British authorities investigating the May 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann said Wednesday that they are searching for a man who allegedly sexually assaulted five British girls who were vacationing in Portugal with their families. Madeleine disappeared during a trip with her family in Portugal.
The attacks happened between 2004 and 2006 in Algarve villas where British families were staying, police said, reports The BBC. The man is also suspected of breaking into 12 properties between 2004 and 2010. He targeted girls between the ages of seven and ten and attacked two in one room.
According to Fox News, Metropolitan Police said that one of the break-ins took place in Praia da Luz, the town where McCann and her family were staying when she went missing in 2007. She was there with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and two older siblings.
Two families who say they saw the man said that he wore a long-sleeve burgundy sweater with a white circle on the back. He spoke slowly in English with a foreign accent and has dark hair.
Although the attacks were not exactly the same, “there are many similar aspects to each of the incidents in that in most cases there were no signs of forced entry to the property, nothing was taken, and the intruder appeared in the early hours of the morning between 02.00hrs and 05.00hrs,” police said in a statement.
“Kate and Gerry still believe that Madeleine is alive and out there to be found, and that is why they are so pleased that the British police are doing such a good job on this,” the McCann’s family spokesman said today.
image courtesy of London Metropolitan Police