​Private Detective Who Conned Madeleine McCann's Parents Has Been Found Dead

Private detective Kevin Halligen has been found dead at his home in Surrey, after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

The 56-year-old was well known for his private investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2008, and was later accused of conning the McCanns out of £300,000 ($425,000) after his company Oakley International was called in to help for around six months.

Paramedics were called to his home in Surrey on 8 January, but Halligen couldn't be saved, the Sun reports. A post-mortem revealed the cause of death to be acute subdural haemorrhage, and a pathologist in court explained that there was 'no sign of assault'.

Halligen had been given money that had been donated by the public after Madeleine vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia de Luz back in May 2007, when she was just three.

After the McCanns gave Halligen the boot in 2009, he was then arrested in the UK and extradited to America on unrelated fraud charges.

In a Channel 5 documentary, The McCanns and the Conman, Halligen agreed to a rare interview - denying the claims that he misued money raised to find Madeleine, after reports surfaced that he had spent much of it on first class travel, luxury hotels and a chauffeur.

"It is gross distortion of what was actually happening," he said.

"The print media in particular took this line that really nothing was being done, I was living the high life on the proceeds of the McCann case. Trust me, I didn't buy so much as a new suit."

He also added all of the money was 'fully accountable'.

PA

Meanwhile, Major Tim Craig-Harvey, the former Army officer who worked on the investigation with Halligen, said: "The gist of the story was that Halligen was a conman, that he had stolen funds, that nothing had been delivered and that the contract had been cancelled."

He added: "He went into, I think it was PNC bank in (Washington) DC and drew out a hundred thousand dollars at a time (and) stuffed it in his pocket.

"That was the last anyone saw of him."

But Halligen claimed that the reports of him vanishing were also lies.

"Everybody knew I was going to Rome," he insisted.

"It has also been reported that I was going to Rome for a holiday with this hot young lady. Untrue. This myth that I vanished off to Rome and spent everybody's money is exactly that, a myth."

After hearing of his death, Tim Craig Harvey wrote online: "To all those I worked with during my time at Red Defence: Halligen died on Monday. The lies and alcohol finally caught up with him."

Topics: UK News, News, Madeleine McCann

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman