We stepped in to grill the convicted child abuser after he stonewalled private eyes acting for Maddie's parents Gerry and Kate.

 

British fugitive Hewlett, 62, emerged as a suspect after it was revealed he lived near Praia da Luz at the time Maddie went missing from the Portuguese resort - and was said to be obsessed by the case.

 

We caught up with the foul-mouthed fiend as he sat in a wheelchair, gawping at passers-by including children, outside a hospital in Aachen, Germany. He is being treated there for throat cancer. This is how the confrontation unfolded:

 

THE SUN: Can you speak to us about Madeleine McCann?

 

HEWLETT: I don't know what you're talking about

SUN: Did you have anything to do with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann?

 

HEWLETT: No answer

 

SUN: Could you tell us where you were when Madeleine McCann disappeared?

 

HEWLETT: It's got nothing to do with you.

 

SUN: Why don't you eliminate yourself from the inquiry for the sake of the McCanns?

 

HEWLETT: I don't have to speak to you. F*** off.

 

SUN: Why haven't you spoken to the detectives?
 

HEWLETT: I will. Just f*** off out of here. I've done nothing wrong.

 

SUN: Well, you've been on the run for more than 30 years and you're wanted for questioning by West Yorks Police.

 

HEWLETT: What for? I don't believe it.

 

SUN: A sexual assault on an eight-year-old girl in 1975.

 

At this point Hewlett, who lives in Aachen with partner Mariana, 33, and their six kids, let fly with another four-letter volley before leaping from the wheelchair and dashing inside the hospital.

 

The McCanns' detectives flew home yesterday after their attempts to talk to Hewlett foundered.

 

But they insisted an interview WILL be arranged later

Meanwhile in Portugal, the team was working on fresh information about another suspect seen lurking near the McCanns' apartment when Maddie, then three, vanished in 2007.

 

Pursued

 

The man was the subject of 100 pages of the Portuguese police's file on the case - but was not pursued after insisting he was in the nation's capital Lisbon at the time.

 

A source close to the private probe said the suspect has a rented apartment in Praia da Luz and is of "significant interest". His alibi was described as "a bit shaky".

It also emerged there have been SEVEN sex attacks on children of British tourists in the Algarve over the last four years. All involved kids molested during break-ins.