Seven-year-old Yeremi Vargas disappeared three years ago as he played near the family home on Gran Canaria.

And in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mail, Yeremi's mother Ithaisa Suarez told how she fears paedophile predators Charles O'Neill and William Lauchlan snatched the youngster.

The evil pair ran a cleaning business in the small Canarian town of Vecindario, where Yeremi, lived and were on the island when he vanished in March 2007.

Lauchlan and O'Neill were jailed for a total of 56 years on Thursday for the murder of Allison McGarrigle, who threatened to expose their child abuse.

They had previously been convicted of abusing a six year-old boy in Benidorm, Spain, and in Scotland last month.

Staring coldly at a photograph of the grinning sex killers yesterday, Ithaisa, 27, said: "I am pleased that these men are going to be in jail for a very long time because they are obviously evil beyond words.

"Maybe in prison they will sit and think about their crimes and talk to the police about what they know.

"If they took Yeremi then I would beg them to speak with detectives in Scotland.

"They make me feel sick. I still pray every day that Yeremi will be found but I can't hide my dark thoughts any more - I believe they took him.

"It is terrifying to think that these men were in our town so close to where Yeremi was playing when he vanished.

"When I see what they are capable of, what mother would not think they took their child?

"They have killed and abused on Gran Canaria, England and Scotland - they are evil beyond words and I am terrified now that they are keeping secret what happened to Yeremi.

"Yeremi was a happy little schoolboy playing on waste ground just outside my front door, then he vanished without a trace.

"The police on Gran Canaria have not told me much about these men but I know that they are talking to the Scottish police. I am now more scared than ever that they have taken Yeremi and his body will never be found.

"I will never stop looking for my boy but if these men know what happened to him then I pray they will speak to the police so Yeremi can be at peace.

"Surely if they are going to spend the rest of their lives in jail they could give a heartbroken family some comfort. All I ask is that they please tell the police anything they know."

We revealed in 2007, just a few months after Yeremi's disappearance, how Lauchlan and O'Neill were running Rainbow Cleaning Services on Gran Canaria.

Unsuspecting parents were allowing the pair, who have a long history of sex abuse, in to clean their holiday homes - unaware of their twisted past.

Detectives on the island have been reluctant to speak about the pair but Ithaisa said the inquiry team based in the Spanish capital Madrid, have been in close contact with Scots detectives.

She added: "I meet with the police regularly but there has been nothing at all and it's now over three years since Yeremi disappeared.

"The case has torn my family, the island and the whole of Spain apart - he is our Madeleine McCann and there has been huge publicity.

"We keep checking the fields and beaches and we will never give up looking.

"Every week my father goes out in his car looking and calling Yeremi's name.

"I keep hoping that maybe he is in a house somewhere off the island and being looked after, but I have been thinking the worst now because it has been so long without any information."

Ithaisa's life has been shattered at the loss of her only child. She is still on medication and has regular psychiatric treatment.

Yeremi's room remains untouched since the moment he walked out the front door of their two-bedroom flat in the centre of Vecindario to play football on waste ground round the corner.

His favourite Winnie the Pooh bedspread is perfectly folded and his Spider-Man teddies and toy cars neatly arranged on shelves.

Ithaisa added: "I am keeping his room for the moment when he will hopefully come back to us. I could never change it. It may never happen but I have to keep hoping."

Photos of the youngster are on every wall in the house as Ithaisa struggles to keep her hopes alive.

She said: "This is all I have now - just photos - and that is heartbreaking for my family.

"He was such a beautiful friendly boy who was loved by everybody.

"We haven't seen his smile for three years, heard him laugh or watch him play. Sometimes I feel like I don't want to carry on but I cannot stop looking, handing out posters and asking around for help."

O'Neill and Lauchlan strangled Allison nearly 13 years ago and dumped her at sea in a wheelie bin. Her body was never found.

The perverts befriended mum-of-three Allison after she left her husband, and she eventually became a lodger at their flat in Largs, Ayrshire.

But she found out O'Neill and Lauchlan were molesting a young boy at the flat. She confronted the pair - and was never seen again.

A year after the murder, the sick pair were found guilty of 31 child abuse charges.

O'Neill was jailed for eight years and Lauchlan for six. Both beasts were freed early - and within weeks, they moved to Vecindario.

It is understood the paedophiles fled Britain on false passports to avoid notifying police of their whereabouts as registered sex offenders.

A police source said: "They are not opportunistic paedophiles - this pair are quite possibly among the worst predatory sex attackers in Britain.

"They spend a great deal of time pinpointing targets and gaining the trust of the children and their parents before the abuse takes place.

"Gran Canaria was no doubt chosen because of the large gay community and they would simply blend into a holiday island."

When the circus must leave town

My admiration for Sara Payne knows no bounds. As ever, she showed utter dignity this week as she was helped from the Court of Appeal.

You'd never have known that the composed 41-year-old, walking with a stick after a stroke, had just been told that the man who'd murdered her five-year-old daughter Sarah had won his case to have his sentence reduced.

Sara, now a campaigner for victims' rights, left the court and began a series of interviews not just about her daughter, but about the law concerning paedophiles and her fight to change it.

Meanwhile, Kate and Gerry McCann continue their search for missing Madeleine with astonishing self-control. Recently, they launched a nationwide network to help find missing children.

I can only suspect that behind closed doors there are times when the McCanns and the Paynes are hysterical with grief. But when they face the reporters and cameras, they convey their messages with restrained solemnity.

That's just how the people of west Cumbria have behaved.

After the madness of Derrick Bird, their personal torment was made public.

This week we saw the openair services, heard the messages from the clerics and watched as locals shed a tear, prayed or held each other as they tried to come to terms with events.

They did it under the gaze of the cameras and surrounded by people with notebooks scribbling down their every emotion.

They endured being under that media microscope with a dignity which is inherently British. The stiff upper lip may quiver at times but in the main we are a stoical society.

But as the week ended and the opening titles of the various news programmes rolled, I found myself hoping the headlines would not contain even a mention of the terrible events of the week before. That the entire bulletin those picturesque Cumbrian village streets.

I am part of the media posse that descends on scenes of tragedy. I make my living reporting news and passing on the events of the day.

But there comes a time when dwelling on carnage and heartache for the sake of it becomes intrusion.

Yes, there are many questions to be answered. As important inquiries are held and vital information is uncovered, the villages will be re-visited by reporters. Some locals may find it cathartic to tell their stories.

But as far as just being there to get a snapshot of a place still deeply in mourning, my personal view is I hope the mass media, with cameras and journalists on every street corner, leaves and the area finds whatever peace it can.

When people like Sara Payne and the McCanns have neither the strength nor the inclination to put on their public faces, they don't.

When they want to talk, to campaign, to get our help, they do. They and others like them must have that choice.

NEWS JUNE 2010