The UK’s Daily Mail has followed the example set by the Sun newspaper by issuing a grovelling apology to Robert Murat (pictured) after both publications accused Murat of knowing Clement Freud and sharing drinks with the TV personality in Praia da Luz.
The Daily Mail was up to its usual standard when this summer it printed an article with the headline ‘Clement Freud drank with Maddie suspect Robert Murat in Praia da Luz bar – and his local pub was dubbed the Plough and Paedo,’ a story long since removed from the newspaper’s website.
The apology reads: “An article on 19 June ('Clement Freud drank with Maddie suspect Robert Murat in Praia da Luz bar – and his local pub was dubbed the Plough and Paedo') reported claims in another newspaper that Robert Murat had known Sir Clement Freud in the Portuguese town where Madeleine McCann went missing. In fact, Mr Murat, who was totally cleared of any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, never met or had any connection with the alleged paedophile ex-MP. We are happy to make this clear and apologise to Mr Murat for any suggestion he was involved in wrongdoing.”
The Sun apologised in October: “On 19 June we published an article on the late Clement Freud and on Madeleine McCann. The article also referred to Robert Murat who was totally cleared of any involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. We would like to make it clear that Mr Murat never met or had any connection with Clement Freud. It was not our intention to suggest any wrong-doing by Mr Murat. We apologise to Mr Murat.”
The late Sir Clement Freud, the bearded broadcaster and politician, was accused of being a paedophile in a TV programme broadcast in the UK i June 2016. Freud was accused of abusing two girls, raping one of them when she was 18 in allegations relating to events in the late 1940s and in the 1970s.
Freud, who died in 2009, has a holiday home in Praia da Luz, the Algarve town where the three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007. Freud’s family later stated that Sir Clement was not at the property at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
Both newspapers remain painfully aware that Mr Murat already has received a £600,000 payout from a group of UK newspapers which accused him of all sorts of activities surrounding the Madeleine McCann disappearance which could not be substantiated as they were not true.
