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Murat fear: Why I told cops

EXCLUSIVE SEARCH FOR MADELEINE DAY 206

Lori Campbell In Barcelona 25/11/2007

I felt that I had no option but to call the police when I met Robert Murat just three days after Madeleine's disappearance.

At the time, I wasn't sure if I had done the wrong thing to speak up. But if Murat has been hiding a dark secret, at least I know I did all I could to help police uncover the truth.

This week, I was asked to go to the HQ of Metodo 3 - the private investigators hired by the McCanns.

They wanted me to give evidence in Barcelona about what I saw and heard of Murat.

I was interviewed by the firm's chief, Francisco Marco, and two of his colleagues. He asked me to give a detailed statement of everything Murat said to me when we spoke outside the McCanns' apartment.

They were intensely interested as I told how he claimed he was a translator working for the Portuguese police and, as such, had offered to brief me on the investigation. I explained how he was always present at the scene during the first few days.

They asked why I became suspicious of him and I described how his behaviour unnerved me. He asked me more questions than he answered and shifted nervously when I quizzed him about his own background.

He fuelled suspicion by professing intimate knowledge of the probe, saying police had searched a three kilometre radius and found nothing and he believed Madeleine had been spirited away to Spain as police took 15 hours to alert border police.

Murat also told me he had spoken to Kate and Gerry the day after Madeleine vanished, describing them as being "distraught" and "panicked". I have since learnt the McCanns insist they have never met him.

The last time I saw him - a week after Madeleine was taken - he was on a balcony looking down at the police activity.

I still have no idea if he is guilty. But if he was involved, I know I did what I could to help the investigation.