Cops probing claims a kidnapper tried to snatch another British tot from holiday flat in Portugal

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Madeleine McCann: Cops probing claims a kidnapper tried to snatch another British tot from holiday flat in Portugal
Feb 06, 2014 02:01

A mum has told Scotland Yard how she chased an intruder away from her Algarve apartment after she found him heading towards her child’s cot

Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are probing claims a kidnapper tried to snatch another British tot from a holiday flat in Portugal.

A mum has told Scotland Yard how she chased an intruder away from her Algarve apartment after she found him heading towards her child’s cot.

The unnamed mum reported it to Portuguese police at the time, but it is claimed they failed to search the area or take fingerprints.

Detectives investigating three-year-old Maddy’s disappearance have now interviewed the mum.

A source said: “British detectives are keen to establish whether Portuguese officers missed a crucial line of inquiry here.

“There is some confusion over why this was not taken more seriously.”

It was reported that the mum said she heard a noise late one night and caught the intruder heading for the cot.

The would-be-kidnapper fled the apartment, thought to be in an apartment in an Algarve resort north of Praia da Luz, where Maddy was taken.

The alleged incident happened in 2010 - three years after Maddy vanished from her bed while on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry and twin brother and sister.

Scotland Yard detectives are still waiting for permission to quiz three ex-staff members at the complex where the McCanns of Rothley, Leics, stayed.

Mum claims Madeleine McCann kidnappers may have tried to snatch her child in Algarve weeks beforehand

Feb 09, 2014 00:00 By Gemma Aldridge

Detectives are to interview the mother whose drink was spiked by gypsy gang who showed an unnatural interest in her fair-haired daughter

Madeleine McCann’s kidnappers may have tried to snatch another blonde British toddler weeks before she vanished.

A mum has told Scotland Yard she believes “gypsy” restaurant staff in the Algarve spiked her drink then tried to carry her year-old daughter to a getaway car waiting outside.

She says she reported the dramatic incident to the Find Madeleine campaign line in 2007, but they were then too busy pursuing other lines of inquiry.

But now police from Operation Grange are set to interview the mum for a second time in two months in the hope it will uncover new evidence in the hunt for Madeleine.

The 30-year-old, who does not want to be named, was holidaying with her mother and her daughter in Montechoro near Albufeira – 30 miles from Praia da Luz where Maddie, three, vanished six weeks later.

She says she became aware of a gang of migrants from the former Soviet Union, working on the resort’s strip, taking a sinister interest in her girl.

“It was terrifying, like something out of a film,” said the mum. “From the first day of the holiday, a young dark-haired man kept popping up wherever we went. We would arrive at a restaurant and he’d show up minutes later as though he had been tipped off.

“It was low season so everywhere was quiet. There were about three or four restaurants open but the same staff would show up where we were. They all knew the dark-haired man. It felt like the Eastern European mafia was watching us.

“On the third night the man walked up to us, and chatted to us – but all about my daughter. He was obsessed, playing with her, stroking her hair. It was very over-familiar. He kept touching her and commenting on her blonde hair.

“She was struggling to eat her fish fingers and he picked them up and tried to feed them to her. It was all very uncomfortable.

“He was about 25 and my mum told him it was unusual to see someone his age interested in children. He said he had nephews back home. And he kept saying how cute she was,” said the mum.

The night before their flight home, things took a nightmarish twist. “He knew we were leaving,” said the mum. “We went into a restaurant and he arrived.

“There was a middle-aged couple who had served us before at another place. They were all over my daughter.

“They told me they missed their children in Uzbekistan and begged me to let them hold her.”

In the meantime they had served her with a glass of rosé wine.

“Within half an hour I felt really dizzy,” said the mum. “I knew I’d been drugged. It was only us in the restaurant and I felt vulnerable. I stood up and told mum we had to leave. As I did, the woman lifted my daughter out of her high chair and walked to the door.

“I heard an engine running. The man had vanished. I was terrified and managed to grab her back and barge the woman out of the way.

“We ran back to the hotel in the dark and bolted ourselves in the room. We were so frightened.”

The mum contacted police last October after a blonde girl found living with Roma gypsies in Greece was mistakenly thought to be Madeleine.

She said: “I’ve given a statement to Scotland Yard, and they are arranging to interview me again.

“I’ll do anything I can to help. I didn’t want to push it at the time because the investigators had their own theories. But now I’m speaking out. I can’t be the only mum who has had a near-miss. Someone might know something that could change the investigation.

“Police are taking what happened to us seriously.”

Her revelation comes days after it was revealed another family fear their young daughter was almost snatched in the Algarve in 2010.

Met detectives are still awaiting permission to question three ex-staff at the complex in Praia da Luz where the McCanns were staying in May 2007.


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