General discussion about the latest news (not search related)

[Anna]

Why? He chose to get involved and behave in a manner which aroused suspicion.
I expect he answered nearly every question on Friday with "I refer you to the answer I gave in my original statements."

Hi Misty, Are you referring to now or seven years ago?(In bold)

 I was referring to the seven years that he has been associated with the case and whether suspicious or not to some, there is no evidence, as yet against him, but he is still discussed as being suspicious and that cannot be a good thing for a family to have to live with......

We know the pain, that suspicion is causing the McCann family.

 Lets hope that SC get to the bottom of all this in the very near future.

[Brietta]

Hi Misty, Are you referring to now or seven years ago?(In bold)

 I was referring to the seven years that he has been associated with the case and whether suspicious or not to some, there is no evidence, as yet against him, but he is still discussed as being suspicious and that cannot be a good thing for a family to have to live with......

We know the pain, that suspicion is causing the McCann family.

 Lets hope that SC get to the bottom of all this in the very near future.

Surely greater safeguards could have been put in place with regard to the confidentiality of all the persons called for questioning either as witnesses or arguidos.

Portugal is a country with Judicial secrecy laws; why were these identities not protected by them?  It seems nothing has been learned from the constant drip of misinformation from 'sources' in 2007.

[Anna]

Surely greater safeguards could have been put in place with regard to the confidentiality of all the persons called for questioning either as witnesses or arguidos.

Portugal is a country with Judicial secrecy laws; why were these identities not protected by them?  It seems nothing has been learned from the constant drip of misinformation from 'sources' in 2007.

I agree Brietta, but it seems the names of these witnesses were leaked from somewhere weeks ago.

 I think a police presence preventing Reporters and photographers from invading, the immediate area of investigation area, would have been welcomed by these witnesses too.

 It must have been distressing for those attending IMO.

[misty]

Hi Misty, Are you referring to now or seven years ago?(In bold)

 I was referring to the seven years that he has been associated with the case and whether suspicious or not to some, there is no evidence, as yet against him, but he is still discussed as being suspicious and that cannot be a good thing for a family to have to live with......

We know the pain, that suspicion is causing the McCann family.

 Lets hope that SC get to the bottom of all this in the very near future.

There are reasons he was under scrutiny then and reasons why he is still of interest to the investigation now. Both he & his wife, who, if you believe their testimonies, have no reason to be of any relevance to the authorities.
None of the other police translators have come under suspicion.

[Anna]

There are reasons he was under scrutiny then and reasons why he is still of interest to the investigation now. Both he & his wife, who, if you believe their testimonies, have no reason to be of any relevance to the authorities.
None of the other police translators have come under suspicion.

That is of course true, but how many of the other translators were British,were not professional translators, were sighted by several people near 5A, only arrived very recently in PDL, lived close to 5A, Had a German (married) girlfriend, had a statement about some disgusting acts performed by them, made by a childhood friend, had a reporter complain that they were strange and suspicious. On top of all that the PJ thought he asked too many questions and put him under surveillance, very shortly after he started helping them.

Maybe the police wanted to know more about some of the people he was involved with, or it could be more.
 We do not know and are only speculating on possibilities.

[Brietta]

I know that we quite often say things get lost in translation ... does that apply to carefully marking out the Murat property from Google Maps as the house next door?
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/P4/04_VOLUME_IVa_Page_959.jpg

[VIXTE]

Murat and his wife each have an alibi for that evening. Murat was with his mother eating cheese sandwiches and his wife was in her church.
They therefore cannot be witnessing anything about Madeleine.
I think this questioning was about something else, i.e nothing to do with them directly.

[pegasus]

Then it should have been very simple to find out who he was if he was taking such a prominent part in the proceedings ... the police should have had a note of his name and contact details.

Yes should be easy.
For a start SY/PJ could simply ask the first 5 GNR officers at the scene:
"in addition to the lady SB, do you remember a man who was also helping to translate that night?"
IMO at least 2 of them will say yes (if you don't believe me, see ROB statement).
Then ask those GNR officers "Was it RM?".
They will certainly say no (see their statements of 2007 they all say definitely RM was not there).
So just that simple procedure would prove once and for all that translatorman that night was not RM.
But I doubt the illogical investigation then or now has ever done it.
Nor studied in depth early photos.

[misty]

Murat and his wife each have an alibi for that evening. Murat was with his mother eating cheese sandwiches and his wife was in her church.
They therefore cannot be witnessing anything about Madeleine.
I think this questioning was about something else, i.e nothing to do with them directly.

There is only one other person who links almost all of the witnesses currently being questioned.

[Anna]

Yes should be easy.
For a start SY/PJ could simply ask the first 5 GNR officers at the scene:
"in addition to the lady SB, do you remember a man who was also helping to translate that night?"
IMO at least 2 of them will say yes (if you don't believe me, see ROB statement).
Then ask those GNR officers "Was it RM?".
They will certainly say no (see their statements of 2007 they all say definitely RM was not there).
So just that simple procedure would prove once and for all that translatorman that night was not RM.
But I doubt the illogical investigation then or now has ever done it.
Nor studied in depth early photos.

All the officers who were asked whether or not they saw RM replied "No" as was the answer from some of the OC staff who were also asked, but if I remember correctly SB seemed confused and although she knew the family she did not know RM. I could be wrong and will check that out again.

[pegasus]

And another simple logical step. In early statement witness SB recommended to PJ that PJ should speak to resident witnesses PW and JW and BW (expecting them to confirm that RM was there that night). The response from all 3 (who unlike the other witnesses actually knew what RM looked like) was a resounding triple NO, definitely not there.  It does not require much brains to see that the obvious question to ask those same 3 witnesses now is "Was there a different male helping translate that night?".

[Anna]

SB  2nd statement 15th may

Robert Murat doesn't seem to be mentioned in her first statement

Processos Vol V


Pages 1289 – 1290

Witness Statement

Silvia María Correio Ramos Batista

Date: 2007 – 05 – 15

She is responsible for maintenance of the OC resort in P da L. Because of her profession she knows many people from the English community who are resident in P da L.

She knows the Murat family, had done for about 30 years. Mainly Mr Murat and his wife, Jenny. Mr Murat was linked to a civil construction business and the development of tourist resorts, in Salema as far as she knows. Mr Murat died some years ago.

The Murats live in a house near to the OC, called Casa Liliana. When asked she says she does not remember whether the Murats have a son.

When asked, she says that on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, 3rd May, she was called by her boss at about 22.30. As she lives in Lagos, she arrived shortly afterwards at the resort. There were about 60 people close to apartment 5 A, helping to look for the girl.

She remembers, but is not absolutely certain, given the time that has passed, that from the start, there was an individual helping to look for Madeleine, about 1.70 tall, with sort, light brown hair, with thin framed, brown glasses, who was also helping to search.

She does not remember at what time she saw him. She does not remember how he was dressed. She does not remember whom he was with or know if he arrived on foot or by car.

The same individual, she knew later to be the son of the Murat’s, Robert Murat.

Robert speaks fluent English and Portuguese. He helped the GNR in Lagos, and later the PJ to translate the witness statements of some English individuals.

In principal, she thinks it should be possible to confirm whether Murat was there on the date that Madeleine disappeared as well as other details, with Paul and June from the Duke of Holland bar and Mr Byron from the property administration company JNB in P da L.

She clarifies that on Saturday (05-05-2007) or Sunday (06-05-2007) or even Monday (07-05-2007) she spoke to Robert for the first time, during breaks between interviews, where he was acting as translator.

She describes him as a pleasant and easy going individual. He was quite open and extrovert in the conversations with her, he never spoke of anything personal.


Reads, ratifies, signs.

[pegasus]

All the officers who were asked whether or not they saw RM replied "No" as was the answer from some of the OC staff who were also asked, but if I remember correctly SB seemed confused and although she knew the family she did not know RM. I could be wrong and will check that out again.

Correct, SB did know of his parents, but certainly did not even know what RM looked like.
And BTW nor did DP nor FP nor ROB nor RO nor CP nor [Name removed] nor RB.
The common factor shared by all (100%) of those people who claimed RM was there that night, is that they all had absolutely no idea what he looked like.

[Anna]

So......By now they must know, surely who this man was, who so closely resembled him. Who was the Realty man who looked a lot like him.

 His name escapes me.

Could he have been there that night helping. I believe he lived nearby.

[pegasus]

So......By now they must know, surely who this man was, who so closely resembled him. Who was the Realty man who looked a lot like him.

 His name escapes me.

Could he have been there that night helping. I believe he lived nearby.

Definitely not AS. He left PDL and went home at 6pm. Not nearby, 10 kilometres away actually.