Madeleine McCann's parents want police to investigate Spanish paedophileKate and Gerry McCann have urged Portuguese police to investigate the movement

Kate and Gerry McCann have urged Portuguese police to investigate the movements of a suspected Spanish paedophile on the day their daughter vanished to see if there is any link to her disappearance.

The 52-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of killing five-year-old Mari Luz Cortes, who went missing just across the border from where Madeleine disappeared in the Algarve on May 3 last year.

The first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance is approaching
Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley in Leicestershire, joined forces with Mari Luz’s family to try and track down the two girls, printing thousands of posters bearing both their faces and distributing them across the Iberian Peninsula.

But while the body of Mari Luz, who went missing after going out to buy sweets on January 13, was found in an estuary in the Spanish border town of Huelva on March 7, there has been no trace of Madeleine.

The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said it was important to establish if there was any connection to the missing British four-year-old, who vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz as her parents dined nearby.

“We hope the Portuguese police will be liaising with the Spanish police to establish this man’s movements around the time Madeleine disappeared,”

he said.

“We have no indication there is a direct link between the two cases.

“But given the proximity of the places Madeleine and Mari Luz disappeared from and the similarity in their ages, we believe it’s important the Portuguese police make absolutely sure there’s no connection now there’s been an arrest.”


The man being held by Spanish police is reported to have convictions for child abuse and indecent assault on minors and is already said to have confessed to Mari Luz’s murder.
Although his name has not been released by police, Spanish TV station Telecinco named him as Santiago del Valle Garcia.

His sister, named locally as Rosa, and his wife, named locally as Isabel, were also arrested - although one of the women is thought to have been released early Wednesday morning.
All three were detained in a rented house in Cuenca, an hour and a half’s drive south of Madrid.

The arrested man is a former neighbour of Mari Luz’s family and lived less than 100 yards from her parents Juan Jose and Irene on the route she would have taken as she returned from the local sweet shop.

He had been questioned already by police after causing suspicion by leaving Huelva the day after Mari Luz disappeared.

Shortly after the arrest, Mr Cortes said:

“This comes as no surprise to me. We know it’s him.”

The Telegraph

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