Pair’s link to Madeleine
Lauchlan and O’neill were considered by police to be the most dangerous serial abusers in the UK, suspected of having links to other paedophiles not only here, but across Europe.
Because of that, eight years ago they were questioned by detectives searching for Madeleine Mccann who went missing just days before her fourth birthday from a holiday apartment in Praia de Luz, in the Algarve in 2007.
O’neill had a striking resemblance to a photo-fit of the man police wanted to speak to, and at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance the evil duo were on the run from the UK using fake passports.
It was suspected they had been in the Algarve as well as Spain, gaining access to holiday villas and apartments through their firm, Rainbow Cleaning Services.
They were living in Vecindario, an industrial town in Gran Canaria, when schoolboy Yeremi Vargas, seven, vanished in 2007 while playing near his home.
But in 2016, Spanish police discounted them from their investigations.
HUMAN RIGHTS Lauchlan and O’neill tried to claim compensation for being held in separate prisons – because it breached their human rights.
They claimed a lack of contact breached their human rights and each sought £35,000 in damages for hurt feelings.
A judge said the couple’s rights had not been breached as their relationship was based on abusing children.
At the time of the legal action in October 2015, O’neill, 51, was detained in Edinburgh’s Saughton prison and 37-year-old Lauchlan was held in Glenochil jail in Clackmannanshire.
Their repeated requests to be allowed to see each other through inter-prison visits and maintain contact via letters and telephone calls, have been declined by prison authorities.
They also unsuccessfully tried to appeal their conviction over the murder of Allison Mcgarrigle, losing their argument that their human rights had been breached because it took too long to prosecute them.