DETECTIVES are to question a Scottish suspect over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Private investigators working for the McCanns have confirmed that they want to question the man, who is currently awaiting trial for murder and child sex offences in Barlinnie prison in Glasgow.
Already wanted by Spanish police in connection with the disappearance of a German boy, the man was spotted by a prison officer at Barlinnie due to his likeness to a pencil sketch of the chief Maddie suspect.
The insider said: “This man looks like the Maddie suspect drawing that has been in the papers.
“He is also well known to have spent a lot of time in the Spanish region – staff at the prison want the investigation team to speak to him.”
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, operated a cleaning firm for Spanish holiday homes when Maddie vanished in May 2007.
He is currently accused of murdering a 40-year-old woman from Ayrshire with an accomplice, reportedly because the pair feared she would report them for child sex abuse.
The woman went missing from Largs more than a decade ago, and the body has never been found.
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, confirmed that investigators were trying to contact the man.
He said: “The investigators currently searching for Madeleine are aware of this man and they do want to speak to him.
“Any credible information they receive is, of course, followed up as top priority.”
Both men face further charges of sex abuse against children, child pornography and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Charged for a second time after the initial evidence was ruled insufficient, both lived in the Canary Islands and in Costa Blanca until being charged again last year.
http://deadlinescotland.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/investigators-to-question-scottish-suspect-in-mccann-case-1299/
Related:
Scots Pair Probed Over Missing Boy
TWO paedophile murder suspects are being investigated over the disappearance of a boy on the island of Gran Canaria.
Yeremi Vargas, seven, vanished in March from Vecinardio – where child sex abusers Charles O’Neill, 44, and William Lauchlan, 30, have set up home.
After the Sunday Mail revealed the pair had moved into the town, police have focused the Yeremi inquiry on them.
The fiends were once charged with murdering a woman due to give evidence against them.
O’Neill and Lauchlan, who have both served jail sentences in Scotland for prolonged abuse of young boys, run a cleaning business, Rainbow Cleaning Services, in Gran Canaria.
Our story exposed how unsuspecting parents were letting the perverts into their holiday homes.
A police source on the island said yesterday: “These men are under investigation. It’s natural that any known paedophiles would be looked at in the disappearance of a young boy.”
Former boxer O’Neill was jailed for eight years and Lauchlan for six years for subjecting six boys aged between 11 and 15 to systematic abuse over five years.
The pair, formerly of Largs, Ayrshire, were also charged with the murder of mum-of-three Alison McGarrigle, from Rothesay, Bute, who disappeared in 1997.
She was due to give evidence against them on the child sex charges.
The murder charge was made after O’Neill allegedly boasted he had killed Alison, 40, and fed her remains “to the fishes”. But the case was never brought to trial.
Expats and holidaymakers on Gran Canaria were shocked when we revealed the pair’s presence on the island.
Resident Neil Phillips said: “When these two arrived, I knew something wasn’t right.
“One teenage guy left their business after a few months because he wasn’t comfortable with some of the suggestions they were making to him.”
Another resident, Stefan Marsh, said: “Many who have read the article, including people who live here as well as holidaymakers have been alarmed.”
No one was available for comment from the Yeremi Vargas inquiry team on Gran Canaria.
Strathclyde Police say the Alison McGarrigle case remains open.
Oct 28 2007 By Prime Suspects
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2007/10/28/scots-pair-probed-over-missing-boy-78057-20020758/
http://www.yeremivargas.com///
Murder Suspects Pose As Holiday Cleaners
Child Abusers Linked To Murder Pose As Cleaning Experts At Family Holiday Homes Exclusive
TWO prime murder suspects are posing as directors of a firm that cleans family holiday homes in the island of Gran Canaria.
Paedophiles Charles O'Neill, 44, and William Lauchlan, 30, fled Scotland when they were released from prison last year.
We can reveal they now run Rainbow Cleaning Services on the Canary Island where unsuspecting parents of young children let them into their holiday homes.
O'Neill calls himself a "forensic cleaner" and a member of the British Institute of Cleaning.
Last night a spokesman for the BIC said no one with that name was registered with them.
The former boxer was jailed for eight years and his cousin, Lauchlan sentenced to six years in 1998 for abusing six boys aged between 11 and 15.
One key witnesses was to have been mum-of-three Allison McGarrigle, who once stayed with O'Neill and Lauchlan at their home in Largs, Ayrshire.
The 40-year-old, of Rothesay, Isle of Bute disappeared 10 years ago and has not been seen since.
In April 2005 both men appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court charged with her murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice by disposing of her body.
O'Neill was alleged to have boasted to fellow inmates at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison and Peterhead jail he had killed Allison and fed her "to the fishes".
But the Crown never brought the case to court after "very careful consideration" of the evidence.
When they were released from prison for the child abuse offences O'Neill and Lauchlan broke their parole conditions by fleeing to the Spanish resort of Benidorm.
They were arrested in 2004 and returned to Scotland to serve the rest of their sentences. O'Neill was released in November last year, a month after Lauchlan.
Elizabeth Marshall, a Largs councillor, was a member of Victim Support at the time the paedophiles' offences came to light and counselled one of their victims.
She said last night: "That victim said his life was ruined by these two.
"They spiked drinks and drugged and threatened victims saying the same fate would befall their mothers as had happened to Alison McGarrigle and that they would be fed to the fishes.
"It is very disturbing people like that are running a business where they have access to young children.
"I will alert the police here and hopefully they will pass it on to the authorities in the Canary Islands."
An advertising feature for Rainbow Cleaning Services on the Canary Islands Round Town News site states: "William and Charlie have invested a lot of time and money and recruited and personally trained their staff.
"This is a polished service (no pun intended) with a professional image to boot.
"Charlie is a former environmental health officer who trained in the UK and is a registered member of the British Institute of Cleaning Science.
"William is a forensic/industrial cleaner and the inhouse trainer of staff."
When the Sunday Mail first contacted Rainbow Cleaning Services we were told neither O'Neill or Lauchlan was available.
When we made a second call we were told they had sold the firm three weeks ago.
Last night a senior police source said that the Allison McGarrigle case remained open.
He added: "These inquiries are never closed and are pursued if any new information comes to light."
SUNDAY EMAIL
b.paterson@sundaymail.co.uk
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2007/10/14/murder-suspects-pose-as-holiday-cleaners-78057-19948531/
Related:
Underwater search for missing mum
Police are carrying out an underwater search for a mother who vanished in 1997 shortly before she was due to give evidence in a paedophile court case.Detectives believe Allison McGarrigle, from Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, was probably murdered and dumped at sea.
The operation will be assisted by Police National Search Adviser Mark Harrison and a sonar equipment expert.
They will survey an area of the Firth of Clyde between Largs and Millport ahead of a full hunt in the spring.
The advanced equipment on board the search vessel is of the same type used in the US to find pieces of the Columbia space shuttle which broke up as it re-entered the earth's atmosphere.
I think sadly she's been brutally murdered and she's been dumped in the sea in some kind of container
Det Supt Stephen Heath
Strathclyde Police
Detective Superintendent Stephen Heath, who is leading the investigation, said: "This equipment x-rays the seabed and sends up a picture live on a screen.
"In terms of remains of a body, which sadly is what we are looking for, that can be slightly tricky. I don't think it's been used before in Scotland."
He added: "The experts have been deployed worldwide, so it is a first in this kind of search. We're trying to focus in on a particular area of sea which has become very interesting for us.
"The reason we have re-launched this inquiry and have made significant developments in the last three or four weeks is because technology has changed and loyalties change as well."
The detective continued: "We have new leads. We wouldn't go on an exercise as technical as this without having assessed that it is achievable.
"It's a very sad story. A family have lost their mother and they have had no settlement to this for seven or eight years."
Det Supt Heath continued: "I think sadly she's been brutally murdered and she's been dumped in the sea in some kind of container and that's really what we are looking for."
Mrs McGarrigle's son, Robert, 21, said last month he would do whatever he could to help police find her body.He said: "Although seven years have passed since she disappeared, I have never stopped wondering what happened to her.
"Police now believe she is dead and it would help myself and the rest of my family if we were given the chance to lay her to rest.
"I would urge anyone who knows what happened to my mother or has any information that may assist in their inquiries to contact them."
Mrs McGarrigle, 40, was due to give evidence against two men who were later convicted of indecent assault and drug offences.
The mother-of-three was last seen by her family in June 1997 in the Largs area, where she had been lodging with two cousins.
No charges have been brought in connection with her disappearance.
16 February, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4268071.stm
For updates on this case & others please visit our sister blog: http://dontletthemhurtourchildren.blogspot.com/2009/01/families-of-yeremi-sara-morales-and-amy.html
