Detectives searching for Madeleine McCann raised "serious questions" about suspect Robert Murat's alibi yesterday after two new witnesses came forward. Six people now claim to have seen the British expat outside Kate and Gerry McCann's holiday apartment on the night the girl vanished.
The two new witnesses, who were tourists, have just made contact with the private detective agency Metodo 3.Their accounts directly co ntradict Mr Murat's alibi that he was inside the villa he shares with his mother on the night of May 3 and that he did not learn of the disappearance until the next morning.
Metodo 3 have also spoken to a nanny at the resort in Praia da Luz, Charlotte Pennington, who says she saw Mr Murat hanging around reception shortly after Mrs McCann raised the alarm. In a statement to the agency Miss Pennington, 20, said she saw him at midnight. But he denied this when she confronted him the next day, as he was translating her statement to police.
Miss Pennington, of Leatherhead, Surrey, told police she had seen him at the Ocean Club complex the night before, and said he replied: "No, I wasn't here." In her written statement to Metodo 3 the nanny said she thought his answer was strange because she was "certain" she had seen him.
Miss Pennington said Mr Murat, 34, also translated the statements given to police by her two friends and gave one of them his mobile number, telling her:
"When you see something strange, contact me."
She said he was "constantly in the resort" in the days after the disappearance.
Mr Murat was reported to police by journalists who found his behaviour and extreme interest in the case bizarre. He was named as an official suspect on May 14. (Daily Mail)
