The strange case of Robert Murat

Hmmm. It seems the Bible classes Robert Murat attended in Exeter

were of the Jehovah's Witness variety :

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(clipped from the PJ files, where Murat's list of telephone numbers is being examined).


Just out of curiosity, is 'Nelson' a common first name in Portugal?

There are three Nelsons I've come across so far -

- the first attendee GNR officer

- an Ocean Club barman

- an old mate of Murat's who lives in Lisbon (on the phone list)

Kate in her book describes Murat coming up to her on 4th May  while she is holding a photograph of Madeleine. She describes a brief conversation and how, when he had finished translating, he turned a walked briskly away.

"Realizing I didn't know his name, I caught up with him and asked.

'Robert,' he said.

'Thank you Robert,' I said.

-----------

The description above is a nice little clue, imo, that Kate already knew Robert Murat - or at least knew of him - at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. The above is a seemingly pointless addition. Why should Kate know the name of the police translator? You wouldn't expect her to and why all the detail about how she followed him to get his name?

This can only have been added, imo, to give a (false presumably) impression that Kate (and probably Gerry too) did not know of Robert Murat at the time of Madeleine's disappearance.

When you consider Murat's role with the Norfolk police. And his role as police translator in Luz. And then factor in how pally TM were with Leics police ("call me Stu") this all starts to look like another huge police scandal, imo.

Murat was given a huge amount in compensation for allegedly having his life ruined over the whole thing but there is no evidence that this happened, imo.

In sharp contrast Barry George, wrongfully convicted of Jill Dando's murder who spent years in prison, has received nothing in compensation as far as I am aware.

How can this possibly be reasonable?

Another 'poll', I see from over the way.

Anybody apart from the Mc's are complicit in the demise and disposal of M. According to that clown.

To be fair - bit on the fence with Murat. But all i know is that if TB is trying his best to convince folk, then the truth is the opposite to what that plum says.

Yep

Absolutely, C.

If you were on the Mc's defence/lawyer team, then would of anyone of them spend the time and effort to discredit all.....

Of course not. It's TB's job.

The new poll which has been going for I think a day has attracted 8 votes.

How many of the eight are from Mr Bennett and his socks?

Antonia wrote:The new poll which has been going for I think a day has attracted 8 votes.

How many of the eight are from Mr Bennett and his socks?

Nine now.
How can anyone know for sure.
Just more nonsense from the propagandist.

This is the Murat poll, I take it.

I was under the impression that he was already used by the PJ as an interpreter, in which case there would have been nothing strange about him being called in on this occasion.

However, I can't find anything to confirm this so yes maybe there is something odd about it.

Freedom wrote:This is the Murat poll, I take it.

I was under the impression that he was already used by the PJ as an interpreter, in which case there would have been nothing strange about him being called in on this occasion.

However, I can't find anything to confirm this so yes maybe there is something odd about it.

I remember reading it and he had worked for the PJ before, so I don't see anything odd at all. I'm sure it is out there, perhaps on one of Joana's blogs ?

I'm glad that someone else remembers it. Thank you, Candyfloss.

I have to thank Verdi for this information.

It does appear from a quote from Dr Amaral's own book that Robert Murat was not previously one of the police's interpreters.

http://truthofthelie.com/the-book/chapter-7/

candyfloss wrote:

Freedom wrote:This is the Murat poll, I take it.

I was under the impression that he was already used by the PJ as an interpreter, in which case there would have been nothing strange about him being called in on this occasion.

However, I can't find anything to confirm this so yes maybe there is something odd about it.

I remember reading it and he had worked for the PJ before, so I don't see anything odd at all.  I'm sure it is out there, perhaps on one of Joana's blogs ?

Interestingly looking for that I came across  a piece by Mathew Parris of the times dated 25/08/2007,with out pasting it all the last paragraph stands out and sounds an awful lot like Blacksmith.
http://joana-morais.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/forgotten-victim-in-mccann-case.html

The whole disgusting business, the whole media-driven infatuation with this little girl and her parents, the whole sick, morbid, sentimental campaign of news generation and news manipulation, has been a disgrace to the British media.

I'm looking for more quotes from Matthew Parris - I wasn't aware that he'd ever commented on the case.

The interview mentioned in this link isn't available but you get the gist of it from the replies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2007/05/is_matthew_parris_right.shtml

Freedom wrote:I have to thank Verdi for this information.

It does appear from a quote from Dr Amaral's own book that Robert Murat was not previously one of the police's interpreters.

http://truthofthelie.com/the-book/chapter-7/

It does not add up, I have never seen that before... Here is an article that says he was. There were many more.



Extract: Truth about Maddie McCann

By Danny Collins
The Sunday Telegraph
June 08, 2008 12:00AM




IN this extract from Vanished, a book by Danny Collins, the Madeleine McCann mystery is again under the spotlight.

"Residents from the resort also joined in the hunt, set in motion by Judicial Police Chief Inspector Goncalo Amaral, fresh in from Faro.

One such resident was Anglo-Portuguese real estate agent Robert Murat, 34 and divorced, who lived with his 71-year-old mother, Jennifer, in a villa not 150m from the Praia da Luz apartment where Madeleine disappeared.

As a bilingual expat, Murat often worked for local police as a translator in cases involving English-speaking tourists.

In fact, it would later be revealed that he had acted in the role of interpreter for the Portuguese police during their questioning of two of the McCanns' dinner companions, now dubbed the "Tapas Seven'' by the ever-epigraphic UK press.

Journalists at the scene reported Murat's obvious desire to help, even admitting to being slightly overwhelmed by his passionate interest in the case.

Some even remarked on his constant presence at the compromised crime scene, where he was often observed to be engaging officers in conversation inside the apartment of 5A.

Meanwhile, the search of the surrounding countryside went on, the investigation fuelled by reported sightings of cars and strangers, the latter always acting suspiciously, near the apartment on the night Madeleine went missing.

Interestingly, some of those sightings were reported in statements taken from four of the McCanns' companions.

Mystery surrounds Robert Murat's whereabouts on the night Madeleine went missing. He insisted to police that he remained in Casa Liliana, the villa owned by his mother, all that evening. But there were those who would dispute his story.

Certainly, three of the "Tapas Seven'' - Fiona Payne, Rachael Oldfield and Russell O'Brien - were confronted with Murat during a police interview on May 11 and all of them identified him as the man they saw hanging around the McCann apartment between 10.30pm and 11pm.

Murat's girlfriend, Michaela Walczuch, 32, also came under fire from various witnesses.

A Portuguese lorry driver told investigators he saw her driving a hire car on a road near the town of Silves, 40km from the coastal village of Praia da Luz, on May 5, when he also witnessed her hand over a child (whom he believed to be Madeleine McCann) wrapped in a blanket to a man in a black car.

The sighting of Madeleine in Morocco on June 15 also identifies Walczuch as being nearby, moments after a child resembling Madeleine was seen with a woman in a Muslim headscarf.

Walczuch herself is adamant these sightings are all untrue, claiming that on June 15 she was in conference with Murat and his lawyer, Francisco Pagarete.

Further reported sightings of Murat on the night of May 3 followed. Dr Payne and Mrs Oldfield claim they again saw him at the Ocean Club complex as late as 11.45pm.

Another of the McCanns' holidaying group, Russell O'Brien, also recalls seeing the man with dark wavy hair and a distinctive lazy eye at the complex that night, with his statement allegedly confirmed by a Mark Warner resort employee, now identified as child-minder Charlotte Pennington.

As late as the end of December 2007, reports of sightings of Robert Murat near the McCanns' apartment on that fateful night continued to arrive at the Judicial Police HQ in Portimao, when two British tourists who holidayed in Praia da Luz in May, 2007 reported they had told the Leicester police of seeing Robert Murat near the Ocean Club complex at 10.30pm, half an hour after Mrs McCann raised the alarm that her daughter was missing.

Even more ominous was their recollection of seeing two men, who appeared to be watching the area from the window of an unoccupied apartment, overlooking the tapas bar, in the days before Madeleine vanished.

It should be noted that there was no reason whatsoever why Robert Murat shouldn't have been among members of the public gathered near apartment 5A after Madeleine McCann was reported missing.

Indeed, given his role as part-time police interpreter, this was even more likely. However, the die was already cast and Murat was given the status of arguido (declared person of interest) in May.

Eight reports placed him at the crime scene on May 3, 2007. His mother, Jennifer, still supports his alibi of a quiet evening spent at home in her company. Murat himself claims he knew nothing of Madeleine's disappearance until he received a telephone call from his sister in England the following morning.

Should Robert Murat have been in the area of the complex that night? Strangely, in the face of his many protests, there is no reason why not - he was often employed by the local police as an interpreter and it would seem likely that, having heard of the tragedy (Praia da Luz is, after all, a small village), he might have made his way to the complex to see if his services were required.

Why should he, then, go to such pains to deny that he ever left Casa Liliana?

Having produced no positive results, searches were halted on May 11. Meanwhile, police examined photographs taken by holidaymakers in the hunt for identifiable suspects, although no clear motive for taking the child had been put forward.

At this time, under area chief Goncalo Amaral, the Judicial Police (the equivalent of the UK's CID) were pursuing two theories and relevant lines of investigation: abduction by an international pedophile network, or by an illegal adoptions agency and the involvement of Gerry and Kate McCann.

What seems to have been overlooked at that time, by the star-struck Portuguese police, was the possibility that Madeleine might have been taken by a local intruder in a crime of opportunity, not linked in any way to the international kidnapping scene.

It is difficult to imagine why international criminal operatives - if they were planning to kidnap a child, for a wealthy sponsor in some far-off country - should choose Praia da Luz as their base of operations, unless a local had told them of a child ripe for kidnapping because of the observed lack of security, which would have called for a large number of events to have occurred over a short period of time.

Nevertheless, for an organised group to do so in the low holiday season makes it even more unlikely.

Equally, the small Algarve resort would have been an unattractive venue for international pedophiles, who would have been far more likely to prowl the soon-to-be crowded resorts of Spain's nearby costas than to chance the slim pickings on offer in Portugal in early May.

Self-confessed pedophiles to whom I talked while researching this book - an investigative journalist's lot is not always a happy one - also spoke deprecatingly of the idea of kidnapping a three-year-old for morbid sexual practices, pointing out that such a small child would only appeal to a limited few (shades here of Dr Hort's regression theory) and would have no value in the perverted marketplace of commercial pedophilia.

Again, a more likely possibility is that Madeleine left the apartment of her own accord by the route left open to her and from there begins the mystery of her fate.

However, the Portuguese investigators were moving in an entirely different and far less logical direction.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/extract-truth-about-maddie-mccann/story-e6frev00-1111116570584

Just for the record and for a bit of fairness and balance, here is the article that Heisenberg refers to. Thanks to mccannfiles.


The forgotten victim in the McCann case Timesonline



Our columnist on the disgraceful hounding of Robert Murat



Matthew Parris

August 25, 2007



Do you have a mother? Have you ever shared a house with her? Might you have dealt with anyone a couple of years past his teens who (for all you know) could have boasted to someone else about seducing an underage girl? Might you be separated from a spouse and conduct another affair? Might you love your daughter? Might you have a cellar in your house? Might you assist local efforts to trace a missing child?



Well watch out, because if any toddler should go missing anywhere near you, and you were to be (not unreasonably) questioned by police, the British press could have had you hanged, drawn and quartered by Monday.



A life has been destroyed after the abduction of Madeleine McCann. Perhaps two, for we do not yet know Madeleine's fate, and perhaps we never will. But for Robert Murat, the one-time suspect whom much of the British newspaper industry and parts of the Portuguese media casually decided to convict, a life lies in ruins. There is no redemption for Mr Murat now, not if the Angel Gabriel should appear on television to exonerate him. The name alone brings a shudder.



But nobody closely involved with this case believes any longer that Mr Murat is anything but an innocent man. For the rest of the world, however, glancing in passing at headlines and skimming news reports over its coffee, the name Murat is now synonymous with "creepy oddball and obvious suspect".



His reputation will not now be rescued even by the arrest and conviction of anyone else. Imagine today giving your name at a hotel reception as Robert Murat — or Colin Stagg, or Sally Clark. Linkages between a crime and a name are set up in the public imagination and persist even after the story has changed direction. "Robert Murat — wasn't he the one suspected of taking Maddie? Or cleared of it? Whatever. Mixed up in it anyway."



For the record, Robert Murat is an Anglo-Portuguese man in his early thirties who has separated from his English wife, has a girlfriend estranged from her own husband, and is sharing a house with his mother, not far from where Madeleine McCann disappeared. After her disappearance he volunteered to help. He hired a car for a few days. His house has a cellar. He has a friendly business connection with a 22-year-old Russian IT operative, Sergey Malinka, who was (it was reported) claimed by a workmate once to have boasted about underage sex. Mr Murat and Mr Malinka have spoken to each other on mobile phones. And Mr Murat has a four-year-old daughter who (somebody says) looks like Madeleine. Oh — and he's blind in one eye.



Allegations have swirled around about computers on which pornographic websites have been accessed; but as a large proportion of computers worldwide would answer to that description and the claims have been neither confirmed nor elucidated, I shall not pursue these.



Now watch the British media at work. Exercising a courtesy not extended to Mr Murat, I shall name neither papers nor reporters. Let the headlines (in italics) and reports that follow provide a handy journalists' guide to assassination-by-innuendo.



"MADDIE SUSPECT BEHAVED JUST LIKE HUNTLEY: Kidnapping has weird echoes of Soham case. The prime suspect in the kidnap of Madeleine McCann interfered in the investigation as soon as the search for her began, it emerged yesterday. Briton Robert Murat, 33, even tried to comfort Madeleine's distraught parents, Kate and Gerry, in the hours after she was snatched . . . One holidaymaker said: 'There was a feeling that his behaviour was similar to that displayed by Huntley.' Murat was said to have volunteered to act as a translator . . ."



"Maddie: Russian 'pervert' quizzed by cops. A Russian computer ace linked to suspect Robert Murat was being quizzed last night . . . Sergey Malinka, 22 . . . who helped Murat, 33, set up a website – was picked up in a police swoop . . .



"HUNT FOR MADDIE: POLICE IN NEW VILLA SWOOP COMPUTER RAID. . . Malinka, 22, said he . . . worked on a computer owned by the one-eyed Briton . . . Meanwhile it emerged there is an underfloor chamber at [Murat's] home, 100 yards from where Maddie, four, was snatched as she slept in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz a fortnight ago . . ."



"Revealed: The cellar in suspect's villa. . .'There is a hole in the floor that we used as access when we were putting all the pipes in, so it's big enough for a man to get down inside.'" "His girl is the spitting image of Madeleine. Robert Murat has been pining for his four-year-old daughter Sofia, a 'spitting image' of missing Madeleine, friends revealed yesterday . . ."



"Sex secret of Madeleine suspect: Briton 'shared' the wife of pool cleaner at villa. While friends and relatives portrayed suspect Robert Murat as a devoted family man, a darker picture emerged of an irritating oddball who loves to be the centre of attention. A one-eyed estate agent, former car salesman and turkey farm worker . . . it also emerged that Murat was caught up in a bizarre love triangle . . ."



"One minute the Murats were happy with their new life in Portugal, the next their marriage was in tatters . . . his wife never said why it ended FAMILY FRIEND: Friends of Robert Murat's ex-wife told last night how she suddenly walked out on him — but she would not say why."



"A PHONEY ALIBI? 11.40pm call on the night she went missing. Murat told police he was at home in bed" . . . Detectives are said to be concerned that though Murat and Malinka claim to be only business acquaintances they were captured on CCTV speaking animatedly . . . Murat also rented a hire car for three days after the abduction, possibly after he realised he was under police surveillance."



"The police haven't told the family what is on Murat's computer. They want to shield them. . ." . . . And so it went on for about a week: a week in which Mr Murat saw his good name torn apart. The damage done, a cautionary note then crept in . . .



"Despite the discoveries, nothing was found to connect Briton Murat to Madeleine . . ."



And, months later, nothing has been. There is speculation that the Portuguese police will formally exonerate Mr Murat soon. I don't even know he is innocent. But I do know that, though "innocent until proved guilty" is a counsel of perfection, and though it is sometimes impossible to write useful reports without fingering guilty and innocent alike, there are still limits — cloudy though they must necessarily be. Reporting in this case has smashed right through them.



The whole disgusting business, the whole media-driven infatuation with this little girl and her parents, the whole sick, morbid, sentimental campaign of news generation and news manipulation, has been a disgrace to the British media.


http://www.mccannfiles.com/id108.html





@Freedom

Could these posts be transferred to Robert Murat thread, there are a couple on him.

Posts from yesterday and today transferred from CMoMM topic.

How odd that Robert Murat's status as part-time police interpreter does not appear to have been known by Dr Amaral!

Freedom wrote:Posts from yesterday and today transferred from CMoMM topic.

How odd that Robert Murat's status as part-time police interpreter does not appear to have been known by Dr Amaral!

Why would he know, if Murat worked for the local police, and Dr Amaral did not work in that area. He was brought in for the investigation, so naturally would have in his remit to find out everything he could about Murat, especially as there were those casting suspicion on him. I do not see anything wrong or odd with this.

Is it possible RM helped in less trivial cases in Luz rather than more serious cases?

Sorry candyfloss, you got there before me

Yes, I can see that he might well not have known initially but, by the time he wrote his book, he must have done.

Sorry if I'm missing the point - the heat is my excuse!

dogs don't lie wrote:Is it possible RM helped in less trivial cases in Luz rather than more serious cases?

I think that is it ddl, he just helped out with ex pat problems no doubt... as you say nothing major, and was known to the local police and local residents. Goncalo would not have heard of him from his base in another district..... why would he? As for looking at files and things, I am sure many of us who were in such a place would maybe try and take a sneak peak at what was going on, and the feeling of being important.

Why do I remember reading about Goncalo being told of RM? I think it was in his book, have to see if it is.

Freedom wrote:Yes, I can see that he might well not have known initially but, by the time he wrote his book, he must have done.

Sorry if I'm missing the point - the heat is my excuse!

He did know off RM when writing the book, but at that time of the investigation, he didn't?

I just thought that he would have said something to the effect that he found out later who RM was.

Not to worry, anyway.

Freedom wrote:I just thought that he would have said something to the effect that he found out later who RM was.

Not to worry, anyway.

I was trying to find something that says that in the book but the link won't work, all the others do

Creative posting?
I'll check my own copy ...