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17. 02. 13. - 14:00

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17. 02. 13. - 14:00

Maddy In Russia: Paedos Deathbed Confession

Kathryn Quinn

The hunt for missing youngster Madeleine McCann has switched to the former Soviet Union after a confession from a serial paedophile that she could be in Russia or the Ukraine.

A local charity which specialises in finding trafficked children says it has been contacted by representatives of Madeleine's family to launch an appeal for information.

Posters in Russian with pictures of the youngster showing how she might look now are being distributed from the charity's offices in Kiev and Moscow.

Victoria Yanyko - from the Ukrainian Missing Persons Association - told local media: "A representative of the family contacted us and we made a special, Russian language, leaflet to spread with the intention of finding this girl who went missing six years ago at the age of four."

"We've distributed it in the Ukraine and in Russia, thanks to our Russian colleagues.

"A representative of the family contacted us after they got information from a dying man who said he took part in abducting Maddy and that she might be in this area," she added.

The man is believed to be serial paedophile Raymond Hewlett who died three years ago from cancer.

He was said to have made a deathbed confession to his son that he knew who had abducted Maddy from a Portugal holiday apartment in 2007.

Russian news website Life.ru says the new search was triggered by a call from Graham Perry, a volunteer with the Find Madeleine campaign.

"It is possible that Maddy now holds another name and speaks another language," he told Life.ru.

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