on November 14 last year and passed on the tip-off. But Portuguese officers dismissed it out of hand because the sighting came around eight months before Madeleine vanished.
Their 30,000 pages of case notes reveal:
"The director of M3 (Metodo 3) handed us a small notepad with information relating to Madeleine's disappearance.
"They said the information had come from their Spanish Madeleine helpline.
"We notice that it reports facts which took place in August/Sept of 2006, which seems to us outdated and of no relation to the material under investigation."
British nanny Charlotte Pennington worked at the resort last year and said she had heard reports of a suspicious man lurking around apartments.
Meanwhile, it has emerged police failed to quiz Liverpool man George Brooks, 61, who saw a suspicious couple carrying a child in Praia da Luz hours after Madeleine vanished.
By the time police finally visited the restaurant where he worked, he had left and they made no further effort to contact him.
Several holidaymakers also told police about a man behaving strangely near Praia da Luz.
Metodo 3
Spanish private investigators, based in Barcelona, are said to be being paid £50,000 a day to hunt for Madeleine. Since taking on the case it has received 16,000 calls from potential witnesses.
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