The Sun
Antonella Lazzeri
Beast guilty of mum's slaughter
He's linked to missing children
AN EVIL paedophile jailed yesterday for killing a brave mum has been linked to Madeleine McCann.
Charles O'Neill, bottom right, was found guilty of killing Allison McGarrigle, bottom left, at the High Court in Glasgow.
And last night it emerged investigators want to quiz him over missing Maddie, right. He has snubbed repeated attempts by private detectives working for Maddie's family to question him over her disappearance.
Beast O'Neill was caged for life yesterday with his gay lover William Lauchlan for killing Allison in Largs, Ayrshire, 1997 after she threatened to report them for abusing a young boy.
But he was living in Spain under an assumed name when Maddie was abducted.
He is believed to have been in the area of Portugal from where she was snatched on May 3, 2007. Yesterday the official spokesman for Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann confirmed the detectives had not been able to interview O'Neill — who was also found guilty yesterday of grooming a child and sexually assaulting two boys.
Spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Investigators have been fully aware of him and his background but have not been able to take him any further forward as an active line of investigation."
The Scottish Sun first reported the link between O'Neill and Maddie last year. But we were unable to identify him because he was facing trial for Allison's murder.
He was on a hit list of seven paedophiles known to be around the area Maddie went missing from.
At the time a source close to the Maddie investigation revealed: "His background and where he was living at the time she vanished mean he has been identified as one of around seven suspects they feel should be urgently interviewed".
Depraved O'Neill has also been linked to the disappearance of seven-year-old Spanish boy Jeremy Vargas, who went missing from Gran Canaria just two months before Maddie.
Jeremy's mother Ithaisa Suarez, 24, and Maddie's mum Kate, 41, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have regularly written to each other since Maddie went missing .
Spanish cops have confirmed they want to quiz O'Neill over Jeremy's disappearance.
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