Briton suspect in Madeleine hunt

Kezza · Gone To The Dogs! Joined: 30 Apr 2006

The first thought I had when I heard about this story was: Has anyone asked the parents why they left a 4-year-old alone in a hotel room? That, to me, is just incomprehensible!!

I don't care if they were "nearby" or "checking on her every 30 minutes." What if there had been a fire alarm? And now, the worst has happened in her going missing.

Have the parents accepted part of the blame in this awful situation, I wonder?

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

Mandy · Joined: 07 Feb 2007

From https://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21747981-2703,00.html

"Mr Malinka confirmed that he worked for Mr Murat earlier this year to create a website for his estate agency. The Russian citizen is believed to have volunteered to help police. Yesterday morning Mr Malinka strenuously denied being the Russian man with a criminal record for sex offences who was reportedly being hunted by police."

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

MY LIFE WITH THE SUSPECT
EXCLUSIVE: MY LIFE WITH THE SUSPECT BY MURAT'S EX WIFE THE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE DAY 25
By Grant Hodgson, Nick Owens And Tom Hendry 27/05/2007

THE startling likeness between Madeleine McCann and Robert Murat's daughter hits you at once. As little Sofia Murat stares into the camera wearing a yellow "Madeleine ribbon", she bears a haunting resemblance to the missing four-year-old. Murat, 33 - the man named by Portuguese police as their prime and only suspect - said as soon as Madeleine went missing that she looked incredibly like his own child, who is the same age. Until now not a single picture has been made public to bear that out. But today - as the Sunday Mirror's exclusive picture shows - the two ARE incredibly similar.

Mother Dawn, seen protectively cuddling Sofia, has allowed us to show her daughter's face as she breaks her silence over her ex-husband's arrest. Dawn, whose marriage to Murat broke up 18 months ago, also reveals how: SHE was twice visited by police, who took away pictures of Sofia and asked Dawn if she had ever caught Murat looking at porn. HE was agitated and tearful when he rang begging to speak to Sofia just hours after Madeleine was snatched. HE has yet to account for key inconsistencies in his evidence - despite repeated phone calls from Portugal back to frantic Dawn's home in Norfolk.

She says: "My life has been turned upside down. Everything has become chaos. I've had to explain to my little girl why her Daddy is on the TV in our sitting room all day. I'm convinced Robert is innocent. He would never hurt a child." And she has told for the first time how she learned of the disappearance of the little girl who looks so much like her daughter when Murat called her at 2pm on Friday, May 4 - just 15 hours after Madeleine vanished. Dawn says: "He said, 'Is Sofia there? I need to speak to her to hear that she's OK'. He seemed on the verge of tears. I said, 'No, she's at play school'.

I had no idea what he wanted or what was wrong. He said, 'Haven't you heard? There's a little girl missing in Praia da Luz, its all over the news'." "While he was talking I put the TV on and couldn't believe it. Madeleine looked just like Sofia. It felt very strange and quite troubling. Like any mother, I was thinking, 'What if it had been my own little angel?'"

Later, desperate to make contact, Murat rang again and Dawn put Sofia on the phone to him. "She said, 'Hello Daddy', and he said something to her. "Rob told me how much better he felt now that he had heard her voice. He said he knew she was safe." From then on, Dawn kept the TV on, anxious for the latest news and spoke to Murat every day. He told her he was a key player in the police operation - now shown to be untrue.

But at that point Dawn believed it might have been true as he had helped police by translating for Portuguese speakers when he was living in East Anglia. The first indication that her ex had become a suspect came when Madeleine had been missing for just over a week. Dawn says: "I tried to ring Rob from the Friday to Sunday, but couldn't get hold of him. I called his mobile and his mum's villa constantly."

Then on the following Monday, May 14, she was woken at 8am by two policewomen at her door. "They were brisk and businesslike. They said they were just checking some basic facts about who Robert was, who I was, how we knew each other and so on." Dawn assumed, wrongly, that the officers were simply making routine checks about Murat because of his "work" with the Algarve police. "They left after about 70 minutes and there was no indication anything was amiss. I didn't think that much more about it. At the time, it all seemed quite logical," she says. But at 6pm the two PCs returned. This time their tone was much more urgent, and the questioning embarrassingly direct.

It was clear the officers had been told to find out if Dawn had ever discovered Murat with pornography. She says: "The questions were much more intimate. They made me think, 'What's going on here?' Something had to be wrong. They asked me about Rob's state of mind, did he ever watch pornography with me or did I ever catch him watching it. They wanted to know if he was under any stress and did I have any fears about him. I told them I had never caught him watching porn. They were asking a lot of general questions about Robert. I think they were trying to build up a picture of his life."

They also wanted to know about his relationship with Michaela Walczuch - the German-born woman who is involved in a love-triangle in Praia da Luz with Murat. Michaela, 33, still shares a flat with her husband Luis, 47, who has given his approval for her to see Murat. "The police asked how long they had been seeing each other and was the relationship serious. I told them what I knew, but his relationship with Michaela is his business. I know there's something going on between them, but I've never really asked him about it. They also wanted to know how often he had been back to England and when was the last time he was back. I said the last time I saw him was the second week of April when he was over here seeing relatives."

News that police are actively investigating whether or not Murat has links to pornography is the first concrete line of inquiry to emerge since his arrest. Unconfirmed reports in Portuguese newspapers have alleged that police believe Murat has an interest in "depraved" sexual imagery. The two PCs from Leicestershire took away pictures of Sofia when they left and remarked on her similarity to Madeleine. The minute they had gone, agonised Dawn tried to raise Murat to establish what was happening. But his phone was still ringing out without no one answering.

Then her brother Andrew rang to say police were searching what turned out to be Murat's mother's home, Casa Liliana, in Praia da Luz. Dawn says: "My world collapsed. I rushed to the TV and recognised the gates straight away. My mind was in chaos. I couldn't think. I literally started to pull my hair out. I screamed at the TV. I couldn't comprehend what was happening."

With more urgency than ever, she called and called Murat's phone, hitting the redial button every few seconds. "It felt like the world was just crashing in on us. I had to, had to get hold of him and he just wasn't picking up." With a child's intuition, Sofia saw Dawn's distress and asked: "What's wrong with mummy?" Trying to shield her from the drama, Dawn asked her mother Margaret to distract Sofia. We didn't tell her that her daddy was in trouble and tried to make everything as normal as possible."

That soon became impossible. Within hours, Dawn's home was besieged by TV news crews from around the world. Dawn fled with a blanket over her head and went to stay with her friend Caroline Steward, 39. "I still hadn't heard from Rob and I was worried sick, still ringing him and ringing him," she says. "Then my mobile finally rang at 3.30am. It was Rob, but I barely recognised his voice. He sounded shattered, like someone who could barely speak. He said, 'I've been at the police station. I don't know what the hell is going on. I've been questioned all day about Madeleine, but I had nothing to do with it'. They'd been asking him were he was on the night Madeleine disappeared and what he was doing in Portugal. He said he was at home with his mum. Then he said, 'Where's my baby? He wanted to know Sofia was all right."

Murat told her his computer and phone had been taken away for analysis. Unable to sleep, Dawn spent the rest of the night glued to the TV. When Sofia awoke, Dawn and Caroline took turns to stand in front of the screen to stop Sofia seeing photos of her father. "Eventually, we stopped trying to hide what had happened and decided to be honest if Sofia asked the question," says Dawn.

SHE saw a picture of Rob's mum Jenny on the news. She ran to the telly and said it's nanny Jenny! She then turned around and went back to playing with her toys. "I breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't asked any difficult questions." Later Caroline's daughter saw Madeleine's photo on the news and screamed in excitement: "It's Fia!" - Sofia's nickname.

"Even a child can see they are similar. Sofia has now got used to seeing her daddy on the news. I've explained to her that he says he was trying to help find the little girl. She knows Madeleine's name and each night when I put her to bed she asks if the little girl has been found yet. It's heartbreaking to tell her that she hasn't. Obviously, it's confusing for her. She asked me in a vague kind of way why Rob is on the TV and I just told her, 'Some bad men are after Daddy. Daddy's got to stay in Portugal.' I will tell her more if she asks, but thankfully she hasn't so far." Dawn says Murat claimed he was being persecuted by police. He has always protested his innocence. She said: "He thinks it's ludicrous he's become a suspect. He feels like a prisoner in his own home."

She has also briefly talked to him about Russian internet expert Sergey Malinka, 22, who has also been quizzed by police. One question is whether phone records prove the pair spoke late on the night Madeleine disappeared, when Murat claims he was asleep. But Dawn says: "Rob hasn't talked to me about whether or not they spoke on the night. It's up to him to tell me if he wants to."

Another question is why Murat, who had access to both his own and to his mother's car, was so keen to get hold of a hire vehicle two days after he was arrested. Dawn believes there may be an innocent explanation. "He has problems with his own car quite regularly. He's in the property business and needs transport." She is adamant Murat is innocent, saying: "He wouldn't hurt a fly. There is no way he could have done anything to that little girl."

And she says that if he is cleared, she will allow him to see Sofia again. She adds: "I have no fear whatsoever about leaving Sofia alone with her daddy." And she adds: "I have been through hell since Rob became a suspect - but it's nothing to what Madeleine's poor mum and dad must have suffered."

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That's quite the twist eh? She's the spitting image of that Madeleine...

Mandy · Joined: 07 Feb 2007

This is TOO MUCH ... as if there wasn't issues in the world affecting BILLIONS of people ...

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6696497.stm

Lostinthestates · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Location: Bethlehem, USA

I just read that article on the BBC website! I can't believe the pope would waste his time like this!! No offence - but Madeleine is just another little girl - so many disappear every day - nothing makes her special to accept all this publicity which she is getting ... and clearly it isn't helping!!!!

Mandy · Joined: 07 Feb 2007

Exactly .. The pope would be better spending his time on "strategic" items, e.g. telling parents not to leave children unattended, so as to save 000's of children every year from harm, and to foster a stronger family life.

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

MADELEINE 'BURIED UNDER ROCKS'
Vanessa Allen And Martin Fricker 14/06/2007
www.mirror.co.uk

MADELEINE McCann's body may have been dumped in a shallow grave nine miles from where she vanished. An anonymous letter to a Dutch paper claims the four-year-old is hidden under rocks in scrubland near Praia da Luz. A source said: "Parents Gerry and Kate are very distressed."

The letter claiming to pinpoint where Madeleine McCann is buried is almost identical to one that led to the bodies of two murdered Belgian girls. A source who saw the note said the handwriting was the same as that on the paper giving the whereabouts of Stacey Lemmens, seven, and her 10-year-old step-sister Nathalie Mahy who vanished on June 10 last year. Similar phrasing was used and maps sent with the letters to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf both came from the same website.

As Madeleine's distraught parents anxiously waited for news and officers prepared to search the site, police in Holland and Portugal confirmed they are taking the note "very seriously". Dutch spokesman Rob Van der Veen said: "This new information is important because the letter is similar to one we received last year regarding Stacey and Nathalie. The writer of that pinpointed the area where the girls were found." Eight officers last night spent 80 minutes looking at the area - on remote scrubland nine miles north of Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished 42 days ago - before possible searches today.

The note said the four-year-old was buried near Odiaxere in a shallow grave six or seven metres off a rough dirt road. The map was marked with a cross and the words "Where Madeleine is buried". Kate and Gerry were with Portuguese police when the note arrived. Madeleine's family last night said they will start clearing tributes and toys at a memorial near her home in Rothley, Leics. But her great-uncle Brian Kennedy insisted it was not a sign Gerry and Kate were giving up.

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sounds pretty likely that this might sadly be true then...

Lostinthestates · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Location: Bethlehem, USA

I was waiting for some sort of response yesterday after reading it on the BBC website. But so far the parents have only said they are disgusted by this story - but nothing about if the police have actually gone to that point to check it out!

Mandy · Joined: 07 Feb 2007

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

Sadly I think they're clutching at straws

Brown Sauce · Joined: 07 Jan 2007

according to a radio report I heard this afternoon seems like they found some of Maddy's blood in a car rented by her parents 25 days after she went missing ....

faceless · admin Joined: 25 Apr 2006

yeah, I heard that too Sauce, I wonder how things will turn out. The mother has been officially made a suspect after having 11 hours of questionning yesterday and is back in today.

I don't want to think that she/they killed their kid, but finding that DNA is pretty suspicious.

Brown Sauce · Joined: 07 Jan 2007

call me a skeptic but I've been waiting for the book since about 3 weeks after the European tour.