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Raymond Hewlett, 64, who was also named as a suspect in the
kidnapping of Madeleine McCann, died of throat cancer and
was cremated at a pauper's funeral in Germany four months
ago. |
A
convicted paedophile wrongly believed to have abducted and killed
11-year-old Rochdale schoolgirl Lesley Molseed in 1975 has died.
Raymond Hewlett,
64, who was also named as a suspect in the kidnapping of Madeleine
McCann, died of throat cancer and was cremated at a pauper's funeral in
Germany four months ago.
At the time of Lesley's murder, Hewlett, then 30, from Todmorden, West
Yorkshire was married but having an affair with a 15-year-old.
The day after her body was recovered he fled to Ireland telling his
teenage lover they had to avoid the police.
He became the prime suspect in Lesley's murder after Stefan Kiszko, the
man convicted of her murder, was cleared of the crime by Appeal Court
judges in 1992, after spending 16 years in prison.
Mr Kiszko died shortly afterwards.Hewlett was named as the person most
likely to have carried out the killing of Lesley in a book published by
a former detective in 1997.
As a result, the Molseed family campaigned in Todmorden, the town where
Hewlett lived at the time of Lesley's killing, handing out leaflets
naming Hewlett and calling for justice for Lesley.
However, after the introduction of DNA profiling in 2003, police finally
cleared Hewlett of Lesley's murder. Hewlett, the son of a Blackpool
baker, served with the Scots Guards. Later, he worked on fairgrounds
before committing a string of sexual offences.
In 1972
he was jailed after abducting a 12-year-old girl on her way to school
and taking her to the moors 10 miles from Todmorden. He had made her
lose consciousness by putting a rag soaked in paint thinner over her
face then sexually assaulting her.
In 1978 Hewlett attacked another girl in Todmorden. He went into the
house of someone he knew while their daughter was alone at home.
Armed with a gun he tried to strip her but fled when she told him a
visitor was expected. He was jailed for four years for that offence.In
1988 he was jailed again after kidnapping and indecently assaulting a
14-year-old newspaper delivery girl in Mold, north Wales.
In November 2007, Ronald Castree, a taxi driver from Shaw, near Oldham,
was convicted of the killing of Lesley - 32 years after her death. He
was jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum of 30 years.
When police reinvestigated Lesley's murder Hewlett quickly became a
suspect.
They spoke to witnesses who had seen what looked like his van in the
lay-by off the A672 near to where Lesley's body was found. It was where
he used to take his teenage girlfriend to have sex.
They also interviewed convicts he was in jail with when he was
questioned about Lesley's killing. All said he had disguised the issue,
saying he was being interviewed about killing a woman rather than a
child, but one said he had admitted to killing her.
Shortly before he died Hewlett admitted he was in the Algarve, Portugal
at the time
Madeleine McCann was snatched from the resport in May 2007.
He looked strikingly similar to pictures of a suspect seen lurking near
her
apartment.
But he insisted he had nothing to do with her
disappearance. |