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British man questioned in Madeleine McCann case_
• 17 May 2007 •
 A BRITISH man is being held and treated as an official suspect over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from Praia da Luz in the Algarve.
The man, named as Robert Murat who shares a villa in the resort with his mother, Jenny, may have requested suspect status for the legal rights this holds such as the right to remain silent and access to legal representation.
He was questioned by police late on Monday night while forensic experts searched his house which is situated just 150 yards from where the four-year-old disappeared 12 days ago. It is thought that items have been removed from the house including video tapes and a computer. The swimming pool is believed to have been drained. Since then a further five houses in the Praia da Luz area have been raided in the search for Madeleine, but nothing incriminating has been found.
Murat is just one of three people questioned by officers in the town of Portimao. All have since been released.
Under the legal system in Portugal, an arrest can only be made when police designate someone as an ‘arguido’ or suspect. No one has yet been arrested in this case, however, it is thought that Murat is the first person to be formally classed as a suspect. It is understood that the other people questioned were a German woman and a Portuguese man.
Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, spokesman for the investigation, said a British man, resident in the first house that was searched and in his thirties, was taken away for questioning and has been classed as an ‘arguido’. However, they do not have enough evidence to arrest him. He has since been released but has not returned home to the property known as Casa Liliana.
Mr Murat, formerly of Hockering, Norfolk, describes himself as half-Portuguese and has told reporters on the scene that he has been helping the police with translation work throughout the investigation and has since become well-known to journalists during the search for Maddie. His mother, a former nurse, has lived in Portugal for 40 years and brought her son and daughter up in the country.
His cousin, Sally Eveleigh, said that there was “absolutely no way” he could have had anything to do with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
The parents of the missing four-year-old have said they will not return home until the little girl has been found. Speaking from the resort in Praia da Luz, father Gerry McCann said that he and his wife, Kate, thought their child was still alive adding, that until there was “concrete evidence to the contrary, they believe Madeleine is safe and is being looked after.” Kate McCann also said: “We can’t even consider returning home at the moment – can’t even let it enter my head.”
During the biggest search operation ever in the Algarve, police investigators were joined by hundreds of police officers, some with sniffer dogs, as well as Maritime Police, Civil Protection, helicopters, fire- fighters and Red Cross volunteers in the hunt for the little girl. More than 500 British tourists, expatriates and locals also joined in the search for Madeleine McCann along a twenty-kilometre stretch of the coastline around Praia da Luz.
Maddie, from Rothley, Leicestershire, disappeared on May 3 from the Ocean Club in the Praia da Luz resort village near Lagos.
Despite huge rewards totalling 3.7 million euros being pledged by many including Sir Richard Branson, Scottish tycoon Stephen Winyard, Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Everton Football Club owner Bill Kenwright, there has been no news of little Maddie’s whereabouts. |  Return to Top
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