Madeleine extortion suspect is held

AN ITALIAN man held on suspicion of trying to extort money from the parents of missing Madeleine McCann has been detained in prison on orders from a National Court judge pending his extradition to France, officials said yesterday.

Judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska ordered Danielo Chemello, 61, be held in prison while France submits the paperwork necessary for an extradition, a court spokeswoman said.

French legal authorities have 40 days to prepare and forward the paperwork.

A Portuguese woman, Aurora Pereira, 54, who was arrested with the man last Thursday, was brought before a court in southern Spain on Saturday.

Police said the two were suspected of trying to extort money from the McCanns with an offer to provide information about their missing four-year-old daughter.

Madeleine disappeared on May 3 after her parents left her, and her little brother and sister, alone in their room while they went to a restaurant inside their hotel complex in Praia da Luz, a tiny resort town in Portugal’s Algarve region.

Meanwhile, Madeleine’s father Gerry has had a wallet containing two cherished pictures of his daughter returned after it was stolen by a pickpocket in London on June 22, reports said yesterday.

Mr McCann had appealed for the return of the wallet.

The Sun newspaper reported it was sent by post to his old address in Britain, which was scrawled on a piece of paper inside the wallet.

“It’s a good bit of news — which we haven’t had in a long time,” a relative said.