Yorks paedophile quizzed over 1975 sex attack

5 June 2009
Yorkshire Evening Post
Bruce Smith

THE head of West Yorkshire's CID has interviewed a Yorkshire paedophile linked to the Madeleine McCann inquiry about an unsolved 1975 sex attack. Det Chief Supt Max McLean, travelled with Det Chief Insp Mark Ridley, to Germany to speak to cancer stricken Raymond Hewlett.

Hewlett, 64, has been jailed for a number of sex attacks on child in the 1970s in Yorkshire and Wales.  DCS McLean interviewed Hewlett in a police station in Aachen, Germany about a 1975 unsolved abduction and indecent assault in Manchester.

Also present during the pre-arranged interview was a senior member of the German Prosecution Service and Hewlett's legal representative. It is believed that the interview was of a relatively lengthy duration. The interview with Hewlett was carried out in English and was translated into the German language to comply with the German Penal Code.

Det Chief Supt McLean flew to Germany to carry out the interview because he has the most detailed knowledge of the inquiry into the unsolved 1975 offence.  Apart from the sexual side of the 1975 attack it is also known that it involved the abduction of the victim in a vehicle.  

Hewlett came to the interest of two private investigators the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from her parents holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in 2007 when it was claimed that at the time he had been camping one-hours drive away.  It is believed that after leaving Portugal, Hewlett travelled to Morocco before returning to Europe and seeking medical help at Aachen Hospital for throat cancer.