Mr Murat, 34, strongly denies any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance on 3 May. He has always claimed to have spent the evening at his mother Jenny's villa a hundred yards from where the girl vanished. Earlier this month Mrs Murat, 71, said anybody who claimed to have seen her son on the night of 3 May was a liar. But she also appeared to contradict her son's version of how he learned Madeleine was missing. Mrs Murat claimed she woke him up in the morning to tell him the news of the missing child.
But, according to the official version, his lawyer Francisco Pagarete said Mr Murat was in his garden when he found out from a British holidaymaker helping in the search. Investigators are probing Mrs Murat's claim.
A source close to the McCanns said: "Murat was there that night. His mother may be protecting him. Either she knows something or she is mistaken.
Doubts over Mr Murat's alibi do not prove he has any connection with Madeleine's disappearance, and police are understood to have found no forensic links. Robert Murat is being treated as a witness detectives want to speak to after the investigation was reopened. Topics Madeleine McCann news. Reuse this content. Nevertheless, Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, said last week that they have been "encouraged" by the latest news from Praia da Luz. Writing on their Facebook page, the McCanns said: "We are kept updated on the ongoing work in Portugal and are encouraged by the progress.
Thank you for continuing to stand by us and supporting our efforts to get Madeleine home. The parents of Madeleine McCann say they are "encouraged" by the latest news from Praia da Luz, where British police and forensics experts are searching an area of scrubland, and the unused sewers beneath it, for their missing daughter. According to the Daily Mail , police say they will need at least another week to complete the search.
They are using ground radar and rescue dogs to examine an area of scrubland near the apartment where Madeleine was last seen in The Mail says police had not realised just how dry and hard the ground they are combing would be.
They are also using remote cameras to examine a network of empty sewers built on the spot for a hotel that was never constructed. The dogs, springer spaniels Tito and Muzzy, who were also used to search for schoolgirl April Jones, who was murdered in , uncovered a previously unknown shaft hidden under a piece of corrugated iron yesterday. Local reports said the hole was a play den for local children.
Forensics teams removed 'non-organic' materials, thought to be clothes. The dogs were spotted being covered in wet blankets and given extra water to protect them from the Algarve heat. The McCanns have not travelled to Portugal but are being kept up-to-date by police as the search progresses.
Search efforts are focusing on the area because a man was seen walking in that direction carrying a sleeping child on the night Madeleine disappeared.
The mayor of Praia da Luz has criticised the timing of a renewed search for missing Madeleine McCann at the Algarve resort. Police are preparing to dig up an area of scrubland in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared seven years ago. But Mayor Victor Mata has said the timing of the search — which coincides with the resort's busiest holiday period of the year — "couldn't be worse" and complained that "Luz is losing out". The people of Luz are not against the searches for Madeleine but seeing as it's been seven years, they would have appreciated it if they could have started in a few months' time.
Mata warned that if there are more searches in future, he would consider finding a way to stop them taking place during the peak summer period. He claimed the villagers were being "punished" by the police activity and remains unconvinced anything will be found at the site to help the investigation.
The mayor noted that there was a large search for Madeleine when she disappeared seven years ago and people "cross-crossed" the land that is now being searched. Some holiday makers have already been put off by the police activity, he said, while others have cancelled because of the number of press congregating in the area.
Local residents have also expressed their frustration. It's a nuisance at this time of year. Another woman, known as Nana, who has lived in the area for 15 years, said: "I'm very angry, frustrated, furious. It has such a detrimental effect on Luz locally, for tourism. People live off tourism. Luz is suffering and that's why I'm angry. Scotland Yard detectives have been given permission by Portuguese authorities to excavate an area of wasteland the size of three football pitches, as well as a cobbled road and a beach close to the Ocean Club apartments where the McCann family had been staying.
A man seen carrying a child on the night Madeleine vanished, 3 May , is believed to have crossed the wasteland area, which was unfenced at the time.
Portuguese police only searched the land with sniffer dogs. A third search area is believed to be the nearby beach. Police have not ruled out the possibility that Madeleine was abducted and may still be alive, but are determined to investigate all possibilities, reports The Times. One possibility appears to be that her body could have been dumped in one of the ditches, later filled in and paved over, says the Daily Mirror , or she may have wandered off and fallen in.
Portuguese police will be in charge of the search, with help from British detectives, search experts and specialist forensic scientists. Officers will use ground-penetrating radar equipment and sniffer dogs to search for clues before using mechanical diggers and other equipment.
BRITISH police say they are "cautiously optimistic" they will soon be able to act in the case of Madeleine McCann, after an appeal for help led to them uncovering five cases in which young British girls were sexually abused during break-ins on the Algarve.
The five cases include an assault on a ten-year-old girl in Praia da Luz in , the resort from where Madeleine McCann vanished two years later at the age of three.
In four of the cases, a man sexually assaulted white girls aged between seven and ten in their beds. Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Martin Hewitt told Sky News the newly-discovered cases gave him hope that police would be able to act soon. He said: "I am cautiously optimistic that in the not-too-distant future we are going to start to see activity. Detective chief inspector Andy Redwood said: "Clearly the fact that we've now got an assault that is in the heart of Praia da Luz, very close to where a previous matter had been reported, means that we are even more interested in this as part of the inquiry.
British police are expected to begin operations in Portugal later this week after an official agreement was reached with Portuguese police. Murat had often spoken to reporters in the days just after the disappearance of Madeleine from her bedroom, saying she looked like his daughter in England. Related Coverage.
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