Daily Star

Maddie and man in mask

Sicko carried out 28 attacks

- by JERRY LAWTON Chief Crime Correspond­ent jerry.lawton@dailystar.co.uk

MADELEINE McCann could have been snatched by a sex beast wearing a surgical mask.

Police have discovered a man carried out up to 28 attacks within a 40-mile radius of the Portuguese apartment.

He crept into properties rented by families and many victims were British.

In one case, a seven-year-old girl from the UK woke to find him lying next to her in bed wearing a medical mask.

A chilling reconstruc­tion features in the final episode of Netflix’s eight-part documentar­y The Disappeara­nce Of Madeleine McCann.

Investigat­ors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan, who penned a book about the case, said the masked intruder was one of at least 12 suspects police are probing.

Anthony said: “From what the little girls told their parents afterwards, the man had come into the room wearing a sort of medical mask. He had a funny smell.’’ Robbyn said the holiday company that operated the Ocean Club resort where the McCanns were staying had refused to comment on whether or not they knew of these sexual assaults.

She said the Foreign and Commonweal­th Office had declined to comment on why British holidaymak­ers had not been warned.

Of the McCann case, Robbyn told the documentar­y: “Would they have left their children alone had they known there was a sexual predator about?”

Other suspects include a scruffy man who was living in a van in Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished.

Locals recognised him from an e-fit drawn of a prowler.

And a mum found a man standing in the living room with her daughter, aged three. As she ran towards him he fled.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? TERROR: The film shows the intruder in another apartment
TERROR: The film shows the intruder in another apartment
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? HUNT: The man flees and the prowler in a van
HUNT: The man flees and the prowler in a van

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom