A CONVICTED child molester wanted for questioning in connection with Madeleine McCann’s disappearance was jailed for six years for sexually assaulting a Cheshire schoolgirl.
Former soldier Raymond Hewlett, 64, was locked up after grabbing the 14-year-old on her paper round at knifepoint in Cuddington in 1988.
"You know what is going to happen to you now," he told the terrified teenager when they arrived at a quarry 50 miles away in North Wales.
She was subjected to a brutal sex attack before being bundled into the boot of Hewlett’s car and dumped a further 50 miles away at another quarry.
Hewlett, who left a hospital in Aachen, Germany, this week after throat cancer surgery, is believed to have been living in the Algarve when Madeleine disappeared in May 2007. He has a history of sex attacks on girls.
He served 12 months for an indecent assault in 1972 and 16 months of a four-year sentence for another in 1978. He was once featured on a Crimestoppers list of most wanted paedophiles in Britain.
He is currently wanted for questioning by British police forces for the indecent assault of a young girl in Yorkshire more than 30 years ago.
Ex-Northwich-based Cheshire Constabulary detective Dave Edgar, hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to find Madeleine, has so far failed to secure an interview with Hewlett after flying to Germany, as he has no legal authority as a private investigator.
But as he left hospital on Monday night, Hewlett said: "I have nothing to hide – I am willing to talk."
A McCann family spokesman said an interview ‘will be arranged and will take place in due course’.
It is believed police officers could use phone records to access phone company records dating back to May 3, 2007, the day Madeleine vanished from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.
The records will show which mobile phone masts Hewlett’s phone connected to on specific dates.
The information may help officers track Hewlett’s movements the night Madeleine went missing and over the following days.
