Paper publishes photofit picture of alleged Madeleine kidnapper

Jan 20, 2008, 12:27 GMT

London - Almost nine months after the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann, a paper on Sunday published a new photofit picture of her possible kidnapper.

A sketch published in the British News of the World shows a man with shoulder-length hair, a moustache and bushy eyebrows. According to the paper, he had been spotted near the apartments in Praia da Luz, Portugal, from where Madeleine disappeared on May 3, 2007.

The photofit had been given to Interpol, the paper said.

According to the News of the World, the sketch had been made by a police artist from information given by witness Gail Cooper, who was at the holiday resort at the same time as the McCann family and had seen the 'creepy man' - in her own words - several times.

The image is said to resemble the description given by an earlier witness, who had given information for a sketch of a man carrying a child published in October. However, the earlier witness was not able to describe the suspect's face.

'We urgently need to know who this man is and where he is,' the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann have been suspects in the case for months. They have repeatedly claimed their innocence and assume that Madeleine was kidnapped shortly before her fourth birthday.