I knew Robert in my childhood and early teens as we lived down the road from him and his family.He was, and am sure still is a lovely guy.From day one I have no doubt that he is innocent.The press seem to make up stories just to sell more papers.I wish you well Rob and hope you can get back to normality soon.

Gaynor Edwards, Sheffield, yorkshire

i have never heard this man's name till i read this article today. I have learned from the past that the person in question in an investigation is innocent and i do not judge them at the onset. i wait and time will tell.

Laura, Austin , Texas USA

I've never forgotten Mr Murat - & I never suspected him for one minute. I'm appalled at his treatment. Empyting his pool, digging up his garden etc. etc. The man was shredded. After he'd given only help & translation.

But what I remember most about Mr Murat is how:-
He stood up, straight & proud, faced the nastiness & declared calmly & solidly that he is innocent. And he has conducted himself in this same exemplary manner throughout. Not a word about wanting money or assistance either.

I am extremely sorry for the pain that your life has suffered. I do hope others will remember that they owe you an apology.

Lindsay, Cape Town, South Africa

I think, the Portuguese police made to many mistakes during their investigation and it made impossible to find Madeleine live ou dead. I am sorry for the child, and all persons involved.

Nione Weinberg, New York, NY

I remember saying to my wife when the story came out - 'that man is ruined, just trying to help, and look what happens - some bloody stupid newspaper trying to make a story...' And now we read some sense about this case from one of the few intelligent people in our press. This is brilliant journalism - on par with most of what Mr Parris says and writes.
The good samaritan in us all is a little chilled after this story....

DR, Chalfont, UK

I strongly agree with this article and applaud Matthew Parris for writing it.

Those who say he has nothing to fear if innocent should remember the paedatrician who was attacked after mobs stirred up by the tabloids thought she was a paedophile after reading her job title.

Richard Brennan, Oxford, Britain

As the BBC have become nothing more than Pravda for New Labour, I wonder where anybody who wants incisive information must turn. Ken Loach? John Pilger? William Rees Mogg? We must face reality that they will not be here for ever like Bill Deedes. This should really worry anybody who wants a healthy democracy.

Pete Balchin, Solicitor , Bristol, UK

I sympathised all along with Robert Murat who was treated so badly by the press. They simply don't care. A powerful and deserved indictment of the British media - and I'm not sure it stops with the tabloids. What a ferocious and well written final paragraph from Mr Paris.

Mike Hunter, Edinburgh, Midlothian

Sorry but alittle girl is missing and that is more important than a grown mans feelings. If he is innoccent than he has nothing to worry about, How is his life ruined?? Hold your he high if your innocent, stop feeling sorry for your self! Maddie is the important matter that's what people remember!

ray, sydney, australia

I agree with all you say,unfortunately I had forgotten all about this poor man until reading your article!
Now that you have revived my memory I remember thinking that it was wonderful that an ex-pat spoke fluent Portugese and could help the family with translation.
After watching the BBC news being hi-jacked by the story,I became increasingly tired of seeing and hearing reporters telling us nothing but filling in time with speculation,usually taking up most of the broadcast.
I have now given up BBC news as a bad educator and prefer Channel 4 as a less hysterical and more informative programme.
I believe that it was a reporter who started the witch hunt with her description of this much maligned man.

Disgusted Dorothy, Glasgow, Scotland

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself--anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of
having something to hide."

George Orwell "1984"

Andrew Evans, Llanelli, UK

The British tabloid media is a disgrace. Not sure if it's true that a people gets the media it deserves, but the vicious sensationalism and trivial celebrity obsession of the tabloids is one of the reasons why some of us decided to leave the country a while ago.

Jason Mitchell, Buenos Aires, Argentina

I hope Lori Campbell of the Mirror who was the one who shopped Robert Murat to the police read your article. I hope she can live with her concience now. I am 34 years old and I have a 4 year old girl that look like Madeleine and I was in the area when she dissapeared:I could be the prime suspect!

Stellios Coulopullos, London,

Excellent article, couldn't agree more. I agree wholeheartedly also with Keith Terrence's suggestion that, unless police need the public's help with locating a suspect, their name should be kept confidential at the very least until that person has been charged.

Rose Qishta , Hawalli , Kuwait

Punishing the innocent is a crime. It is also corruption in its wider meaning.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Kanagawa

As usual, Matthew Parris is spot on. Sensational headlines and articles which pay little regard to established fact are part of the presure on editors and journalists to maximise newspaper sales by any means. If we as a country continue to accept such a carefree attitude to irresponsible reporting, it will not be long before we have low standards in all aspects of public life. When that time comes, we shall leave ourselves wide open to control by those who can whip up the greatest hysteria and any semblance of rational debate in public life will disappear. That will be one short step from a breakdown in democracy and we shall be back in the 17th century.

Getting sensationalism out of reporting has to become a priority for truth, justice and democracy to prevail.

John, Exeter, UK

A much needed article. Well said.

James, Monteria, Colombia

You are absolutely right. I remember a similar scapegoating during the investigation of the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart in the U.S. Both police and media fixated on one Richard Ricci, a petty burglar who had done some repair jobs on the Smarts' house, and admitted to having stolen from them - despite the fact that the only eye-witness in the case said Ricci didn't resemble the man she saw taking her sister away. Police refused to investigate another lead suggested by the witness's description, and when Ricci died - of an aneurysm - in police custody, pronounced the case closed. Of course, Elizabeth was later found alive in the company of the real kidnapper - the person her sister had seen that night. It was weeks before the police officially, posthumously, exonerated Ricci. And there was, I recall, no apology, either to Ricci's wife or to the Smarts, for the time (and the life) wasted by their fixation on a man who, though no angel, was innocent of this crime.

Elizabeth, Paris, France

Anyone with an ounce of sense never believed this was the guy. The unfortunate thing, is the majority of Jo Public read tabloid newpapers and need a daily diet of nonsense to get through the day; rubbish and speculation, sell newspapers.

The press are a bunch of pariahs and the McCanns and Murat have all had their unfair share of sensational headlines. However, Mr Murat's lawyer should have a good speaking to for the wholly unprofessional comments he made about the McCanns. There are no winners in this tragic story - least of all Madeleine.

Karen T, Hereford,

OK take some points here, but he was only a SUSPECT not convicted as you erroneously state. Your facts too are wrong. Remember it was a fellow journo who started the suspicions on Murat. I pity his poor mother, and it is HER home/house not Murat's. He just lives there at the moment. Messy. The McCanns used the media to project Maddie's cause. Can;t really blame them for that as you would know if you had children. You do anythng.

jane guthrie-tate, NEWTON MEARNS, EAST RENFREWSHIRE

I try to avoid the British press apart from sports coverage, but they have sunk to ever new lows in this case. Is it really necessary to publish a story with so much evil speculation. And in Spain, they say there has been much criticism of the portugese press by our tabloids. Pot, kettle..very black.

Neil H, Barcelona, Spain

the victim in this case is a little 4 year old girl named madeleine mc cann who can forget that we have all these police forces worldwide why hasnt she been found or located yet 3 months plus all we hear in the uk is chinese whispers or news second hand support gerry and kate lets get madeleine home if at all possible kids dont dissapear they have to be held somewhere by someone every one please keep your eyes and ears open worldwide for any missing child

s mills, sheffield, uk

Well said Matthew! I seem to remember that the finger was pointed originally at Robert Murat by an inexperienced red top journalist who said he looked "a bit suspicious." I am sick and tired of these people making flippant remarks that then become, to some people, the gospel truth. These infantile reporters and their megolomaniac editors have become incensed at the fact that they cannot interfere in the way the Portugese have handled this case. They spout on about our "right to know" with scant regard to the consequences of their actions. I would detest any form of censorship in our press, but surely a little truthfulness and compassion in their reports would be preferable to the hateful destruction of lives.

kenw, Hemel Hempstead,

I agree with your last paragraph, but it is more than that. It is the realisation that we don t have a free press. It is bound to conform. This progressively modern feature parallels other moves to increased centralisation in this country. In fact, it isn t purely centralisation; it is conformity. The dreaded PC syndrome or, should we say, strait-jacket.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Matthew, I rarely agree with you, however you are spot on with this article!

Jeroen, Birmingham, UK

Having worked with Rob I can honestly say I believe all he is guilty of is wanting to help. He would put himself in the worst situation possible if he thought it would help another. Innocent till proven guilty. Maybe Rob is too innocent for his own good sometimes.

michael, dereham, norfolk

Thank God for Matthew Parris.

Graeme Archer, Hackney, London, UK

I truly agree with this article
But I also truly believe that the British press never cared about the truth.
They wanted and still want someone from Portugal to be the blame. The way they have criticize the Portuguese Police and the Portuguese media.
I have not read one single story about the lab were the tests are being done, it was suppose to have the results in 10-12 days and has been over 20 and no results or explanations for the delay. If it was the Portuguese, the British media would have set camp outside the lab demanding the results

Susan, USA, USA

Ned: yes.

There is nothing much more despairing than the British tabloids in full flower of pseudo anger. How a country that talks about sending 50 percent of its youth to university can support this trash beats me.

I guess to paraphrase H.L. Mencken: no-one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the British public.

oldasiahand, Guildford, UK

The case is not closed yet, we still do not know the outcome.
How can we say that one is guilty or innocent ?

jane, leeds,

True but there are also two groups of victims that have been forgotten:
1. Every other non-blonde non-blueeyed child in Europe that has gone missing over the past three months and who has been ignored by the media.
2. Every man who either smiles at a child or carries a blonde child with him alone. While child abduction by strangers is a very, very uncommon phenomenon, the distrust that this disproportionate level of coverage of one child makes victims of us all.

Joe, brussels, belgium

A relative of Mr Murat lives in Exeter and the local newspaper printed a photograph of this person's house. What purpose was achieved by this? The Portugese police got this investigation off wrongly and its really beyond their capability. The seem to be leaking information which the media seizes on, but this does nothing other than muddy the water. As we see with the shooting in Mersyeside, there is constant media speculation by people who know nothing. Mr Parris writes an excellent article, but he is a member of the press he criticises.

Peter, London,

What I cant understand is that if everything is supposed to be so secret in a Portuguese investigation then why was Murat disclosed as a suspect? There should be laws or protocol to protect the identity of suspects until they are at least charged, or even until there are proven guilty.

robert binsted, southampton, england

I think that criminal suspects should not be named or pictured in the media. If they are innocent it will totally ruin their lives, and if guilty it only gives them an opportunity to revel, or even cash in on, their ill-gotten notriety.

Dominic Graham de Montrose, London,

You either have freedom of speech in the media or you do not. Would you choose to be otherwise?

Of course the enormous power the media has for good can be abused and it is a naive society that has not been educated to that fact. Wouldn't it be great if there were no gutter journalism? No distortion, lies, malice, innuendo...? But it's a wicked world out there - why should we expect parts of our media to be any different? One may deplore their morality (and one does) but we can think for ourselves. If we can't we'd better soon learn for, however unpleasant, this is not an isolated incident.

If worldwide publicity was the route chosen by the McCanns to find their little girl, then that was what the media delivered. Sadly they've found that - like fire, publicity is a good servant but a bad master. The whole grotesque situation would benefit from thoughtful analysis, not just approbation and "forgotten victims"; the only forgotten victim that matters is Madeleine.

H P Kernoghan, Thatcham, UK

The media certainly have a lot to answer for, but it is the people who buy the papers who are to blame. Take away the demand and see what happens.

alice hudson, quimper, france

Congratulations on a brave article Mr Parry. This is what the press should be for: balanced and unblinded investigation and comment.

A Warrington, UK,

Well done Matthew-you are saying what many people are thinking but roundly condemned if they try to say it. One paper today still has a screaming front page headline of Madeleine when the young boy who was shot dead this week is clearly the more important news, rather than a rehash of old news.
Media manipulation has been one of the worst things about the mystery of this child-it has been quite disgusting.

Angelica, Marbella, Spain

Thank you Matthew Pariss for expressing so eloquently what so many of us have felt for so long about the shameful portrayal of Robert Murat by the British media and the ludicrous media frenzy that has turned a tragedy into a circus.

Caroline Harris, Woking, Surrey

Excellent article - thank you. When will the Press Complaints commission clamp down on the tendency of the press to distort 'news' so that it fits soap opera style plot lines. There seems to be a complete lack of understanding of the difference between reporting facts and editorialising. The public is encouraged to look to news for entertainment and to expect satisfying stories, filled with 'goodies' and 'baddies'. Then we can all feel that we are better than the 'baddies'. In the case of anyone who actually might have done something wrong, the concepts of forgiveness and redemption are seen as obscene corruptions of those superior moral values: revenge and humiltiation.

C .C, London,

Unfortunately, this headline was misunderstood. The only "forgotten victim" is Madeleine McCann.
In a high profile case such as this there are usually casualties along the way. Robert Murat was in the wrong place at the wrong time. More importantly so was Madeleine McCann.

sarah, NYC, ny/USA

Since when does the British press care about truth? Truth doesn't make headlines. Trust doesn't sell newspapers. Why worry about the truth, when a fabrication will do.

jim sparks, bentley, australia

What I sometimes wonder is whether there would be this fuss if the little girl was ugly, or black, or [some other discriminatory expression]?

What this episode does do is give the lie to those people who justify breaches of privacy with the question, 'If you're not guilty then you've nothing to hide'.

Mark, Brisbane,

...and pretty much the reason why I, as a law abiding person without so much as a parking ticket to my name, would seriously consider walking past a distressed and obviously lost toddler. The thought of a panic stricken young mother in a tracksuit catching me holding the hand of her oh so prescious offspring, only to have her at the very least thinking if not screaming at the top of her voice, that I was about to abduct her child. Then to find myself probably being questioned by the police!

I was always under the impression paedophiles are easy to spot anyway, according to certain sections of the media there's one on every street corner.

David Knight, Ellesmere Port, UK

I'm a bit of a loner, mainly through good old-fashioned shyness. I have what the "ologists" now tell us we must call mild Asperger's - at least to the extent required to create a successful software business and do a few hours harpsichord practice each day. I was once maliciously and falsely accused of sexual misconduct. I once touched a child while escorting him off the property he was vandalising.

Whenever something happens like the McCann case, or even the Ipswich murders last year, I have a recurring anxiety that all it would take to put me in the same position as Mr Murat would be one phone call to a newspaper from someone who, for all I know, still harbours a grudge. Not a great anxiety, but always there somewhere in the background.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Thank you Matthew, for a powerful, thought provoking and intelligent description of the British press. However, we need to, sadly, remember that the press feeds the beast and it is the British people who are, much of the time, the beast. The press do what they do in order to sell newspapers (Yes, I know that there is often a political angle). It is we who choose to buy the newspapers.

Of course, it is, without doubt, part of the remit of the press to educate and illuminate. This they, often, fail do. It is we who seem to have educated them to provide our particular kind of daily fodder.

Before the caterwauling starts and everyone writes in to say, "It's not me", I will suggest that it is you and me, i.e. all of us. That is unless you have never, ever, been suckered in by a press headline, which later proved to be less than accurate in it's research.

A wonderful article nonetheless.

Marc, St. Barthelemy, France

Excellent piece Matthew.

Ali, Liverpool,

Thank you Matthew, for a powerful, thought provoking and intelligent description of the British press. However, we need to, sadly, remember that the press feeds the beast and it is the British people who are, much of the time, the beast. The press do what they do in order to sell newspapers (Yes, I know that there is often a political angle). It is we who choose to buy the newspapers.

Of course, it is, without doubt, part of the remit of the press to educate and illuminate. This they, often, fail do. It is we who seem to have educated them to provide our particular kind of daily fodder.

Before the caterwauling starts and everyone writes in to say, "It's not me", I will suggest that it is you and me, i.e. all of us. That is unless you have never, ever, been suckered in by a press headline, which later proved to be less than accurate in it's research.

A wonderful article nonetheless.

Marc, St. Barthelemy, France

Quite right Matthew. The British Media should be ashamed of their hounding of an innocent man on the basis of very flimsy, circumstantial evidence. Despite the fact that he is not guilty of what is suggested, the media campaign has no doubt persuaded the British public that he may well be culpable.

However, I am confident that history will eventually conclude that Tony Blair did not lie about WMD.

arnoldo, Coventry,

At Book of Common Prayer Communion service at my parish church last Sunday, the vicar included Madeleine McCann by name in our prayers. I waited for him to add " and all children and parents throughout the world who are suffering violence and abuse and loss " but it never came. The McCann family have no connection with our town or our church. Knowing the violence and abuse against children thorughout all the world, why did our vicar single out Madeleine and her parents for our prayers ? As he is a very nice man I could not bring myself to put that question to him but one wonders how much our priests think things through before they name individuals
for our prayers during the service. Naming of individuals is fraught with danger. If you name A, why not name also B,C, D et al ? Where do you stop ?.

Peter Moore, Snelston, Ashbourne, Derbyshire

Well Tel you're wrong aren't you? Matthew Parris may have repeated all the allegations about Murat but what is he to do if he wants to refute them? It's quite clear he is not sensationalising or victimising Murat as Daily Mirror reporters and others did. I don't know why the reporters were not mentioned by name but then people in the business often extend courtesies the rest of us cannot grasp. Criminals do this too and white van drivers!

Emily W, Cambs, UK

Jolly good work Matt, You are a hero today, but what about tomorrow? If you catch my drift.

OLDWAVERTONIAN, Waverton, Chester., England.

This is like estate agents tut tutting about gazzumping.
"The British Media", that's what they do, that's what they're paid to do.
The media, talking about the media, again. How inspiring.

kevin molloy, liverpool,

Thank you, Mr Parris, for expressing so clearly what many of us think about the press nowadays. This article should be in every paper in the land.

Geoffrey McNab, Belfast,

To Matthew Parris,
so glad you have written this. I knew Robert years ago, when we were kids. His mother looked after me for while. Im now a human rights lawyer. I felt at once sad and outraged at the disgusting and, as you put so well, disgraceful behaviour of the British media that tore him apart with innuendo and lies. I wrote comments on every website i could find urging respect for the presumption of innocence, and respect for Robert. Encouraged by the media, people posting in online forums said he should be shot, that he had no right to be considered innocent, that even if he didnt take Madeleine he was obviously of bestiality and more. I worked in Rwanda during the genocide there, and struggled to understand how neighbours had taken up machetes against each other. It happened after a media driven hate campaign that spread lies and dehumanised the Tutsi minority. This case has made me see the same can occur anywhere.


and hadnt

Neb, London, UK

What does Matthew Parris know of the evidence anyway? How does repeating the media allegations about Robert Murat help him regain his reputation?

Rosemary, London,

I agree entirely with this article.

The whole 'Maddie' case is like a farcical Agatha Christie cum soap opera 'Who shot JR' style.

An absolute disgrace, and I'm sick of it! I either want to hear NOTHING about the Mccanns or I want to hear REAL news about the case!

Sarah Hunt, Shaftesbury, Dorset

I agree with you wholeheartedly. It seemed to me that the press were bored and had nothing to report on the search for Madeleine, so felt the need to 'create' news.

Equally to blame are the Portuguese police who allowed this charade to continue to make themselves seem less incompetent. I sincerely hope that Mr Murat, can get on with his life now and put this disgusting intrusion behind him.

Liz, Ely, Cambs

And hasnt this article provided an excellent opportunity to repeat all these allegation?

Tel, Colchester, UK

Well said Mr Parris. It's about time the press was seen for what it is.; a reporter of few facts but of much sordid conjecture and opinion and anything that makes a good piece of dramatic theatre to sell a paper. Any corrections will follow in small print on some deep inside page but of course, as expected, few people bother to read the small print.
It was interesting to see how the press reacted when the blood stains were found and parents were reinterviewed.

There should be a law that ensures that any corrections should be printed on the same pages and in the same typeprint style and size, and the same number of times that the damning articles were printed. The media today is more powerful but less responsible than ever.

S Zucker, La bastide de Besplas, France

As we approach the 10th.anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, could not the same criticism that Matthew Parris levels at his fellow journalists, be applied to the same morbid curiosity that runs the Madeleine McCann story? Whether we are to blame or our media is debatable, in the end, we get the media we deserve.
We live in a world of 24 hr. news, with the same news being regurgitated on the hour. One yearns for the day when yesterday's news was today's fish and chip papers! "Breaking News" is the name of the game, without the time to research or confirm the facts, which all too often are incorrect.
As for Robert Murat's innocence or otherwise, I had forgotten the man's name until Matthew reminded me of his very existence.

M.Fishman, London,

Well said! Your last paragraph captures exactly my feelings with the reporting of the whole affair. I fear it's unlikely to be the last such disgrace, given the increasingly nauseating style of news reporting here in the papers and on TV. I hadn't seen most of the quotations in your article before. It's even more depressing than I thought.

Kevin Browne, Reading, Berkshire, England

My sentiments entirely Matthew. This dreadful affair has descended into a media nightmare for everyone involved. Several papers have taken a lewd and unhealthy interest in every aspect of this dreadful business, until even the poor child has been tainted by it.

Edwina Rigby, Blackburn, England

Do not the authorities share culpability for
releasing such information on an on-going
investigation?

Michael Brady, Tucson,

With sex crimes, and crimes against children, the law should generally require a suspect's name be kept confidential until charges are formally laid.

The law could provide an exception when police need the public's help to locate a suspect.

Morally, we become criminals ourselves when we victimize an innocent person for our own profit or titillation.

Keith Terrence, Winnipeg, Canada

When I was at school being an 'irritating oddball' was treated as a crime leading to ostracism and bullying.

I thought we had grown up. Was I wrong?

Ned Ludd, Norwich, UK

Finally, an incisive and measured appraisal of at least one aspect of this case. A case that in its reporting (in the UK), has unashamedly presented inconsistencies, backtracking, sycophancy, inaccuracy, avoidance, unsubstantiated claims, mistakes, and general laziness. Following this case in the British media (with the exception perhaps of this article, and the Scottish press) reminds me of dealing with my teenage daughter and her attempts to keep me on side whilst doing whatever it is that she wishes to. Except that I have far more trust in her than any organ of the British media. I have The Times newspaper delivered daily because my older daughter has been studying for A levels and a news paper is recommended as a daily read. Lately though the only interest we gain from The Time are the Hugo Rifkind column, the last few items on the Letters page, and the political cartoons. How damning is that. She goes to University in October, I shall no longer take The Times or any other.

Stephanie, Milton Keynes,