Mark Sloan (left) as he appeared in the BBC reconstruction of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance (Picture: BBC1/Crimewatch)

The BBC has been criticised after a porn actor was cast in Crimewatch’s Madeleine McCann reconstruction.

More than 7.3million people watched Mark Sloan portray Dr Matt Oldfield, one of Kate and Gerry McCann’s friends known as the Tapas Seven.

The 45-year-old has appeared in Crimewatch programmes before, but it has emerged he has worked in the adult entertainment business, with films such as Sherlock Bones, Tight Rider, Dr Screw and From Dusk Till Porn on his CV.

In the reconstruction, Mr Sloan repeats Dr Oldfield’s actions by saying ‘everything’s fine, all quiet’ after checking on Madeleine while the group dined in their holiday complex.




A former agent of Mr Sloan said the Bristol-based actor should not have appeared in such a highly-sensitive programme.

‘How could the casting director not know of his background when they picked him? It’s all over Google. Did no one check? It is unbelievably stupid,’ the agent, who did not wish to be named, told the Daily Star.

‘It’s an awful thing to have happened in a case so highly sensitive as Madeleine McCann’s.’

Madeleine McCann disappeared aged three in May, 2007 (Picture: AP)

The agent added: ‘Mark is such a nice guy and had been trying to get into serious acting but there is a stigma attached to actors who work in pornography.’

Mothers Against Murder and Aggression told the Sunday Mirror: ‘We are surprised that the BBC employed the services of someone who has openly worked in the sex industry for something as sensitive as this reconstruction.’

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Kate and Gerry McCann’s spokesman added: ‘This is a matter for the BBC and their production values. We do not wish to comment on it.’

More than 1,000 people contacted police after this month’s reconstruction, which was based on new lines of enquiry provided by a fresh Metropolitan police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

She went missing aged three in Praia da Luz, in Portugal’s the Algarve, on May 3, 2007.

Last week detectives in Portugal also launched a new investigation into her disappearance.