Maddie con claim detective is dead
A Walter Mitty conman accused of duping the family of Madeleine McCann out of £300,000 has been found dead in a secluded mansion.
Kevin Halligen posed as a private detect ive to probe the youngster’s disappearance in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.
He was d i scovered covered in blood at his long-term partner’s home in Guildford, Surrey, on Monday.
Detectives are probing the 56- year- old’s death which is being treated as unexplained.
In 2009, it emerged Hal l igen had been paid £500,000 from a public fund to find missing Maddie – but he squandered a huge sum in an extraordinary spree on hotels, cigar bars, restaurants and luxury goods.
He boasted of employing ex- FBI, CIA and special forces officers while offering undercover surveillance and intelligence gathering in Portugal.
He set up a hotline for potential informants and witnesses but none of the hundreds of calls received were l i s tened to by inv e s t iga tor s at hii s Washing ton- based Oakley International.
A source said: “Halligen was a real Walter Mitty character. He claimed to be a spy and even conned senior spooks.”
A source close too Maddie’s parents, Kate andd Gerry, said they terminatedd their contract with Oakleyy International at the end of 2008 and have had nothingng to do with Halligen since..