Maddie McCann kidnap suspect slipped through dad’s grip after trying to grab ANOTHER girl
A SPANISH dad claims Madeleine McCann's suspected kidnapper slipped away in the dead of night after trying to daughter from a Portuguese hotel in 2001.
The father, known only as Andres, says the alleged kidnapper sneaked into the room where his daughters aged five and 13 were sleeping during a holiday in 2001 - but escaped "like an eel" after a brief confrontation.
He said he instantly recognised the man in the 2013 e-fit as the person who had gone into his daughter's hotel room 12 years earlier.
He told : "I don't know if the man kidnapped Madeleine, but for me his is the man who tried to take my daughter."
Madeleine McCann was four-years-old when she disappeared from a hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were out having dinner in May 2007.
Madeleine, who would now be 14-years-old, nor her alleged kidnapper have been found despite an 11-year international search.
Andres, 45, from Galicia, an autonomous region of Spain, told a local newspaper that the incident six years before still affects him.
His family were driving through Portugal and ended up having to stay the night as a small hotel in Abrantes.
He told the local paper that he and his wife were complimented on their "beautiful girls" as they arrived at the hotel by a man in his mid-40's.
The dad claims the man was the only other guest at the hotel that night and that his family were split between two rooms.
He says his oldest daughter called him in the middle of the night and asked him if he had just been in their room.
The father hadn't but he went into his daughter's room and stayed in there in case the man returned - which he did a few minutes later.
He confronted the man who said he "had come to check on the children".
The dad added: "Even today I don't know how he managed to escape me, he slipped like an eel."
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He claimed when he complained to the reception about the man he was told he was "a regular guest who likes children but doesn't hurt them" according to .
Andres was interviewed by both Spanish police and Scotland Yard, but says he never heard anything back from either.
Maddie's parents have been warned by cops not to discuss the disappearance of their daughter ahead of the 11th anniversary next week.
Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.
Her parents Gerry and Kate left their three children – including toddler twins Sean and Amelie – sleeping in their apartment while they dined at a tapas bar - 120 metres away.
When Kate returned to check on the kids at around 10pm that evening, she discovered that Maddie was not in her bed and was missing.
Police have spent more than £12million in the search for Madeleine.
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