A private detective accused of exploiting the search for Madeleine McCann has been found dead.
Kevin Halligen’s company, Oakley International, was taken on by Kate and Gerry McCann to help search for their missing daughter.
The US-based company received about £300,000 from funds donated by the public after Madeleine vanished from Praia da Luz in May 2007.
The McCanns used the Irishman’s services for six months in the search for their daughter but the £500,000 contract was cut short as the company had failed to fulfil certain of the tasks agreed.
Halligan was extradited to the US in 2012 to face charges over an £1.3m confidence trick to which he pleaded guilty.
Trafigura, a Dutch company, was told by Halligen that funds were needed to secure the release of two business executives who were arrested in the Ivory Coast.
Halligen was sentenced to 41 months for extortion and later was deported.
Halligan, 56, always denied he misused any of the Madeleine money and that claims he was living the high life on donated cash were wide of the truth and that first-class travel, luxury hotel suites, a chauffeur and a mansion in Virginia, U.S. were unrelated to the McCann contract.
Journalist Adrian Gatton, confirmed to the Press Association today that Halligan had been suffering from the effects of alcoholism and that police found blood around his house, probably caused by falls when he was drunk.
“His house was full of empty drink bottles. A lot of people wished him ill but his death is almost certainly related to alcoholism,” said Gatton.
Surrey Police stated that, "We were called to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died.
“The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner’s office in due course.”
