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WITNESSES who
say they saw suspect Robert Murat outside Madeleine McCann's
apartment on the night she vanished may have named the wrong
man.
The
34-year-old ex-pat has always denied claims that he was just
yards from the flat where the little girl was last seen – and
now police believe he could be telling the truth.
Detectives
think Murat could have been mistaken for one of the McCanns'
friends, 41-year-old medical researcher David Payne.
And they say
witnesses who claim to have seen Murat actually spotted Mr Payne
out searching for the missing four-year-old.
Mr Murat
insists he never left his mum's villa 150 yards away from the
holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, that night. A source
close to the investigation said: "The similarity between the two
has rendered many witnesses' accounts virtually worthless." But
he added: "What is baffling is that Mr Payne's own wife and two
of his friends are among those who claim to have seen Mr Murat
outside the McCanns' apartment that night. Mrs Payne may not
have known Mr Murat well but you'd think a wife would recognise
her own husband."
Kate and
Gerry McCann, both 39, the Paynes and five more of their friends
on the ill-fated holiday in May are due to be re-interviewed by
British detectives.
The couple's
spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We are confident the accounts
of eyewitnesses . . . were given in good faith. It is for the
police to determine the value of identification evidence."
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