I'm a scapegoat, says Madeleine suspect

The first formal suspect in the investigation into the abduction of Madeleine McCann says he has been made a “scapegoat”.

Robert Murat spoke for the first time since being questioned by Portuguese police last night as Madeleine’s family prepared to step up its international campaign to find her.

The former property developer said he would only survive the ordeal if Madeleine’s abductor was caught to clear his name.

Efforts to that end will step up a gear today when Madeleine’s uncle and aunt John and Philomena McCann lobby MPs and Lords in parliament to support their cause.

The family will brief MPs about the case this afternoon.

Portuguese police said last night they did not have enough evidence to formally arrest or charge their suspect.

Mr Murat was questioned late on Monday night while his house, just yards from where the four-year-old was snatched from her bed, was searched by forensic experts.

Speaking off camera to Sky News he said: “This has ruined my life and has made things very difficult for my family here and in Britain.

“The only way I will survive this is if they catch Madeleine’s abductor.

“I have been made a scapegoat for something I did not do.”

Mr Murat’s mother’s villa, at the end of the road which leads to the flat where the McCanns were staying when the youngster was snatched, was one of five properties in the area of Praia Da Luz which was searched on Monday.

Despite the intense focus near the flat where they are living, waiting for a breakthrough, the McCanns carried on family life as normal yesterday.

Friends said they were not watching the television and last night they joined members of the party they had been holidaying with at a special mass where they prayed for the police.

The family is convinced that Madeleine will be found safe and well.

Mr Murat, who had been working as a translator helping the McCanns, was one of three people questioned on Monday.

Two others, a German woman named in reports as Michaela Walczuch and her Portuguese husband, named as Luis Antonio, were interviewed as witnesses and released.

Mr Murat was also released, but police revealed that – for the first time in this investigation – they were treating one of the three as an “arguido”, a suspect.

Portugal’s investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ) have interviewed around 100 people but treated all of them as witnesses rather than suspects until now.

The PJ have not formally named Mr Murat as the one they were treating as a suspect but sources said he was the arguido.

His questioning came after police narrowed down lines of inquiry to those which appeared stronger and more consistent.

Monday’s searches were launched after police became convinced that one particular line of inquiry appeared particularly strong.

Mr Murat is well known among reporters in Praia Da Luz.

While working as a translator some became suspicious of his motives and his interest in the case, and one Sunday Mirror reporter reported him to the police last week.

Members of his family have insisted that he has nothing to do with Madeleine’s abduction and say he was having dinner with his mother Jenny on the night she was abducted.

Mr Murat told Sky last night that he had returned home at around 7pm while his mother arrived an hour later.

After they had dinner they went to bed.