The girlfriend of suspect Robert Murat claims to have an alibi for the night Madeleine McCann vanished, it was revealed yesterday. Friends of 34-year-old Michaela Walczuch said she spent the evening of May 3 at a Jehovah's Witness prayer meeting in Lagos, five miles from Praia da Luz where the McCanns were on holiday.
They said police had checked the alibi and were satisfied.
German-born Miss Walczuch, a mother of one, has dismissed claims that she could have been seen with Madeleine that night as "ridiculous and bizarre" and has threatened to take legal action. She has failed to reveal, however, where she was on May 5 and June 15, when two separate witnesses claim to have seen her with Madeleine.
Mr Murat's lawyer, Francisco Pagarete, claimed yesterday this was because her diary had been seized by the police some months ago and has not been returned.
He also revealed that Miss Walczuch's Skoda car was having a gearbox problem repaired on May 5, the day a lorry driver claims to have seen her in the town of Silves, 25 miles away. (Daily Mail)
