A convicted British pedophile who was jailed for indecent assault in Australia is being extradited from Malta to the United Kingdom for questioning over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
British newspapers report Roderick Macdonald, 76, was living in the Portuguese city of Algarve in 2007 at the same time the three-year-old disappeared from her family's holiday apartment.
It's understood UK authorities want to question Macdonald about a possible pedophile ring that operated in Algarve when Madeleine vanished.
The 76-year-old, who is also known as Roderick Robinson, was convicted in 2012 for abusing two girls in England.
Two years earlier he was deported to Australia from Portugal to face accusations he had raped an eight-year-old girl in 1989.
While on bail for those charges, he fled to New Zealand and was arrested in 2009 on child sex charges.
He managed to leave New Zealand using a stolen passport and did not come to authorities' attention until his 2010 arrest in Portugal.
After he was deported back to Australia, Macdonald served a six-month sentence for indecent assault before moving to Thailand in 2011.
He was deported back to the UK when Thai authorities learnt of his convictions.
Macdonald has been on the run since he was found guilty of abusing two girls aged five and seven in 2012.
The former oil rig worker is wanted in the UK for absconding following his sexual assault convictions and for failing to notify authorities he had changed his name, address and was going abroad.
Macdonald appeared in court this week in Malta, where he was remanded into custody pending his extradition.
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