Retired British detectives searching for Madeleine McCann have welcomed convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett�s offer to answer their questions.

Retired British detectives searching for Madeleine McCann have welcomed convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett's offer to answer their questions.

The two ex-policemen employed by the girl's family hope to interview him about her disappearance in the "near future", a source close to them said last night.

Hewlett, 64, is said to have been staying around an hour's drive from the McCanns' holiday flat in Praia da Luz in Portugal when Madeleine vanished in May 2007.

He has denied any involvement in the girl's disappearance and said he will now co-operate with private detectives after initially declining to assist them.

Over the weekend the family's investigation team - former detectives Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley - flew to Aachen in Germany, where Hewlett is being treated in hospital for throat cancer.

They had hoped to quiz him about his movements around the time Madeleine went missing, but having failed to gain access to him they returned to the UK yesterday, the source said.

Hewlett emerged from the hospital in a wheelchair yesterday morning and was immediately confronted by journalists. He said: "I have nothing to hide. I am willing to talk with them. I thought the Portuguese police closed this case long ago."

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCann family, said details about the interview would not be made public, but timing is thought to be critical given Hewlett's poor state of health.

Mr Mitchell said: "The investigators are pleased that Mr Hewlett has agreed to speak to them. An interview with him will be arranged and will take place in due course.

"We will not be going into detail about where or when that interview will take place.

"Mr Hewlett has again denied any involvement in Madeleine's abduction, and if it helps to eliminate him from the private investigation then he has done the right thing by indicating that he will speak to the investigators."

Hewlett is a former Scots Guardsman, who used to live in Telford and Blackpool, but went on to tour Europe with his children and later his German wife. He was jailed several times in the UK for sexually assaulting young girls, including an attack in 1978 where he put a gun to his victim's back.

He was also questioned over the 1975 murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed but another man was eventually convicted of the crime in 2007. West Yorkshire Police has confirmed that its officers want to speak to Hewlett in connection with an indecent assault in 1975.

Because he is not suspected of committing an offence in Germany, Hewlett does not have to co-operate with the private investigation team unless British police put pressure on him to do so.

Portuguese police closed their case into the disappearance of Madeleine, who was taken from her parents' villa as they dined with friends, prompting Gerry and Kate McCann to use public donations to fund a private investigation.

The move to interview Mr Hewlett is the latest high-profile development in the case. Last year, Robert Murat, 43, originally from Norfolk but who lived in the Portuguese resort from which Madeleine vanished, was awarded a share of £600,000 in damages from four national newspaper groups who published false claims about his possible link to the case.

Mr Murat was at first a police suspect in Portugal but this status was later dropped when no evidence against him was found.