Appeal to trace woman in Madeleine hunt

Private detectives hired by Madeleine McCann’s parents want to trace a “Victoria Beckham lookalike” with an Australian or New Zealand accent, it was reported today.

She was seen by two British men in Barcelona in Spain three days after the little girl went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal.

The woman said something to one of the men which has convinced the McCanns’ investigators that she might have information about Madeleine, the Australian newspaper reported.

Full details about the woman will be released later today along with an appeal for information about her.

Former detective inspector Dave Edgar will appear alongside McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell at a press conference in central London this morning.

Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, will not attend the news conference, Mr Mitchell said.

Mr Edgar and a second retired British detective, Arthur Cowley, were hired by the McCanns to continue the search for their daughter after the official Portuguese investigation was shelved in July last year

The two former policemen have visited a number of European countries in the pursuit of leads, including the possibility that a convicted British paedophile might know something about the child’s disappearance.

Raymond Hewlett, who was jailed several times in the UK for sexually assaulting young girls, is said to have been staying an hour’s drive from the McCanns’ Portuguese holiday flat when Madeleine vanished.

He is being treated for cancer in Germany and denies all involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

Mr Mitchell said the investigators had not yet managed to talk to Hewlett but he remained a “person of interest”.

Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3, 2007, while her parents dined with friends nearby.

Despite a massive investigation by Portuguese and British police and huge publicity worldwide, she has not been found.

The two men first saw the woman when they were drinking in bars in Barcelona’s Port Olimpic Marina at about 2am on May 7 2007, the Australian reported.

She was said to be well-dressed but appeared agitated and kept walking up and down outside the El Ray de la Gamba restaurant bar, seemingly waiting for somebody.

One of the witnesses, a 41-year-old British man, had a brief conversation with her in which she apparently thought he was the person she was scheduled to meet.

She said something to him that has made the McCanns’ private detectives think she may know something about Madeleine, according to the Australian.

The witnesses said the woman was aged between 30 and 35, short and slim, and described her as “a bit of a Victoria Beckham lookalike”.

She is said to have had an Australian or New Zealand accent, and is also thought to speak fluent Spanish or Catalan.

An e-fit of the woman is due to be released at the press conference later today.