A convicted paedophile suspected of having links to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann slipped the cops two years ago and has been jet-setting around the globe, The Mirror reports.

People who got to know him while he resided in Gozo have said that he told them he had a Maltese mum.

Roderick MacDonald, 77, became the subject of an international arrest warrant in 2012 was tracked down in Malta earlier this week. He did not object to extradition proceedings.

British detectives believe he could have vital evidence about a suspected paedophile ring that operated across the Algarve at the time three-year-old Madeleine was snatched in Praia da Luz in 2007.

When MacDonald was arrested in a dramatic swoop on his flat on the Maltese island of Gozo on Monday he told detectives: "I should have spoken about all this years ago."

The Mirror reported that MacDonald visited Australia, Cyprus, Dubai and the Philippines before eventually making a home for himself in Sannat on the island of Gozo over the last six months.

People in Sannat told The Mirror MacDonald would often boast to them how he would sail a private yacht around the Mediterranean, often stopping in resorts like Praia da Luz in Portugal.

A man who said he knew MacDonald during his time in Malta, was quoted as saying people could not believe they had such a dangerous predator in their midst.

He said: "We are sickened by this, this guy lived in our community, played with our children, nobody can believe he was allowed to travel the world without the authorities catching him before now.

"The entire island is shocked that he could have lived amongst us for so long and I cannot understand how he was able to travel so freely if he was a wanted man - it's a very bad joke."

One close friend revealed MacDonald was arrested at his flat, just a short walk from a primary school, on Monday after returning from a three-week trip to the Philippines.

But he revealed how MacDonald only came back because he had 'had his fill of girls' and was originally intending to stay there for as long as two months.

The friend, who does not want to be named, painted a picture of man who did not have a care in the world.

He said: "John washed up in Gozo about six months ago but before that he told me how he had visited Australia and the Philippines via places like Dubai and Cyprus.

""He was just an affable old chap, he would play with my grandchildren in the back garden, I just cannot believe this is the same man.

"He said he loved to travel and was just looking for a place to settle down while he spent his pension.

"His mum was Maltese and his Dad was English and he was brought up in Malta but ended up an orphan.

"He would talk about how he was shipped to Australia as a child and eventually ended up fighting in the Vietnam War.

"He seemed like a nice guy and would always be buying people drinks down at the Labour Club but to think he had this dark past is truly frightening for my entire family."

MacDonald - previously known as Roderick William Robinson - went on the run in 2012 after being convicted of abusing two girls in Brighton.

But before then he had left a trail of victims behind him across the world.

He was first arrested at a campsite in the Algarve in 2010 and extradited to Australia - where he was wanted for the 1998 rape of an eight-year-old.

He received six months in prison after accepting a plea deal for indecently assaulting the child in Australia and fled to Thailand after he was released, but Thai authorities deported him back to Britain when they found out about his past.

He then settled in Brighton, East Sussex, but, despite being made to sign the Sex Offenders Register, was convicted of molesting two girls, five and seven in 2012.

He received a year-long sentence but it was suspended for two years and he went on the run.