Kate Gerry McCann
Detectives working on the Madeleine McCann case seem to be making real progress with reports coming out that they are close to making arrests.
Madeleine was abducted from a villa in Praia da Luz in May 2007 when she was three, seven years ago. Now Scotland Yard say they have discovered their chief suspect abused a British girl who was 10 at the time in the same resort just two years before Madeleine vanished.The attack followed the same pattern with the victim attacked in her bed.
The revelation that came as a result of the Crimewatch TV appeal last month has lead Police to believe that as he struck so close to Madeleine’s holiday villa is of huge significance to their new investigation into her 2007 disappearance.
The police also revealed on the BBC show that they wanted to trace a serial sex attacker they had linked to 12 attacks on white British girls as they slept in flats and villas in the Algarve. The Police said that appeal had given them information about six other similar assaults, including the one in Praia da Luz.
All the attacks appear to have been committed by the same man who was described as “smelly and pot-bellied” the police have told the press.
Detectives are now setting up a visit to Portugal in the nextfew days to question a number of suspects but require Portuguese police to make the actual arrests and carry out interviews.
Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry speaking through a spokes person say the fact that yet new information is coming out since the last appeal shows the scale of work that is yet to be done.
The police are also aware of the sensitivities of the other victims especially as they were so young when this happened, but the families of previous victims were helping the police all they are able..
Five of the new crimes have been classified as sexual assaults, while the sixth has been described as a “near miss”. Portuguese police had previously announced that African burglar Euclides Monteiro, who died aged 40 in a tractor accident five years ago, is the serial attacker but Scotland Yard remain unconvinced.
It has been revealed that over 500 members of the public phoned a special hotline for the case which revealed details of the horrific sexual assaults had left the lives of the victims and their parents broken.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt revealed British police are poised to stage operations on Portuguese soil soon reports the Daily Star.