‘Sitting beside a swimming pool in the Algarve on that May evening Gerry and Kate McCann were enjoying themselves. The tapas bar of the Mark Warner holiday resort in Praia da Luz was buzzing with holidaymakers and it was quiz night.
The McCanns were favourites to win the contest organised by the resort’s aerobics teacher Najova Chekaya. After all, the two doctors had brains on their side. Around their table were seven friends from England, three of them also doctors and one a top medical research fellow.’
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk 10th August 2007.
Who needs to lie when you've got journalists doing it for you? The above snippet reads like the opening chapter of a Mills and Boone. I'm not sure who the top medical research fellow was, unless they meant the fellowship grant given to G.P. McCann in 2004 which is far from being the same thing. GM was reported to be a surgeon at the start of the affair.
Who needs to lie when you've got journalists doing it for you? The above snippet reads like the opening chapter of a Mills and Boone. I'm not sure who the top medical research fellow was, unless they meant the fellowship grant given to G.P. McCann in 2004 which is far from being the same thing. GM was reported to be a surgeon at the start of the affair.
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1) 3/5/07 Allegedly: Kate told Fiona, Rachel and JT that Sean and Madeleine had cried. Statements made in rogs. april 08
2)Statement Kate 4/5/07 M asked why K hadn’t come when twins were crying.
3)Statement 4/5/07 Gerry M asked why K hadn’t come when twins were crying.
4)Request 5/5/07 to LPO Markley to make the PJ aware of the crying.
5)Statement 10/5/07 Gerry - Madeleine and Sean.
6)Statement 6/9/07 Kate - Madeleine alone.
7) Statement Gerry 7/9/07 Madeleine alone
7) Statement Gerry 7/9/07 Madeleine alone
ad 1) Dr. Roberts: ‘A crying shame’ - 2nd July 2010 mccannfiles.com
And those episodes of retelling in hindsight? They took place at the dinner table on Thursday night, i.e. before Madeleine's absence had been noted. That is not hindsight at all, but foresight, the all-important observation being made to friends first, the police afterwards (by both parents on 4 May, Gerry again on 10th May, Kate once more on 6th September and Gerry on the 7th).
ad 4) (Dr. Roberts, see above) witness statement by Leicestershire Police Officer Stephen Markley, made on 25 April, 2008, in relation to his activities as family communication officer while working in Portugal with the McCanns. The key aspect (for present purposes) of his statement is as follows:
"However, in relation to the above, I would like to add the following: At about 20.00 on Saturday 5th May 2007, I arrived at the apartment where Kate and Gerry were staying, with other officers. During the meeting Gerald and Kate had a number of questions to which they wanted follow up and responses from the PJ.
"One of these questions was that they wanted the PJ to be aware of was Madeleine's revelation about Wednesday night, when she said that she was left alone during the night. She told Kate and Gerry that she remembered the twins crying and that she wanted to know why neither her mother nor her father had gone to the room to see what was happening."
It's only when this desire is set against the fact that they had already (4 May) twice told the PJ themselves about the incident, that their request to Officer Markley on the 5th appears overly insistent.
ad 5) A week later, when advisors/PR are present to assist, Gerry changes it to Madeleine and Sean.
ad 6) It was reported by the McCanns themselves in their 'one year on' documentary of 30 April, 2008,
(http://www.mccannfiles.com/id453.html) and in their interview with Dermot Murhaghan for Sky News a day later.(http://www.mccannfiles.com/id242.html) in which Gerry slips up and says that the twins cried.
ad 7) When asked if on the night of May 1, 2007 he went to have dinner at the Tapas with Kate, he says yes. As usual they would come and check on the children every half hour, usually alternating. They arrived at the Tapas around 20:30, and then went to the apartment every half hour, until they arrived back, at around 23:00, plus or minus 10 minutes. Occasionally one of the others in the group made the check, he does not remember if this happened on the 1st. It is not true that Madeleine had been crying that night for an hour and 15 minutes, because she was not alone all that time.
ad 7) When asked if on the night of May 1, 2007 he went to have dinner at the Tapas with Kate, he says yes. As usual they would come and check on the children every half hour, usually alternating. They arrived at the Tapas around 20:30, and then went to the apartment every half hour, until they arrived back, at around 23:00, plus or minus 10 minutes. Occasionally one of the others in the group made the check, he does not remember if this happened on the 1st. It is not true that Madeleine had been crying that night for an hour and 15 minutes, because she was not alone all that time.
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In all of the above variations on a theme the essential part of the crying episode is that the parents learned it at first-hand from Madeleine.
In my opinion on the 4th of May they both told the truth: one of the twins or both were crying. All other versions are improvements on the original. In other words: it is a developing narrative, enhanced to serve the abduction story.
At a later date this narrative was further enhanced by the suggestion that on the night of the 2nd an abductor had done a trial run. Further 'proof' of this theory was a strange stain Kate found on Maddiés pyjamas on the morning of the 3rd.
At a later date this narrative was further enhanced by the suggestion that on the night of the 2nd an abductor had done a trial run. Further 'proof' of this theory was a strange stain Kate found on Maddiés pyjamas on the morning of the 3rd.
Now for some cognitive thinking:
The half-hour checks are in place - registered as it were with the Tapas and the reception where as from Sunday (or Monday) the intention of the group was made clear: Tapas booked for every evening, children to be checked every half hour by their very own listening service as MW had not provided one.
Neglect is therefore in place but an ‘excusable - we’ve all done it’ type of neglect. What must be addressed immediately is this outstandingly long period of neglect. According to Mrs. Fenn’s statement of the 20th August 2007 it started around 10.30 and continued to 11.45 when the parents came back.
Still cognitive thinking here: you know you’ve left a child in the apartment, possibly sedated, possibly not. The most likely person to have complained to the staff is the nearest neighbour. You return to 5a and see a light on in the apartment above so it’s pretty likely that this person has complained to MW. The staff member who came to find them may even have told them who it was. But if not - it does not matter - the staff member who came to find them knew. So the evidence of Mrs. Fenn is not needed to explain the immediate action taken to incorporate this event in the abduction story. Somebody knew, an outsider.
So what you need to do is to spin the event as well as you can, right from the start. It’s very likely to come out as soon as the abduction is announced and that imo, is exactly what we see from the statements. What needs to be kept secret is that the children were always watched by one of the group. On the 1st May that would have been ROB (see extract from ‘madeleine’ below).
By the way: the quiz is not mentioned in the book 'madeleine' nor is it mentioned in the rogatories and where ROB says that the Tuesday was the night they were all together, he does not mention the quiz. Kate states very clearly in her book that ROB wasn not there. So both have a memory of the night but the one night that something is different at the Tapas Bar - the quiz - a useful aide memoire, it is not mentioned. Surely one would say, 'that was the night of the quiz and we were all there..'
By the way: the quiz is not mentioned in the book 'madeleine' nor is it mentioned in the rogatories and where ROB says that the Tuesday was the night they were all together, he does not mention the quiz. Kate states very clearly in her book that ROB wasn not there. So both have a memory of the night but the one night that something is different at the Tapas Bar - the quiz - a useful aide memoire, it is not mentioned. Surely one would say, 'that was the night of the quiz and we were all there..'
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Rachel Mampilly rogatory:
‘I know that on Thursday night when we sat down at the table, Kate said that to Madeleine and Sean had you know, said they’d been crying on the Wednesday night and asking where erm, they’d said they’d been crying and, and, some, you know, this is sort of with hindsight but I you know, I was trying to think whether I’d heard anything but.’
1578 ‘ On the Wednesday evening’. (2nd May)
‘Mmm’
1578 ‘Who said they’d been crying sorry’
‘Kate did, when we sat down at the table on the Thursday night [..]I was next door in the apartment but I mean I didn’t hear any, well you know, I didn’t hear anything.
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So is it possible that one of the twins was crying and the other one was with the other children? It’s not that unlikely, the twins allegedly slept in separate cots, so weren’t necessarily used to sleeping together. A two year old is also perfectly capable of calling for Daddy. One might have been teething or fractious. I’m just pointing out that the crying can be attributed to at least three children, nothing about it was unique to Maddie.
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From: Madeleine: (1st May)
‘Only two minor aspects of that evening stand out as differing from the norm. The first was that Russell didn’t join us for dinner. [..] the second was that some time in the early hours Madeleine came through to our bedroom, complaining that Amelie was crying and had woken her up. Gerry checked on Amelie, who settled quickly and we let Madeleine jump into bed with us.’
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That’s as good a bit of spin as I’ve ever seen. Now we have crying on two nights! Not only that, we’ve even established that Maddie was the one bearing the message about crying in both cases and apparently nobody else heard any crying, except Mrs. Fenn and now TM have explained that she got the date wrong, got Maddie (alive and involved) in that little episode as well. But....
Working on the thesis the children were not neglected but all together with an adult each evening, or at least seven of them , makes one question why Paulo Rebelo is reported to have said seven, and not eight. Information known only to the investigation.
One member of the group who babysat the children, taking it in turns as to who would be 'sick' that night , made it impossible for Madeleine to have been abducted ! [..]
The McCanns had a devious plan to disrupt the investigation. This would be the moment a Spanish reporter Nacho Abad, revealed on live television that he had proof the PJ had leaked information from the McCanns files. The 'crying incident' had been born right in the middle of Paulo Rebelos interrogation of the tapas 7.
Nacho Abad, it will come as no surprise to learn, had good contacts with Metodo 3 and of course Clarence Mitchell.
The McCanns, including the tapas 7 well aware that Rebelo knew their secret, they had all lied about neglecting their children. [..]
Rebelo an unknown quantity , the McCanns no longer in control of the investigation, their fear must have been what if Rebelo repeats 'the children were all together'... to the media whilst in England , they would be finished.
Hence the' leaking' of information , once more pushing child neglect. unquote
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Every night they would eat at the Tapas. But the Tapas has several sittings and on quiz night the sittings were at 7.15, at 8.00 and at 8.30.
I find it hard to believe that those having booked for 7.15 ( 6 people) would have sat around waiting for the quiz - (According to Sol newspaper it finished at 9.30) or so. No bookings are taken after 8.30. One may expect the meal to finish before 10.30 pm . So lets say the Tapas bar closes around 11.00/11.30 pm. Just right for Happy Hour.
Happy Hour at Chaplin’s starts at 11.30. Where on May 1st there was a Quiz Night as well. I can’t see any problem with some of the group going along there for a few drinks after dining at the Tapas. Certainly if seven of the children were together and supervised, no problem. But we’re back to that special form of neglect, the one that can be blamed on Portugal lacking laws against paedophiles, MW not having a listening service and children being frightened of foreign nannies - and above all - a known and observed and advertised neglect. How else would an abductor know?
Here are the Tapas dinner reservations for that evening.
Not exactly ‘ buzzing with holiday makers’ !
From Maddiecasefiles.com 8/11/2009 posted by Inez: Re comments by Vera on Sky.
[..]MW in Portugal was spread over a large area with no security walls. [..] The McCanns went to another restaurant (Chaplin’s) the previous night [..] 800 metres more in distance than the 200 metres it takes to get to the Tapas Bar. MW’s staff had to go and find them and ask the McCanns to return to their apartment as one of their children had been crying for over an hour and a half. unquote
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So they were at dinner, all except ROB. (Except that ROB says in his rogatory that he rather thinks that the Tuesday was the day they were all together, all nine..)
There was a quiz - possibly starting about 9.00 to 9.30.
Kate is said to be in or near 5a as from 10.16 when her mobile is activated six times in rapid succession:
22.16
22.23
22.23
22.24
22.25
22.27
Kiko's tweets:
RobertMurat's texting at 2200 on 1/5 was directly connected with KMccann's which started 2 mins after Murat's had finished.
Here's another funny thing: Murat pairs of SMS 2200 1/5 separated by: 1 min, 3 mins, 6 mins. KM's at 2216 by 1 min, 3 mins, 7 mins.Connect! .
KM was in/near 5A making mobile calls until TWO minutes before crying started. Or at least, the calls were from her mobile. The afternoon run she seems to have put the Madeleine in the creche at 15.15, then put the twins into their creche at 15.25, then back to get Madeleine out of the creche at 15.30.
The only phone records that seem to be public for this day are for DP who had calls at 0846 and 1550.
PJudiciaria have withheld Annex 37 - tele calls 1/5. But they slipped up and told us KM's mob made 16 calls on 1 May. Probably some of these (rapid burst late evening) were begging for help which was sent via voicemail next day.
@PJudiciaria You withheld Annex 37. So you know the importance of K #McCann's texts/calls 1/5 2031-37 and 2216-28. Urgent!
So K #McCann had a frenzy of calls on 1/5. Gerry didn't make a single voice call 1 or 2/5. But his 12 voicemails dovetailed neatly, w/out overlap, with incoming calls fm; Amanda, his Ma, Whetstone woman, Rachel and Jane. Each time 1 of them called, GM was waiting for it.
Kate phones early on the 2nd:
Other observations:
Kate says she slept in the children’s room. It is still not clear why we are told this detail. It could simply be that the twins did not normally sleep in cots but in a bed side by side and that the cots had been to show that three children slept in 5a. Which would explain why the twins were initially absent from the room on 3/5 after the alarm and were later carried back to ‘their own’ apartment.
One cot was in the bedroom on Wednesday 2 May. ‘ from the statement of the cleaner. (the parent’s bedroom) This appears to be important as it is strongly denied by TM.
Gerry's statement on the &th September 2007:
When
questioned, he said that on the day they arrived, April 28, they removed two
cots that were in their room, and placed them in Madeleine's room. He is unable
to confirm, but it could be possible, that there were 3 cots, and they asked
for one to be removed.
It is not true that on a certain day they placed one cot in their room, leaving the other in Madeleine's room.
It is not true that on a certain day they placed one cot in their room, leaving the other in Madeleine's room.
References:
24TH, APRIL 2008 | IN: MADELEINE MCCANN, TV & RADIO COMMENTS (651)
And from the e-book
ReplyDelete"On the night Madeleine was reported as missing the McCanns claim their checks were
around every 30 minutes. [2]
But after Madeleine had told them on the Thursday morning (she was reported missing on
Thursday night) that she and her brother had been crying on the previous night – the
McCanns decided they would check their children more regularly. [3], [4], [5]
If every 30 minutes was more regular than previous nights, then the McCann children
were not being checked every 30 minutes throughout that week. Hourly is more credible."
I can't find the full length videos of which I posted links and In which they performed the crying story - Kate making those shaking movements! By that time the trial run of the abductor was already part of it.
ReplyDeleteThese interviews were from 30/4 and 1/5 ( references above) In one of these Gerry gets it wrong and says the twins were crying!
Reading his arguido statement on the cot, he says he can't remember but thinks there were three cots when they arrived..
In the Expresso interview he says he never got 14 text messages, the next day he had hundreds...
Swedish interview: of course there was DNA of Maddy in the car because our DNA was there...
The crying episode is a good example of spin and much like the above examples, denial is not going to work, but confusing the issue is. The cots are a prime example.
A very good reference for the changing statements given - especially about the doors:
ReplyDeleteMichael McLean:
http://freepdfhosting.com/9099bef539.pdf
Another comment from PeterMac:
ReplyDeleteIF 2/5/7 was quiz night,
then the place was almost empty.
Certainly NOT buzzing.
'The tapas bar of the Mark Warner holiday resort in Praia da Luz was buzzing with holidaymakers and it was quiz night.'
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/TAPAS_BOOKING.htm
Two families with tiny children (high chair) were eating at 7pm, and were probably finished and gone by 8.30 / 9
The 7.30 people were probably also finished by 9, and one of them had a child.
So the quiz night - if there ever was one, was the McCanns, and the poor bastards on the other table.
To add: Chaplins, next to the church, had (and when I last looked still has) a quiz night. Every Tuesday. Plus after 11.00 PM Happy Hour with half price drinks.
ReplyDelete