Madeleine McCann, Raymond Hewlett And Suspect Evidence
IT’S brewing up for Summer of Madeleine McCann in the media.
Yesterday the Sun (“MADDIE PEADO SUSPECT”) and Mail (“A NEW BRITISH SUSPECT”) led with news of a new line of enquiry. The Mirror went further and named “paedophile” Raymond Hewlett.
Hewlett is said to look like the picture of a suspect. But how many men don’t look like one of the suspects?
Clarence Mitchell has spoken of “operational issues” and that Mr Hewlett was of “interest to the investigation”. It is the language of the police adopted by a PR.
Hewlett told the paper that he is innocent. He says he was at a market 30 miles from Praia da Luz at the time when Madeleine McCann vanished. He then went to his “base” at Tavia, “an hour’s drive from Praia.
So the Mirror will leave a man alone – leave him to the investigators. Or…
The Mirror: “MADELEINE POLICE PAEDO QUIZ”
Quiz… Ego!
British police are to quiz the holiday couple who raised suspicions about paedophile Raymond Hewlett and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Senior officers from Leicestershire, where the McCanns live, will interview Alan and Cindy Thompson to find out more about 64-year-old Hewlett’s activities in Portugal.
Let’s review the evidence…
Hewlett is also being probed over a sex attack - and the mysterious death of one of his own sons. His former wife has told how he brutally beat her. And son David, 40, said: “He’s a monster.”
And the evidence..? Says the Mirror:
REFUGE OF A PERVERT
Where?
This is the campsite where paedophile Raymond Hewlett stayed with his family after leaving Portugal. The British convict left the Algarve as police continued to search for missing Madeleine McCann.
And the evidence of his involvement?
While at the site, Hewlett eked a living selling items he had found or been given. His wife Mariana played a tin whistle and performed a puppet show.
Such are the facts.
None of their six children are believed to have gone to school.
Facts!
Instead, the family would park at big hotels so tourists would see the kids and give them items. Everything had a value and when the family couldn’t use something they would sell it.
Anything?
Hewlett had left the Algarve just as the tourist season was getting into full swing.
Friends say he took a route well known to travellers - heading into southern Spain for the ferry to Tangier at the northern tip of Morocco. From there, he drove south about three hours to the pretty town of Chefchouen which is popular with the hippy set.
The family set up base at the campsite high in the Riff mountains. Hewlett, still wanted in the UK, is considered one of the most notorious and dangerous paedophiles to have disappeared off police radar.
So how does the Mirror know so much about his movements?
Hewlett told friends of his love of Morocco and how he could always make money there. He said: “The Moroccans will buy and sell anything. You can take a rusty bike there and get 20 euros for it.”
One traveller at the campsite said: “This is not a place for regular holidaymakers. The people here are a bohemian, alternative set…
Even his adapted blue Dodge van would seem perfectly at home in this setting. Many campers drive battered vans - often customised with highly personalised and colourful paint jobs.
Paint jobs! It’s damning stuff.
Any more? The Mail:
French tourist Anne Parisot, 70, said: ‘Most of the time he was cooped up in the van and made it clear no one should go over. He seemed quite cold.’
Leading to - in the Mirror
WANTED
Stephen Moyes and Jeremy Armstrong report:
Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett could be at the centre of three police inquiries as he lies in a German hospital recovering from throat cancer surgery.
Could be…
1. Questions to Alan and Cindy Thompson.
2.
Officers from West Yorkshire yesterday said they had asked German authorities for permission to interview Hewlett over an unsolved indecent assault from 1975.
3.
And it was revealed he is also under investigation over the death of his son David after the boy fell from the back of a van that Hewlett was driving from Portugal to Germany.
Earlier we learnt that Hewlett is “considered one of the most notorious and dangerous paedophiles to have disappeared off police radar”. Now on the matter of the death of David…
An investigation by German police is still going on. Hewlett has had to regularly report to the British embassy in Frankfurt in relation to the inquiry.
So not missing.
The couple and their children now live in a squalid flat in Aachen.
The surnames ‘Hewlett and Schmuker’ are on a post box in the dimly lit entrance to their block.
As the Mail notes:
He and his family are apparently living in an apartment overlooking a kindergarten but he is in the Universitatsklinikum Aachen Hospital.
Well, he has children and children like to play? Back in the Mirror:
Mariana, 33, yesterday said she knew her husband had a troubled past but denied he had done anything wrong.
She said: “I knew he had problems with police in the past. But there are no problems now because it turned out he never actually did anything.”
Says the Mirror:
Hewlett abducted and sexually assaulted a neighbour’s 12-year-old daughter in 1972. In 1978 he tried to rape a 14-year-old girl after holding a gun to her head.
Ten years later he kidnapped and assaulted a girl of 14. He was described by a judge at one of his trials as “extremely dangerous”.
Says the Sun:
He’s evil enough to have snatched Maddie
Bette Balfour, just 12 when Raymond Hewlett abducted and sexually assaulted her, added: “I believe he is quite capable of taking Maddie.”
When asked about whether the man who attacked her could do it to another, the victim replied…
Daily Express: “MADDIE LEAD: SUSPECT IS A MONSTER”
THE daughter of the convicted paedophile wanted for questioning over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann said last night that she does not care if he dies.
Gina Hewlett, 41, said she would never forgive serial sex beast Raymond Hewlett for what he had done.
The father of eight, who has a string of convictions against children stretching back to the 1970s, is dying of cancer in a German hospital. But Gina, whose life has been shattered by her father’s crimes, said she had no sympathy for him.
The chef, from Telford, Shropshire, said: “We didn’t know if he was dead or alive, but now we have heard about all this we don’t really care.
“While he is hundreds of miles away in Germany being treated in a hospital the rest of his family are here bearing the brunt of what he might have done. We’re having to pick up the pieces and deal with all the trouble he’s caused…
Gina said: “Over the years we’ve had hate mail sent to us and firebombs thrown through our window, all when he was linked to paedophile offences.
“Now he’s being linked with taking Madeleine it will all kick off again. We don’t have any sympathy for him and we never will, even when he’s on his deathbed. We will never forgive him for what he’s done in the past.”
The Independent: “New McCann suspect ‘was questioned by police but had an alibi’”
The Independent understands that the Briton, described by detectives as “cunning” and a “danger to children” was questioned during the initial inquiry but discounted after providing an alibi.
Says Hewlett:
‘I’ve done nothing wrong, nothing nothing,’ he says.
So no evidence linking Raymond Hewlett with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. But he makes for easy copy.
Isn’t this just trial by media? Is a man not innocent until proven guilty. Can a man’s past crimes be used agsint him a court of law? Is such reporting detrimental to any case?
Wiith the summer brewing - the silly season - might this be the prelude to a Summer of Our Maddie?
Pictures Of All The Madeleine McCann Suspects
Hundreds Of British People Missing Overseas
Madeleine McCann: The Story In Pictures
Posted: 23rd, May 2009 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Media Comments (15) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
May 25th, 2009 at 10:38 am
the wheels are well and truly falling off this one now, as a smart criminal; profiler pointed out, the behaviour of the mccanns is not conducive to grieving parents, also why not answer 4 or 5 basic questions, why will mrs.mccann not return to portugal, why are there new suspects every week who seem to disapear as convienientley as appearing, why have the british security services undermined a legitimate police investigation, why has objective media coverage been stunted, so so many unanswered questions is this the gold standard that british policemen rave about, about as gold standard as the media coverage me thinks.
Edited
May 24th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Cheryl,
Were the same fate to befall me or mine, I would hope that some humility and honesty were forthcoming. For a start, I would be beside myself with guilt for leaving three toddlers in a very vulnerable situation.
I would be brutally honest about that guilt and would warn other parents never to follow such a bad example, that even for a short break it’s not worth the risk. A risk for which the price was too much to bear. I wouldn’t have slagged off the very Police Force who were doing all they could, I would have answered all questions even if those very questions made it appear that I was the prime suspect. I would have welcomed them,. I would not have left the country until at least six months had passed and even then I would be going back and forth on a regular basis-very much like the family of Ben Needham have done for years. I would never have washed my child’s comfort toy. which was the last thing they held. I could go on and on..
Yes people react in different ways, like your use of highly emotive language attesting people are ‘ugly’ if they question the McCann’s behaviour or indeed believe unlike yourself that they are guilty of more than just leaving three children under the age of four in an unlocked street level apartment in a new place. I do not call you ‘ugly’ or castigate your belief. You do not know the TRUTH of what happened to Madelaine no more than the rest of us. In a FREE society we are entitled to our opinions and beliefs. Surely, we can debate them without lowering the tone ..eh Cheryl?
May 24th, 2009 at 6:34 am
12 Cheryl says:
I see nothing unusual saying they hope she is being treated like a little “Princess”, why not? Our children are precious to us and little Princess or Prince are endearing terms and how some look upon their children..
—————-
Leaving three kids under 3 alone at night is treating them like little princesses/princes?
May 24th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Miss Inga Wean, that is not a ‘new’ statement made by the McCanns, that statement was made by them after their child went missing. However, some people prefer to mock it to this day. As for the 30 year old one I gave as an example, I had read that story weeks ago and their statement stayed in my mind why I showed it now that even 30 years ago people whose children went missing had hopes that some one was taking care of their child.
I see nothing unusual saying they hope she is being treated like a little “Princess”, why not? Our children are precious to us and little Princess or Prince are endearing terms and how some look upon their children..
Not worth arguing over - people are either ugly about the McCanns or kind. However, I do ask myself, those who are ugly about the McCanns, would they want compassion and kindness if such a tragedy fell upon them? Or a taste of their own medicine?
May 24th, 2009 at 1:00 am
Cheryl
Yes, I am afraid empathy is often in very short supply. You put a brave face on and despite the terrible thoughts you harbor and which tear at your gut to think about, you express publicly the hope that your child is being well treated, however much you may think that unlikely in private.
Maybe I am strange, but I have never thought that statement in the least bit strange or unreasonable. It seemed to me it came from a sense of hope, however faint - hope, the one thing left in Pandora’s box, after she had released on the world, all the evils of mankind.
I have never understood the expectation so many people have, that the McCanns should behave and speak in an entirely rational manner. I would expect a good measure of irrationality, characterised by odd speech and choice of words, from parents who were in their terrible position.
I have seen politicians, who are seasoned campaigners at speaking in public and off the cuff, say some quite bizarre things and verbally fall over in tangle, and that’s when they are not even suffering the most dire of emotional circumstances. To expect perfectly polished, lucid and rational speech from bereft ordinary people, is asking a bit much I think.
May 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Dear Anorak-whilst I am awaiting moderation-might I correct a few errors and p’rhaps make the piece less contentious in the process..therefore, could you please substitute edited copy below for the one in the queue..thank you.
Real Stig, have you noted how many nasty people over the last two years have made sarcastic and derisive remarks about the McCanns early statements over hoping someone has their daughter and treating her like a Princess?”
Quoting Cheryl above who goes on to outline -a missing child case in America over 30 years ago, in which the father gives two REASONABLE explanations as to what may have happened to his child, that the child was abducted and killed or taken by a sad childless woman and kept as her own. Although the father is obviously hoping for the latter, at no time did he make a conjecture that his missing son was being treated like a Prince.
While body language experts may pour over the McCann’s every gesture I prefer to listen to their every utterance. From Kate’s hysterical screams that ‘THEY have taken her and She’s Gone’ to Ger’s early outburst and refusal to answer the rather obvious question of ‘how he felt to be made an arguido?’ -to this more recent and bizarre statement hoping that missing ‘Maddie is being treated like a princess’.
I believe this is a very strange thing to say. Yes, I understand a parent of a missing child hoping that their child is alive and being well treated, but all the time knowing that the only real place were your child can truly be treated as a Prince or Princess is most usually your own home with your own family. Perhaps though for for the über Catholic McCann’s this could also be unconsciously pertaining to being treated like ‘a princess in heaven’
May 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Patricia, they are trying to get access to him to ask him questions. However, keep in mind he is Germany and they just can’t go ‘marching in’ and demand to speak with him. They have to work with the German Government to get permission to go speak with him. Here is a link to a newspaper article that may make it more understandable to you what has to be done before meeting with him. He can refuse to meet with them so this not a sure thing even if they get permission to talk with him..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1186214/McCanns-urge-seriously-ill-paedophile-operate-Madeleine-investigation.html
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Moderator: Will this article do?
Now if you have issues with my calling him a depraved SOS can you possibly come up with a more fitting description for him?
Problem with my remarks about the joke of the Justice System over there?
Rapes a 12 year old girl and the UK gives that depraved man 1 year in prison? Then he gets 4 years for just trying to rape a 14 year old girl and then back out and abducts and sexually assaults a 14 year old and put in jail again?
How many chances does your Justice System give them over there to finally kill a child?
“In 1972 he was jailed for a year after being convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl he lured into his car and knocked out with paint stripper.”
“Six years later he received a four-year sentence for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl he threatened with a gun. And in 1988 he was jailed again after abducting a 14-year-old newspaper delivery girl in North Wales.
“A court heard how he threatened the terrified teenager with a knife before forcing her into the boot of his car and driving her to a remote spot 100 miles away where he sexually assaulted her.”
“After his release from jail he moved to Scotland and later Ireland where he and Schmucker travelled around in order to evade detection.”
He is described this way by a Police source: “One British police source said last night: “Hewlett is one of the most dangerous paedophiles we have ever encountered. It is vital we get to him before he dies and takes any secrets he may have to the grave.”
Yet he got out of your country? If the Police weren’t in charge of keeping track of him then who was?
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/102838/Maddie-Lead-Suspect-is-a-monster-
Moderator _ I suggest you contact the Chief Constables of the Counties directly, and the Judges who sat at his trials. And put your questions to them.
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
There has not been a great hurry to pursue this man for saying he fits all the criteria with the photfit look alike and his whereabouts. So I am wondering why they have waited this long to ‘get answers off the dying man’. I hate (not) to be cynical but if they wait long enough and he dies before they get their information the case can be conveniently wrapped up with the strong aroma of rotting flesh that even the dogs would be barking mad about.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Real Stig, have you noted how many nasty people over the last two years have made sarcastic and derisive remarks about the McCanns early statements over hoping someone has their daughter and treating her like a Princess? Sad isn’t it, Real Stig, they have no comprehension nor understanding nor really give a damn of the many emotions parents of missing children go through.
A couple of weeks ago the newspapers over here printed the story again about a young boy missing now for 30 years in NY. He was one of the first missing children to have their picture put on milk cartons to keep him in the public eye. The link is below to that vey tragic story of 30 years ago . However, here is an excerpt from that story of his parents’ reactions 30 years ago and what thoughts or hope went through their minds.
“In our minds there were only two possibilities,” said Stan Patz, the boy’s father. “Either Etan was taken by a stranger and killed or he was taken by a very sad woman desperate for a child of her own, and we hoped that such a woman would at least take care of him and keep him safe.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/13/grace.coldcase.patz/index.html
May 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
The interesting thing is he doesn’t consider it was a case of kidnapping. So what options does that leave ?
Eddie the Cadaver dog POSITIVELY indicated SEVERAL times and has an excellent record!
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
The Real Stig
“It can be both, they are not mutually exclusive”
I take your point. A bit like Madeleine simultaneously being abducted by evil swarthy P***dos and being treated like a Princess
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
Peter
It can be both, they are not mutually exclusive. There was an eye opening series of articles in a weekly magazine - forget which - some years ago by John Diamond, who at the time was Nigella Lawson’s husband. In those articles he recounted his battle with throat cancer. So while there were episodes where you could say he was recovering from various surgeries, he was still dying from cancer all the while.
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
Yes PeterMac thats exactly how the Mccanns feel about the Portuguese press!!!!
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett … lies in a German hospital recovering from throat cancer surgery.
OR
The father of eight,…is dying of cancer in a German hospital.
Which is it ?
I do so love the objective and factual reporting of the British press.