A former resort worker has told how they saw triple child killer Madeleine McCann police probe German child killer who targeted holiday parks in Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine McCann
disappeared.
The worker said German Ney – named yesterday as a suspect in Madeleine’s case – stared “intently” at them and some female friends as they drank in an Algarve bar.
They recognised Ney, 48, after seeing his photograph in a Sunday newspaper.
Ney was there “for a fact”, the source said yesterday.
The ex-Mark Warner employee – who worked at the Ocean Club resort where the McCanns were staying – saw Ney soon after arriving in Portugal in April 2007.
They also saw him at Baptista supermarket, close to the McCanns’ holiday apartment.
The employee – who did not want to be named – said: “I have a very good memory for faces. I remember him looking at us intently.”
They later moved to another resort in Greece and do not know how long Ney stayed in Portugal.
Madeleine McCann police probe German child killer who targeted holiday parks
Ney is serving life in Germany for murdering three boys in 2011.
He resembles a chilling photofit of a man said to have been seen carrying a child shortly after Madeleine vanished in May 2007.
Known as the “masked man”, he targeted children who were on holiday – entering their tents or villas, armed and wearing a mask.
Authorities say Ney, from Hamburg, was in Portugal in the 90s and early 2000s.
He was first identified as a possible suspect by investigators working for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Glaswegian Gerry, in 2011.
The photofit resembling Ney was even in Kate’s book about Madeleine’s disappearance. Scotland Yard detectives spoke to their German counterparts about possible links several years ago.
But police there ruled out any involvement, saying Ney was only interested in young boys.
It emerged yesterday Portuguese detectives are investigating a second German sex offender.
It is understood they are probing if the unnamed man was part of a foreign paedophile ring operating in the Algarve.
Local media said he was living there when Madeleine vanished.
Madeleine McCann prime suspect named as 'known paedophile' by cops
The man, who has a criminal record, is not linked to Ney.
A source said it meant police were “nearer” solving the case.
The man had contact with Portuguese authorities in the mid-2000s over criminal matters.
Scotland Yard has a small team still working on Madeleine’s case.
British and Portuguese police both refused to comment on the yesterday’s developments.
Madeleine’s parents, of Rothley, Leicestershire, still believe she is alive.
