Daily Express Headline; says: 'The Mother of the only suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has hit back at claims that he lied to police.'Jenny Murat last night refuted the allegation that her son Robert had given misleading information about his alibi. Murat swears he spent the night with his 71-year-old mother the night Madeleine was snatched, despite reports that he gave police two versions of events.
A spokesman for the family said: “Jenny has told police her son was with her on the night Madeleine vanished and she is certainly not lying.“ She knows that just because she is his mother everyone will believe she is covering up for him and lying to save him. “She has had to keep quiet about what happened and has not been allowed to speak because the police will not let her but she is furious her son has been branded a liar.”
Murat, a former estate agent, is adamant he was nowhere near the McCann family apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz at the time four-year-old Madeleine was taken on May 3. But three friends who were on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry, have given statements to detectives in which they claim they saw Murat outside the Ocean Club holiday complex that night. Reports said he realised he had fallen under suspicion in the days after Madeleine was kidnapped. He is said to have told friends and police, with whom he was working as a translator, that he spent the evening with his German lover Michaela Walczuch, 39, before later telling police he was with his mother the whole time.
Mrs Murat says her son never left her sight that night and that they ate together before having an early night. The family spokesman said:“According to his mother, Robert never changed his story and was in their home, Casa Liliana, the whole night. He has told police this over and over again and Jenny says her son is telling the truth."
Despite what the witnesses say, Jenny is determined to prove her son was nowhere near the apartment when they said he was. “Robert and his mother have told police they joined the hunt for Madeleine the morning after she vanished and that was the first they knew of it. Jenny knows her son did not take Madeleine but without any evidence he has been hung, drawn and quartered by the public. These accusations have ruined his mum’s life and made every day living hell for her. How can she go on with this black cloud hanging over her son?”