Murat: I helped McCanns

I HAVE no idea if Robert Murat is guilty of the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann.

But I would never have been able to live with the guilt had I not told police of my grave concerns about his behaviour.

Which is why I reported him to British police, the British embassy here in the Algarve and to Portuguese police.

At first, little came of it and I began to wonder if I had maybe been wrong to speak up. Then, on Monday, when Murat was arrested, my heart raced and I was gripped by a terrible sense of foreboding. Within minutes, I was thrown into the epicentre of her disappearance.

TV crews from around the world were desperate to hear what it was I told police - and what police said to me. Since then, I have replayed over and over again in my head what the prime suspect in this case said to me, desperate for any more clues that could help police.

It was on the third day of Madeleine's disappearance that I interviewed Murat - and what he said left me deeply troubled.

Having seen him with police, I assumed that he was part of the investigation and asked him for any news. He gestured at me to sit with him on the pavement outside the McCann apartment.

He told me: "Officers have turned this whole area inside out looking for her. They have thoroughly searched a 3km radius around the apartment and found nothing. Soon they will abandon hope of finding her here and look further afield.

"It is likely that whoever kidnapped Madeleine is far away by now. They could have changed her appearance. The Portuguese police didn't take her disappearance seriously at first. They thought she had just wandered off. Because of this, it was 15 hours before they alerted the Spanish border police. It is only a couple of hours' drive to Spain. The poor little thing could be long gone by now."

I found it strange that he would criticise the police operation he seemed to be part of, so I asked what his role was. He said "I've been acting as a translator for the police. I live here and speak fluent Portuguese and English. I wanted to do anything I could to help."

I then asked him when he had first heard of Madeleine's disappearance and he said: "It was first thing Friday morning. I went to the McCanns apartment and immediately offered my services to police as a translator."

He added with pride: "I helped the McCanns communicate what had happened the night before to the police. They were frantic with worry and frustrated that they were not being understood.

"I have also been translating witness statements for the last few days from Mark Warner workers and holidaymakers."

Much of that, we now suspect, was not true. But at the time, he made it sound like the police knew him very well and he was trusted enough to assist them.

Since Murat's arrest, the McCanns have said they have no memory of even meeting him. One family member said: "He is talking lies and rubbish." But it is what he said next that really set my alarm bells ringing.

I asked why he was so touched by her disappearance. "I have a daughter of the same age," he replied. "In fact, she's the spitting image of Madeleine. I felt sick to the stomach when I heard. I rushed here as soon as I could to offer my help."

WHEN I pushed him further on his background, he suddenly became uncomfortable.

He said: "I'm going through a divorce at the moment so I don't see my daughter much."

There was an evasiveness and unease about Murat that left me feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Murat was reluctant to tell me what he did for a living when I asked. After pausing for several seconds, he said: "I'm in real estate. I've just bought a couple of properties in the Algarve which I'm doing up." Why all the mystery? At this point I still knew him only as Robert, so I asked him his surname. Again he stonewalled. "It's not important," he blustered. "I'm no one really. I'd rather not say."

One minute he was desperate to talk up his role in the investigation, the next he was acting coy.

I asked him for his phone number, hoping he might be a useful source of information.

"No." he replied. "I'm not giving it out to people. I don't want to be quoted. I'm just trying to help. I'll be here quite a lot for the next few days if you need me."

More mystery, more contradictions, more mixed messages.

While we had been speaking, Sunday Mirror photographer Alban Donohoe had taken our picture.

MINUTES after we said goodbye, Murat came back to our car, agitated. He was desperate for Alban to erase the photos.

"I saw you take my picture," he blurted. "I really need you to erase it. I'm not important in the investigation."

He was polite as always, but I sensed panic in his voice and it made me uneasy. Why would a man so apparently keen to attract attention suddenly be so concerned about a couple of pictures?

Like so much else about him, it just didn't add up. Later, as we drove past I deliberately glanced at him and waved goodbye.

He was holding court as usual at the centre of a dozen film crews. He stood, hands on hips, just yards from the police tape which cordoned off the crime scene. But as he caught my eye, he appeared to freeze for just a moment and his expression changed to one of a man exposed.

My encounter with him played on my mind that night. I rang my office in London and we agreed I should pass on my concerns.

I called Leicestershire Police and they took a statement and advised me to speak to the Portuguese authorities. I called the British Embassy in the Algarve and then approached an officer for GNR - the local police force - who was guarding the McCann's apartment.

I told him I had suspicions about a man called Robert who said he was translating for police. He knew instantly who I meant and assured me he would be checked out. I told him Robert had claimed he was translating witness statements and he replied: "That is very unlikely to be true."

My decision to report Murat had nothing to do with being a journalist. It was based on gut instinct and a natural sense of duty that I should share my suspicions. Given the unimaginable horrors which Madeleine's parents were enduring, it seemed the very least I should do.

Murat insists he is innocent, a scapegoat for the failure of police to find Madeleine. He also claims he is a victim of a smear campaign orchestrated by me.

Nothing could be further from the truth, or more absurd. I have no grudge against Murat - just a desire to see Madeleine found.

All I did was pass on information I thought the authorities should be privy to. The rest is in the police's hands.

Norfolk link to missing Maddie

http://tinyurl.com/4yb48l

15 May 2007 08:37


Robert Murat who is being questioned by police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
A former Norfolk car salesman whose estranged wife and young daughter live in a quiet Norfolk village has been interviewed by Portuguese police investigating the abduction of Madeleine McCann.

Robert Murat lived in Hockering, near Dereham, with his wife Dawn, young daughter Sophia and stepson David, until a couple of years ago when he returned to his native Portugal.

Intense police activity has surrounded a villa lived in by Mr Murat just 160 yards from where little Madeleine was snatched.

Mr Murat's mother Jenny, who is believed to own the house, has been running a stall on the seafront in the village of Praia da Luz, appealing for information from members of the public about Madeleine's disappearance.

Mr Murat was a regular sight crossing the police tape and approaching the McCanns' apartment following Madeleine's disappearance.

He said he was helping the McCanns as a translator.

On May 4, the day after Madeleine's disappearance when media descended upon the area, Mr Murat made himself known to journalists, chatting about the case but refusing to reveal what his role was initially.

Madeleine McCann.
He told people that he had a daughter the same age as Madeleine.

Last night the semi-detached home in The Street, Hockering, where Dawn Murat lives was surrounded by members of the media and she and another woman - both carrying children - along with a man were driven away by police at about 10pm to a secret location.

A Norfolk Police spokesman said: “We have responded to the situation as it has developed.”

He added that no-one had been arrested at the address in Hockering and no-one in the village was being questioned.

It is believed the people taken from the Hockering address had been taken away to protect them from the media scrutiny.

Today a police presence remains at the house.

Villagers and former work colleagues spoke of their shock that Mr Murat was being questioned by police over the case of the missing four-year-old Madeleine.

He worked for several years selling cars in Norwich for companies including Desira and Inchcape.

Mr Murat also previously worked for Bernard Matthews at the Great Witchingham factory and played darts locally.

Retired farmworker Geoffrey Livock, 71, of Manor Close, Hockering, said he had last seen Mr Murat about a year ago but had regularly spoken to his ex-wife.

He recalled he had been to see Mrs Murat a few days ago and her ex-husband had rung while he was there and was talking about Madeleine's disappearance.

“Rob rang Dawn and said he was doing some interpreting work in Portugal involving the little girl who had gone missing.”

“He seemed a decent sort of chap and got on well with everybody,” said Mr Livock, who said the couple had been married about 11 years.

Chris Rivett, who worked with Mr Murat at Desira in Norwich from 2002-2004 said he was “a very good salesman” and was “a down to earth, solid, dependable guy.”

“He was very diligent and the last person on earth you would think could do anything outside the law.”

Mr Murat's cousin, Sally Eveleigh, said there was ``absolutely no way' he could have anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

She agreed that Mr Murat's daughter looked very like the missing girl, but added that lots of children could look similar to her.

“Are we going to accuse all the fathers of all these children of that?' she said.

Ms Eveleigh, who runs a guesthouse near Lagos, close to Praia da Luz, said: “They (police) had heard from English reporters that this was happening, that Robert had said he missed his daughter so much.

“And from that, because they've got nothing to go on, they've all started assuming.

“We had dinner with them on Saturday night, him and his mother. He was so calm, they stayed at the table when we left - if you're doing something bad, there's no way you would be doing that.

“And I've known him all his life - he's much younger than me - and there's absolutely no way. He loves children, but not to something like that."

Police in Portugal stressed Mr Murat and “one or two” others were being questioned but no-one had been arrested.

A few days after Madeleine disappeared Sunday Mirror journalist Lori Campbell reported him to the Portuguese police because she thought he was suspicious.

She said: "Basically he surfaced on Friday afternoon last week and was walking around as if he was somebody official. He claimed that he was just a local guy who spoke fluent Portuguese and English and was helping the family.

"He was coming in and out of the family apartment speaking with the media and acting like he was somebody official. But when questioned about it, he was very vague about his position.

"He said he just volunteered to help the police with their investigation.

"He was in and out of their apartment throughout the week. He said he was just helping to translate witness statements.

"He kept trying to emphasise parts of the investigation such as 'maybe she's gone to Spain, maybe it's too late'."

Ms Campbell said he told her that he had a three or four-year-old daughter.

A Sunday Mirror spokesman said: "Our reporter Lori Campbell became suspicious of Mr Robert Murat's behaviour early on in the hunt for Madeleine McCann and last Monday, after discussions with the London office, reported him to the Portuguese police at the scene.

"Lori also spoke to the British Embassy and police in Leicestershire, who took a statement."

Local translator Gaynor de Jesus, who went to school with Mr Murat, said she was "shocked" at the development.

She said Murat had joked with her about media rumours that he was a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance.

Ms de Jesus, 32, said of Mr Murat: "He said he had a daughter who was Madeleine's age and looked very like her.

"I remember him saying a couple of years ago that he had become a father.

"I lost touch with him. This was the first I've seen of him for many years.

"I didn't realise he spoke that good Portuguese, to be honest, I never pictured him as a translator. I never even realised that he had such a good relationship with the local police."

Dave Shelton, a local expatriate Briton who organised volunteer searches across the area since Madeleine's disappearance, had been due to help organise Mr Murat's mother's stall in the town.

The idea was to gather information from people who otherwise might be unwilling to speak to police.

He said he had known Mr Murat for many years but they had not been particularly close.

"I had a coffee with him on Saturday morning. He was telling me how he was working with the Policia Judiciaria and had to sign a declaration of secrecy, or whatever it was, and that he couldn't discuss the case with me at all."

Madeleine was snatched from her bed 11 nights ago while her parents were dining in a tapas bar opposite their holiday apartment.

Now alibi of Murat's girlfriend falls apart

Now alibi of Murat's girlfriend falls apart
By VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 08:40 24 November 2007

Michaela Walczuch

'Cast out': Robert Murat's lover Michaela Walczuch

The alibi of Madeleine McCann suspect Robert Murat's girlfriend has been thrown into doubt.

Friends of Michaela Walczuch claimed she had told police she was at a Jehovah's Witness prayer meeting on the night three-year-old Madeleine vanished.

But a woman at the church said she was not at the meeting while other worshippers said she was "cast aside" by their community more than a year ago.

They claimed Portuguese police had not taken the trouble to check her alibi.

A man at the church, who refused to give his name but said he was a "brother" in the group, said: "I haven't been interviewed. The police haven't been here."

The man, identified by locals as Teofilo Castela, refused to say why Miss Walczuch, 34, was thrown out of the congregation.

But she is known to have been seeing Mr Murat for almost two years while still living with estranged husband Luis Antonio. The strange set-up was thought to have angered Jehovah's Witness elders.

Mr Castela said. "She was cast aside. It was before this year. The church has certain rules and they must not be broken."

Claims that Miss Walczuch was at the church would have given her a solid alibi for the night that Madeleine disappeared.

The Jehovah's Witness group in Lagos holds Thursday night meetings between 8.30pm and 10.15pm, and Madeleine vanished between 9pm and 10pm on the night of May 3, which was a Thursday.

If witnesses had agreed that she was there, it would have placed her five miles from Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished.

But a woman at the church - a gloomy, badly lit room at the bottom of a rundown block of flats - denied Miss Walczuch attended the May 3 meeting.

She said she had not seen the German-born mother-of-one all year, since she had been thrown out. Others said they could not remember if she attended in May.

Miss Walczuch has refused to reveal publicly where she was on May 3, or on the dates when two witnesses claim to have seen her with a child resembling Madeleine. She has dismissed the alleged sightings as "ridiculous and bizarre".

Maddie suspect had kid porn

28.05.2007
Maddie suspect had kid porn

MADELEINE McCann suspect Robert Murat viewed child pornography (visited a string of depraved websites) on his computer, it was revealed yesterday.


By NICK PARKER

May 28, 2007

He lives yards from the Portuguese holiday flat where Maddie, four, was snatched.

A police source said: “Examination of Mr Murat’s computer has confirmed an unhealthy appetite for deeply disturbing material.

“There is no direct link between what was found and Madeleine.

“But officers are describing it as a ‘relevant sexual history’.”

Murat’s ex-boss Paul Titcombe, 49, called him “a huge porn fan, addicted to women.”

Garage owner Paul, of Norwich, said Murat once terrified a female colleague at the Bernard Matthews factory by stalking her.

He added: “She said he was obsessive and she felt very uncomfortable around him indeed. She hated his pestering. In fact many women loathed Rob.”

Paul also suspected Murat of an unhealthy interest in children.

Murat has been named as the only official police suspect in the hunt for Maddie, who vanished in Praia da Luz on May 3.

He has been released after lengthy interrogation as no evidence was found linking him to the abduction.

Maddie’s parents, doctors Gerry and Kate, both 38, of Rothley, Leics, have been told of Murat’s sickening viewing, which also included sites featuring bestiality.

Murat’s ex-wife Dawn said police quizzed her about his sexual tastes.

She told them she never knew of him watching porn.

But Dawn, 41, who lives near Dereham, Norfolk, said that after they split she feared he would snatch their daughter Sofia, four — a Maddie lookalike.

As a precaution she hid Sofia’s passport.

The Pope has agreed to meet devoutly religious Gerry and Kate in the Vatican this week.

They could have a “general audience” alongside other Catholics on Wednesday.

But Benedict XVI is expected to comfort the couple privately — and may mention Maddie in his prayers in St Peter’s Square, senior sources said.

n.parker@the-sun.co.uk

BY: THE SUN

http://tinyurl.com/6c9eec

Malinka wiped clean hundreds of files on his computer

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/7513


May 30, 2007
By Matt Drake

Police in the Algarve confirmed Murat is their chief suspect but under Portugese law they need further evidence before they can arrest him, let alone press charges.

It is believed they are waiting for the results of DNA samples. Yesterday it emerged that the jobless Murat, a former estate agent, had met Russian Sergey Malinka, the other man at the centre of the inquiry, the day before Madeleine was snatched.

Murat, whose claims of innocence are dogged by alleged inconsistencies, has refused to reveal what the encounter was about.

Last night detectives were examining fresh evidence that Malinka, 22, a Moscow-born IT expert, wiped clean hundreds of files on his computer hard drive minutes before police swooped on his apartment in Praia da Luz. He denies any involvement in her disappearance.

Both men have been questioned about a series of telephone calls between them in the hours immediately after Madeleine was taken from the up-market Mark Warner Ocean Club holiday resort 17 days ago.


Forensic experts have found no evidence of Madeleine having been taken to Murat’s home, but checks have revealed that Malinka telephoned Murat’s landline at 10.30pm on May 3, just 30 minutes after the girl went missing.

When Murat did not answer, Malinka is reported to have called Murat’s elderly mother Jennifer. Phone records show the men were in regular contact in the vital few hours after the kidnap.

Mrs Eveleigh, who runs a bed and breakfast near Praia da Luz, confirmed Murat had met Malinka shortly before the youngster, from Rothley, Leics, disappeared.

“Robert did meet with Sergey. He is just not certain which day it was,” she said. “He does not remember speaking to Sergey on the phone on the night the little girl
vanished.”

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