Maddie hunt conman dies
A CONMAN accused of swindling Madeleine McCann’s family out of £ 300,000 has been found dead in a secluded mansion.
Kevin Halligen – who posed as a “James Bond-style” private detective to probe the youngster’s disappearance – was discovered covered in blood at his long-term partner’s home.
Detectives have confirmed they are investigating the 56-year-old’s death.
One of Halligen’s former associates, defence consultant Tim Craig-Harvey, wrote online: “The lies and alcohol finally caught up with him.”
Halligen made wild claims about his bogus hunt for Madeleine.
He said he had hired an actor to pretend to be a “drunken priest” and seek confessions in the bars of Praia da Luz, where the three-year-old disappeared in May 2007. And he told colleagues a family with a lookalike daughter had been paid to set up home in a resort to try to lure a potential kidnapper. In fact Halligen had squandered the cash on hotels, bars, restaurants and luxury goods. After being sacked from the search for Madeleine, he was extradited to America where he pleaded guilty to defrauding Dutch company Trafigura out of millions. A source close to Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, said the couple had not had anything to do with Halligen since they terminated their contract with his Washington-based company, Oakley International, in 2008. Surrey police said: “We were called to an address in Guildford on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died. The death is being treated as unexplained.”