This is the shadowy figure seen lurking
in the bushes outside the flat from
where Madeleine McCann vanished.
And the
woman who confronted the straggly-haired
stranger eight months before is
convinced he is the same man family
friend Jane Tanner spotted carrying a
child in pyjamas the night Maddy
disappeared.
Despite telling police, British nanny
Margaret Hall was not asked to help with
an artist's impression.
Now,
thanks to the Daily Mirror, a sketch of
his face can be seen for the first time.
Margaret yesterday told the Mirror she
saw the prowler hiding in the dark as
she left through the back entrance after
baby-sitting at apartment 5A of the
Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, the
year before Maddy was taken from the
appartment.
She
screamed in terror as the unshaven
figure stepped out.
His
movement set off a security light and
the nanny clearly saw his face. "He came
towards me saying 'no, no'. I just
turned round and ran back to the
apartment," she said.
Shaking with fear, she was later led
back to her own flat.
The
man had vanished but Margaret, 51,
reported the incident to bosses at the
resort the next day.
She
was back in the UK when she heard of
Maddy's disappearance in May last year -
and a chill ran down her spine when she
realised the little girl had been taken
from the apartment where she had worked.
Her
mind immediately pictured the scruffy,
long-haired stranger.
She
told police in her home town of Bolton
and was interviewed but no photofit was
ever issued.
Margaret later saw the sketch of a man
carrying a young girl in pyjamas and
instinctively she thought to herself:
"That's him."
It had
been made from details given by Jane
Tanner, a pal of Gerry and Kate McCann.
Margaret added: "My description of the
man is very similar to that of Jane
Tanner's.
"He
had long hair but it was quite scruffy
and straggly looking.
"He
had said 'no' in English but he was not
English because of his skin colouring.
He looked more Portuguese than
anything."
After
hearing nothing from the police in the
UK, she went straight to Metodo 3, the
private investigators working for Kate
and Gerry.
They
passed her information to Portuguese
police, who dismissed it as being
"out-dated".
Her
information only came to light after
Portuguese officers released all their
files relating to Maddy earlier this
month.
