Statement of Jennifer Murat 15th May 2007

With many thanks to Albym

A few lines were missing, probably due to OCR extraction error.
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05-Processo, Volume V, pages 1298 -1304 (7 pages)

Witness Statement

Date 2007/05/15 Time: 17H50m Place: Praia da Luz
Officer: Santos Martins, Inspector.
Name: JENNIFER ANNE MURAT

She confirms being the mother of arguido Robert Murat, and is willing to make this statement.

--- She comes to the case as a witness.
--- The deponent is the mother of the arguido ROBERT MURAT and therefore was advised of the conditions of Art 134 and following of the CPP, she wished to make a statement to better clarify the facts and thus contribute to the discovery of the truth.
--- The deponent is English, having settled in Portugal for 40 years and therefore understands, reads and speaks Portuguese without difficulty.
--- Concerning the events, the deponent has to clarify that she knew [found out] about the disappearance of the English child called Madeleine on 4 May, Friday, that is the day following it happened.
--- She says further that it was her daughter, Samantha, residing in England in the city of Exeter, who telephoned her to give her the news because by the morning our news was already running in the press of that country.
--- She states that her daughter's phone number is 00441932****38 and her mobile is 0044781*****42.
--- Relative to her life in Portugal, she states that she came to live in this country in 1968/69.
--- She had contact with the Algarve in 1959/60 by virtue of her late husband having bought a small house in Burgau.
--- It was only later they decided to settle in Portugal the husband, John Murat, having started a property business.
--- Thus they maintained themselves during the time until 25 April 1974 which began a big crisis in the property business obliging her to start work in the Lagos Hospital, as a nurse (her original profession).
--- She is mother to three children, Richard (28), Samantha (36) and Robert born on 20 November 1973.
--- Robert, the same as the other children, was born in England, in London.
--- About one month old he came to Portugal to live with the family in Atalaia in Lagos.
--- The son Robert started his schooling in the Barlavento School (English school) where he did his primary education. Later he was enrolled in the International School where he continued to study for a further two years. Later on he enrolled in a public school in Lagos where he studied until he was 16 years old at which time he travelled to England to be with his maternal grandmother.
--- There he started to work in a firm that sold double-glazing. He worked also as a car salesman for “Nissan”.
--- He was in England for more than 10 years, always in Norfolk. Furthermore it was in that city that he met the woman whom he later married.
--- In those 10 years he was in England, Robert came to Portugal several times, perhaps three time a year, roughly.
--- Asked, she says the is not certain on which date Robert was married but she knows that his wife in English and 10/12 years older than him and she knows only that her name is Dawn.
--- From this marriage came a daughter, Sophie or Sofia (she is not certain), who was currently four years old and who was born in October 2002, living with her mother in Norfolk [full address given].
--- Robert's wife already had a son, David, from a first marriage who was over 20 years old and who also went by the name Murat while his mother and Robert were married.
--- The marriage ended in 2003 though the deponent does not know if the divorce was ever finalised. She knows, moreover, that her son Robert maintains a good relationship with his ex-wife, with his daughter and with David.
--- [When] Robert travels to England he always stays in a house inherited by the deponent, which is being 'renovated' and which is in Sidmouth, Devon. Robert is dealing with that situation and she knows that when he is there his daughter will be found with him.
--- It is a semi-detached house, vacant since 2003 ((the date of death of the maternal grandmother), and is situated exactly at [address given], Sidmouth, Devon
--- Returning to the family history in Portugal, more or less in 1981, the witness and rest of the family, including the three children, left Atalaia and went to Almadena, more specifically to a property called Eiras Velhas. It was a property of just over two hectares, which included several houses in ruins. These were rebuilt and the property served as the family address until 2002, when it was sold.
--- During the almost 20 years that the witness lived in that property in Almadena, they used the house for rural tourism which consisted of renting rooms to tourists. She notes that that business was always legal, having a license for it.
--- Robert lived with the family for several years in that house and later, after opting to go to England, he was always accommodated in the family home when when he returned to Portugal.
--- In 2001, the witness sold the property in Almadena and bought the house where she lives now. It is “Casa Liliana”.
--- Initially she came to live in "Casa Liliana" accompanied by a friend (they had a companion relationship after being widowed), who currently resides in France. Later came the mother of the witness who lived there until her death in 2003 at the age of 93 years.
--- The companion of the witness, currently in France, never had a close relationship with Robert nor with the witness’ other children.
--- Still in 2003, Robert came to Portugal with his wife DAWN and daughter, who was a baby, and stayed for about two months. At that time they had the idea to settle here. However, his wife did not adapt because of the language and the fact of being away from family and friends. So, she finally left Robert and returned to England with her daughter.
--- Robert began to work in the business of real estate having been initially with "Remax" then with "Portuguese Homes," having returned later to "Remax". The failure of the employers to pay, or the difficulty in receiving his rightful commissions, led Robert to start a project, a property business through the Internet, teaming up with a friend called M1CHAELA.
--- The witness knows Michaela, knows she has a daughter who she knows only as "Titinha", who is about 8 or 9 years old, is a Portuguese national, and lives in Lagos. She knows that Michaela is still married to an individual named Louis and she is a Jehovah's Witness.
--- Asked, the deponent refers that she does not know if her son Robert maintains a relationship with Michaela it being certain that she never slept in her house.
--- Asked, she clarifies that she never knew of any loving relationship of her son beyond that with his wife Dawn. She asked her son never to bring anyone hone to “sleep”. That is not to say that her son had had no relationships.
--- About the son Robert, she knows only of a health problem that resulted in the blindness in the right eye.
--- Maybe when he was about 9 years old, the witness noticed that he had a small disorder in his vision having taken him to several specialists. He was diagnosed with dislocation of a retina, of traumatic origin, that was not corrected after being operated on. It left the right eye unusable.
--- She also knows that he has an hereditary thyroid problem.
--- She does not know of any other physical, psychiatric or dysfunction problem.
--- Asked, the deponent says that she has the idea that her son had been hospitalised only once, specifically for the problem with his sight.
--- That said, when he was about ten years old, Robert had a small injury to his knee, of unknown origin, having led to surgery in the United Kingdom.
--- She does not know if that physical problem led to Robert being admitted.
--- The question asked, she says that to her knowledge, Robert takes only one medication on a regular (daily) basis, a drug called 'Letter"or "Levothyroxine", specifically for the thyroid problem which, as already said, is hereditary.
--- Relative to the facts concerning the disappearance of the English child, the deponent states that because she has been in Portugal for a long time and knows many people, she decided to mount a "post" to collect information in order to be able to determine things about the subject and thus could channel them to the competent authorities. For three days (Friday 11/05, Saturday 12/05 and Sunday 13/05) she was at the "post" mounted near to the cinema having obtained some information that she gave to Robert who, in turn, gave it to the Police.
--- Her idea was to try to sensitise people not to feel intimidated by the presence of police and lead them to give all the information that they knew.
--- Still relating to the facts which occurred on the evening of 03 May 2007, the deponent states that on that night she was at home with her son Robert. They followed their normal routine: About 19h50 she went to the "Batista" supermarket to buy bread. Then she went back to the house where she arrived more or less at the same time as Robert. Later they sat in the kitchen where they were talking for some time, having also eaten. She recalls that they were talking until close to midnight about Robert’s project, related to the property and called “Romigen.Com". Finally they went to their bedrooms to pass the night.
--- Asked, she explains that while they were talking in the kitchen, she is not able to say when, she recalls having heard a siren ringing at least once. Although not usual, she also did not "connect" because it could possibly have been an ambulance. (She recalls that sometimes, when the wind blows in a certain direction, it is possible to hear in the house sirens of police cars or ambulances that pass on the EN125).
--- Questioned, she says that during that night she also heard no noise or strange movements of people and also no one knocked on the door to ask or to request help to find the missing girl.
---Asked, she assures that her son Robert did not leave the house that night. Furthermore, she says that he usually gets up first. On that day she does not remember if that was what happened.
--- Asked, she explains that Robert travelled to England on March 20 and returned on May 01, 2007, at 09h40, she herself having gone to the airport in Faro to collect him.

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