Antonio_Toscano

he knew the identity of Madeleine McCann’s kidnapper.

Antonio Toscano, 36, insisted the four-year-old was snatched by a mysterious criminal mastermind who belongs to an international paedophile ring.

He claims the shadowy figure, himself a convicted paedophile, snatched Madeleine to order on the instructions of two other people.

Toscano insists he knows the full name of the pervert – nicknamed The Frenchman – and has tried to pass on the information to senior officers investigating Madeleine’s disappearance. He says he has still not been questioned by Portuguese police 12 days after he first alerted them.

But Madeleine’s parents say Toscano refuses to answer any questions they put to him.

Last night Kate and Gerry McCann returned to Portugal from Morocco where they had been raising awareness of Madeleine’s disappearance.

They were said to be “driven up the wall” by Toscano’s claims.

Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “As soon as Mr Toscano contacted us via an intermediary we immediately spoke to him. At every stage Mr Toscano declined to provide a name for the suspect he believed was responsible for Madeleine’s abduction.

“This was both frustrating and potentially hurtful to Gerry and Kate. They were upset that this man appeared to be trying to give us important information but when asked the critical questions declined to do so.”

But yesterday Toscano told the Daily Express how he began investigating The Frenchman after receiving a tip-off from a mutual associate a week after Madeleine was taken from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve.

The caller told him he had bumped into the man in Seville, Spain, just a two-hour drive from the Portuguese border, a week before Madeleine was snatched in Praia da Luz on May 3.

The man told him he was heading to the Algarve to meet friends.

Toscano spent two weeks investigating the call but discovered the man has disappeared.

Toscano agreed to meet the Daily Express in a restaurant in Seville yesterday. He said: “I am 100 per cent certain this is the man who kidnapped Madeleine McCann.

“I have spoken to the police in Spain and Portugal but they have still not checked out the information.

“The Portuguese police said they did not want me to tell them the name over the phone but they have not sent anyone to interview me.

“All I want to do is meet the police and tell them what I know. I am prepared to do this immediately.

“I am fully aware that if I was not 100 per cent right the information I have revealed would be very upsetting to Madeleine’s family but I am certain that I am.

“I believe she is alive and is probably being held in Portugal. The sooner this is investigated the better the chances of a good conclusion to this sad story. I just want the little girl to be returned safely to her family.”

Toscano is a former Spanish TV reporter who specialises in child abduction cases. His claims were first published last week in respected Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo.

He said: “I have been successful in 14 of 15 cases I have investigated. Unfortunately in the 15th case the girl was found dead.

“I would offer my services to the McCanns if they asked me. I don’t want to make any money out of it. I would be willing to do it for free.”

Toscano revealed he first met The Frenchman in January 2003 while ­carrying out an undercover investigation on behalf of a private client. He told how they met at a private house close to the French border in Germany after infiltrating a Euro­pean paedophile network. He said he was driven to the address in a vehicle with blacked-out windows.

The Frenchman offered to sell him for £6,000 an illegal 10-minute video of children between the ages of five and 12 being raped and tortured.

He did not buy the horror movie but returned to the property 10 days later when the man showed him a 30-minute video of children from all around the world being abused.

Toscano said he made his excuses and left. He said: “I was invited to a meeting with him posing as someone who wanted to buy child pornography videos. As soon as I met him I did not like him. He tried to sell me the most vile illegal pornography. He was very cold. I found him creepy.

“But he is meticulous and very businesslike. He is known as someone who never leaves a trace.

“Madeleine is not the first child he has taken to order. I don’t think he will have delivered her to the people who hired him yet. He would normally lie low for one to two months until all the fuss dies down. That is why I think Madeleine is still alive.

“He kidnaps to order. People pay him up to £200,000 to obtain a child. It could be people in power, politicians – anyone who could afford to pay this sort of money.”

Toscano said The Frenchman was white, thinly built and around 5ft 7in tall. He has blond short hair and is in his late 40s and has three known convictions for paedophile offences.

Toscano insists he has tried in vain to make contact with Portuguese police. But police chief Olegario Sousa said: “We want to talk with him and if he came to Portugal I would set up an immediate meeting.”

The agony of Madeleine’s parents has been inten­sified by a 2,000-signature internet petition demanding a social services investigation into their “neglect” in leaving their young children unattended in a hotel room.