27 Apr, 2018 @ 13:44
1 min read

Spanish father claims Madeleine McCann suspect tried to kidnap his 5-year-old daughter

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SUSPECT: E-fit created by investigators

A FATHER in Spain has claimed the Madeleine McCann suspect tried to kidnap his five-year-old daughter. 

The dad claims the man, who fitted the e-fit sketch of the suspected McCann kidnapper, tried to snatch his daughter from a hotel in Portugal.

Known only as Andres, he claimed to La Voz de Galicia that the alleged kidnapper sneaked into the room where his daughters aged five and 13 were sleeping during a holiday in 2001.

He said he immediately recognised the man when investigators released an e-fit of the McCann suspect in 2013.

He told La Voz de Galicia: “I don’t know if the man kidnapped Madeleine, but for me his is the man who tried to take my daughter.”

It was six years before McCann disappeared from Praia da Luz in May 2007.

McCann, who would be 14 now, has never been found and the case remains open.

She vanished while her parents Kate and Gerry McCann were out having dinner.

Some 17 years ago, Andres and his family were driving through Portugal and ended up staying a night at a small hotel in Abrantes.

According to the father, the man was the only other guest at the hotel that night while his family were split between two rooms.

STILL MISSING: Maddie

During the night, his eldest daughter shouted for him to ask if he had just been in their room, which he had not.

He decided to stay with the girls, only for the man to enter the room a few minutes later.

When he confronted him, the mystery man claimed he had ‘come to check on the children’.

The dad added: “Even today I don’t know how he managed to escape me, he slipped away like an eel.”

 

Andres was interviewed by both Spanish police and Scotland Yard, but says he never heard anything back from either.

 

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

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