Why did Robert Murat make 17 changes to his story about what he was doing on 1, 2, 3 and 4 May 2007

A summary of Murat’s changes of story about what he did on 1, 2, 3 and 4 May

Here’s a convenient summary of the 17 changes between Robert Murat's first staement in May 2007 and two later statements he made to the police in July. His excuse for so many chnages was that he had been 'tired and confused' in May:

1. Remembers that he tried to contact Jorge da Silva on 1 May.
2. Remembers that on 2 May he didn’t leave home at 10.30 but instead had a meeting with Sergei Malinka at the Batista Supermarket
3. He had in fact taken Michaela and Malinka back to his mother’s house in Praai da Luz for a further discussion, something he’d omitted to tell the police in the first interview
4. He now remembered visiting his bank and paying in 287.51 euros
5. He now remembered he’d called at the home of Francisco Pagarete, his lawyer, that morning
6. He now remembers that he had met Francisco Pagarete that afternoon
7. He now remembers that another of Jorge’s sons was present at their meeting in the café in the afternoon
8. The meeting in the café went on much longer than he had said previously
9. He thinks that Michaela Walczuk’s husband Luis Antonio may not have been present at Michaela’s house that evening, contrary to what he had previously said
10. On 3 May, he had not woken at 9.00am as previously stated, but at 8.00am
11. He had not driven to Michaela’s house after 10.00am as previously stated; instead he had left home at 8.45am for a 9.30am meeting with the owner of the business tourist complex called ‘Gold Bunker’ in the Espiche district and her father-in-law
12. He now remembered that he had visited two apartments for about 30 minutes, probably on the afternoon of 3 May
13. He and Michaela had lunch with them, a fact he had not disclosed to police before
14. Michaela’s daughter Christine was not with them that day contrary to his previous story
15. They went to the Palmares Golf Club in the afternoon, another fact Murat had failed to disclose
16. He now admitted to making two telephone calls, to Sergei Malinka and Michaela, at 11.39pm and 11.40pm that night
17. He previously said he had woken at 9.00am on Friday 4 May. He now admitted he had telephoned Michaela at 8.27am and must have got up earlier.

A poster on the ‘maddiecasefiles’ forum, santacoloma, has discussed these discrepancies in Murat’s account of these few days. I have freely borrowed from his analysis but have changed it in certain respects, as follows:

Jorge Miguel Rocha da Silva tells us that even on the day Murat returned from Exeter (1 May), he tried to get in touch da Silva at the children’s clothing shop that he runs with his wife. He couldn’t, as it was a public holiday. On the following two days (2 & 3 May) he insisted that that da Silva meet him at short notice. A few days later, three days before Murat was made an arguido, Michaela Walczuk was still inviting him to get-togethers at her apartment.

The official line from Murat is that he was talking to da Silva to persuade him to invest in his and Michaela’s venture: ‘Romigen’. Yet to this day, Romigen appears to be no more than a ‘shell’ company, just a paper idea for selling property via the internet. It doesn’t seem as though the company required any significant cash injection. And if we look at da Lilva’s statements, if Murat had any intention of buying land to make money out of it, this was never made apparent to da Silva even after several hours of apparently unprofitable conversation - or rather, so it's been said, of long and puzzling silences.

On his first full day back in Praia da Luz (2 May), Murat did manage to get in touch with da Silva at the shop. He took da Silva and his two sons to a café bar for the first round of talking. We know that Murat rang his lawyer no less than four times that day. In addition, in da Silva’s first statement to the PJ, he said that: “they did some talking in Mrs Murat’s VW Transporter”. He says rather vaguely that the discussion was ‘to develop some details of the intended business’.

The following day (3 May), Murat, Michaela, Jorge da Silva and his sons met again for a long session on 3 May, at the Palmares Golf Club.

It is hard to understand from Jorge da Silva’s account what all these meetings were really about. It seems from both Murat’s statement and those of da Silva that the real content of these discussions is being deliberately concealed.

So what could they have been about?

We know that Murat came back to Portugal in great haste on 1 May.

His own account says that he booked his ticket on that very day. He seems to have booked his flight ticket at between midnight and 2.00am. His sister Samantha took him to the airport to catch the 7.00am flight. Murat must have been up and about at not long after 4.00am that morning to get up, travel by car to the airport and check in etc.

There seems to be, without doubt, a significant degree of urgency about Murat’s movements on 1 May. In his statement he said that he met only his mother (who fetched him from Faro airport) and Michaela that day, but since then we’ve learnt that he called at Jorge da Silva’s shop.

Was his dash from Exeter to Praia da Luz just in order to get ‘Romigen’ moving? Did he need to meet urgently with a top local lawyer? Two years later, Romigen appears to be still only a ‘shell’ company. So we pose this question: did something terrible happen on Monday 30 April which required him to jet out to Portugal immediately and confer with a number of powerful and well-connected people in Praia da Luz?

Are you going to do a leaflet Bennett and leaflet drop his neighbourhood? You did it with the other Arguidos didn't you.
Are you going for a full house of libel with all the arguidos or do you seriously have a mental issue.

muratfan01 wrote:Are you going to do a leaflet Bennett and leaflet drop his neighbourhood? You did it with the other Arguidos didn't you.
Are you going for a full house of libel with all the arguidos or do you seriously have a mental issue.

Yes, I'd forgotten, you are a 'fan' of his, aren't you?

In which case you'd be better placed than most to give us what you think is the best explanation for his 17 'mistakes'

Was you there when he was first asked the questions? No i guess not.

As you know in your role of crap solicitor you would know that Police sometimes revisit witnesses and the statements changed because they remember things, it is not uncommon.

Tony Bennett wrote:

Was his dash from Exeter to Praia da Luz just in order to get ‘Romigen’ moving? Did he need to meet urgently with a top local lawyer? Two years later, Romigen appears to be still only a ‘shell’ company. So we pose this question: did something terrible happen on Monday 30 April which required him to jet out to Portugal immediately and confer with a number of powerful and well-connected people in Praia da Luz?

Do we have his normal pattern of travel and buying tickets to compare this incident with? Maybe this is just the norm for him.

And in relation to Romigen being a shell - I imagine that this man's priorities and views on life may have changed significantly after May 07. Whatever his plans and aspirations before that date - I would suggest that they will have been reassessed in some way.

I think a more important question is why Murat would ever have been called upon to do the McCanns' dirty work.
Frankly, if you look at his background, the whole idea is ridiculous.

If you need a high-powered fixer who can do the necessaries after you have killed your daughter and decided to embark on an elaborate and risky scheme to cover it up, you do not ring an ex turkey-plucker with an overbearing mother and a tendency to stickybeak.

I would also argue that the group in PDL were neither 'powerful' nor particularly 'well-connected' by the standards of the UK. They knew a few people who knew a few people, and when there is a missing child even the most unlikely of people will offer help.

Or rather, they did in the past, given the crap which has been thrown around over this case by conspiracy fools I do wonder whether it would ever happen again.

which reminds me, must watch My Cousin Vinny again.