03 May 2007

Clarence Mitchell backtracks on previous statement about watches

Mitchell said he was not surprised by the inconsistencies in the initial accounts. 'You had nine people in a bar without watches on, without mobile phones, and absolute panic set in when they realised what had happened.

The Guardian 06 April 2008

"It was made out to be the biggest 'conspiracy' since the Diana 'conspiracy,'" says Mitchell. "Some of the group (of friends in the tapas restaurant) had their watches on that night, and others didn't...

Yorkshire Post 29 May 2008

Timeline according to PJ 57-page report summary, 21 July 2008

DEVELOPMENT

The present documentation originated from a process elaborated by this Police, having received notice of the disappearance of a minor of British nationality of three years of age. The occurrence was communicated by the GNR at 00h10 on 4 May 2007.

pages 13 and 14

According to that police force, the disappearance would have occurred at 22H40 (later on it was verified that the detection and the subsequent alarm of the same, in reality happened, between 22H00 and 22H10 of the day 3 of May of 2007, in one of the apartments of the tourist resort 'Ocean Club', located at Vila da Luz, Lagos, where a family composed by a couple and 3 children under aged were staying.

Topologically, the apartment is composed by two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom, with easy access to the street, from the both the front and the back, where there is a small balcony and a sliding door.

At the time of the disappearance, the children were alone in the apartment. However the couple, during dinner, went two times to the same, one of those times being the one where the mother (KATE) noticed that her oldest daughter was no longer there alerting all for that fact.

Aware of this fact, the police squad went to the place, to initiate the relevant investigative steps, at that moment.

Immediately they proceeded with the identifications of the progenitors, GERALD MCCANN and KATE HEALY, as well as of the disappeared minor, MADELEINE BETH MCCANN, born on the 12 of May of 2003, in the United Kingdom. Besides MADELEINE the couple has two more children, twins, with two years old, at the time of the facts, who were also staying in the same bedroom from where the child disappeared.

Informally, GERALD MCCANN said that he was on the resort since the 28 of April 2007, on vacation, for a period of time corresponding to a week. The day after their arrival, 29/04/07, they started doing their meals at the 'Ocean Club' restaurant, which is distanced a few meters away from the apartment, with the company of three other couples, who had also travelled with them.

Specifically to what is relative to the day 3, he alleged that:

- they woke up around 07H30, had breakfast in the apartment, going out at around 09H00;

- soon after, they left their children at the nursery, until 12H30;

- around 14H30, after lunch, they put their children back at the nursery, this time until 17H00;

- at 17H30 they did the children's hygiene, and settle them in their respective beds by 19H30, all in the same bedroom;

- at 20H30, the couple went out to the restaurant;

- at 21H05/21H15 the father went to check the children, noticing that all was normal, the window and the blinds were closed, however the door to the room seemed more opened than when he had left;

pages 15 and 16

- at around 9.20 p.m., a friend from the group, JANE TANNER, when heading for her apartment, noticed an individual who carried a child in his arms, walking down the road. She described him as aged 30 to 40, with dark hair and wearing light coloured trousers;

- at 9.30 p.m., it was the time for another friend, MATTHEW OLDFIELD, to go to the MCCANNS' apartment to check on the children, but he only saw the twins, given the fact that he did not enter the room. In order to see MADELEINE'S bed, he would have to go inside. He detected nothing out of the ordinary;

- at around 10 p.m., when KATE went to the apartment she verified that MADELEINE had disappeared, and that the window and shutters of the bedroom were open.

Apart from that, and according to what was established within the investigation in the meantime, the witness MATTHEW OLDFIELD assumes that, at around 8.55 p.m., he went near the outside of the window of the bedroom where MADELEINE was sleeping – a window that was closed – in order to verify if there was any noise in the inside that might indicate that the child was not asleep. He heard nothing, therefore concluding that everything was well.

Due to its relevance, on that very night the Maintenance Director, SILVIA BAPTISTA, was asked for a list of the resort's guests and the check outs on the 3rd, as well as the identification of the crèche workers, where the children stayed during the day.

It should be emphasized that the entire apartment had been searched and rummaged by an undetermined number of people, with the contamination that it brings and the difficulty that it raises for the collection of residues.

On that very night, the surroundings of the apartment, and Vila da Luz itself, were intensely searched through, both by the GNR members and by members of the public.

Concerning that and other searches on subsequent days, the proof is given by the report that was written by the GNR from pages 3491-a to 3525-a, with the latter being a cartographic remission. The same procedure was made by the Maritime Police, according to the report from pages 3867 until 3885.

On page 06 the air registration of the luggage pertaining to the MCCANN family was appended, as well as the passport that belongs to the missing minor.

From pages 12 to 23, we can observe the photographic coverage of the location of the facts, which were collected on that night, as well as a layout of the apartment.

On page 26 the report that was written by the GNR can be found, on page 30 the photograph of the minor that was given by the parents, taken from a memory card and revealed on a printer that belongs to one of the nannies, as will be seen further on, and the press communication, on pages 33-B.

It should be pointed out, in terms of the media knowledge and divulgation, that witness RACHEL MAMPILLY, at around 2 a.m. on the morning of the 4th, assumes to have contacted the official British television BBC, through someone that she knew, reporting the disappearance and asking for it to be broadcast.

Madeleine McCann: Confusion over last hours, 12 September 2007

Madeleine McCann: Confusion over last hours Telegraph

Reports by Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter

Last Updated: 2:04AM BST 12 Sep 2007

The night of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, May 3, has been subject to claim, counter-claim, conjecture and scurrilous rumour.

Today The Daily Telegraph pieces together the known facts about the fateful night, as reported by the McCanns themselves and key witnesses.

2:29pm The last picture of Madeleine was taken at the swimming pool at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, where the McCanns and the three other families with whom they were staying played together.

7:00pm Madeleine and the other children were put to bed. Reports of when she was last seen before this vary, with some accounts putting it as early as 6pm. This would be crucial as the police might put forward a theory that the McCanns killed Madeleine and hid her body before they went for dinner.

8:30pm Around this time, witnesses agree, the McCanns arrived at the tapas bar near their apartment, meaning there was a "window of opportunity" of up to 2hrs 40 mins for them to kill Madeleine and hide her body - a scenario dismissed as "ludicrous" by their family.

The couple then settled down to dinner and take part in a quiz organised by the Ocean Club's aerobics teacher, Najova Chekaya.

The McCanns say checks were made on their children every half-hour, sometimes by other members of the party, comprising Dr Russell O'Brien and Jane Tanner, from Exeter, Dr Matthew and Rachael Oldfield, from London, and David and Fiona Payne, from Leicester, together with Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.

Yet Mrs Webster has reportedly told police that each couple was responsible for checking their own children.

9:05pm Gerry McCann left the table to check on his children, who were all sleeping soundly, he says. Returning, he bumped into another British tourist, Jeremy Wilkins, with whom he had played tennis.

They chatted for several minutes, as Mr Wilkins has confirmed.

9:15pm Jane Tanner told police that at this time she went to check on her daughter, who was ill, and recalled seeing Mr McCann talking to Mr Wilkins. As she went into the apartment, she saw a man aged around 35 carrying a little girl wrapped in a blanket.

She thought nothing of it but is now convinced this was the kidnapper. The child's pyjamas matched the description of those Madeleine was wearing. Mr Wilkins apparently saw no such man, and does not remember seeing Miss Tanner. He has told police: "It was a very narrow path and I think it would have been almost impossible for anyone to walk by without me noticing."

9:30pm Dr Matthew Oldfield left the table and offered to check the McCann children. In his first police statement he said he merely listened at the door of apartment 5a but later said he had gone in and noticed that the room seemed lighter than the others, as if the shutters had been opened. He cannot be certain whether Madeleine was there.

Gerry McCann invited Miss Chekaya to join the party at 9.30. Her account apparently contradicts Mr Oldfield, as she claims that no one left or returned to the table in the half-hour she was there.

10:00pm Kate McCann left the table at this time. One tapas bar worker has even claimed that only one person left the table during the evening, a tall man thought to be Dr O'Brien.

There are also conflicting accounts of how much the party drank. One Portuguese newspaper claimed the nine friends downed 14 bottles of wine. The McCanns insist they drank three or four.

Kate McCann ran back to the restaurant at 10pm, saying Madeleine was missing.

10:14pm Police were called after the friends made an initial search. Detectives are said to be intrigued by one witness report which quoted Kate McCann shouting out: "They've taken her, they've taken her!"

They believe her immediate assertion that Madeleine had been snatched - and the implication that it was by more than one person - is suspicious.

But other accounts have claimed Mrs McCann in fact said: "Madeleine has gone. Somebody has taken her."

The 36 vital hours, 15 September 2007

The 36 vital hours Daily Mirror

Lucy Thornton in Praia da Luz

15/09/2007

What really happened when she vanished

The McCanns were due to fly home the next day and did not want their perfect family holiday to end.

But Kate and Gerry's idyllic week with their three children was to end in a nightmare that would change their lives forever.

The disappearance of their eldest daughter Madeleine, then three, on May 3 would spark Europe's largest missing person hunt.

Since then, the case has shifted from a possible kidnap to suspicions of foul play by her parents. We look back at when Madeleine vanished and unearth new witnesses and clues.

MAY 3

9.15AM MADELEINE and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, are quickly up and dressed and the family breakfast together in their holiday apartment.

The children go to the kids' club - on site at the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz - where they have been staying with friends. Kate and Gerry enjoyed jogs on the beach, tennis and morning strolls.

12.30PM KATE and Gerry scoop up their children from the creche and head back to their apartment for lunch. Madeleine has learnt a dance which she and her young friends are to perform for their parents the following day.

2.30PM THE family head for the Ocean Club's pool. Kate takes a last photo of Madeleine dangling her feet in the water, next to sister Amelie and Gerry. They spend the rest of the afternoon pottering.

5PM THE McCanns join friends for drinks at a restaurant in Praia da Luz where the children have their tea. A waiter, who has not spoken before, said: "They arrived in beach clothes and there was a big group. Nine adults and six or seven children and they took up two large tables. The adults ordered alcoholic drinks and had quite a lot. They were happy." Gerry played in front of the restaurant with his children, pushing Madeleine on a swing.

The waiter said Madeleine's parents called her in from the beach to eat her meal on the balcony of the restaurant.

He said: "When he brought her back to get an ice-cream, she was jumping up and down with excitement. It was a lovely sight."

6PM MADELEINE eats her ice cream as the group leave for their holiday apartment. It is the last time she is seen in public.

7.30PM KATE gives Madeleine a bath, then dries her hair, carefully taking out a bead she had put in earlier in the week.

Then she helps her into her pink pyjamas and puts her to bed next to the twins' cots at around 8pm.

As Madeleine snuggles up to her beloved Cuddle Cat toy, she says: "Mummy, I've had the best day ever. I'm having lots and lots of fun."

8PM KATE and Gerry spend half an hour together before meeting friends at the tapas bar, as usual, at 8.30pm. It has a view of the apartments 50 metres away where they are all staying. The McCanns choose not to use the baby-sitting service.

8.30PM THE couple meet seven others at the restaurant including Russell O'Brien and his wife Jane Tanner as well as Dr Matthew Oldfield and his wife Rachael.

9PM GERRY is the first to return to the block, checking on his children at 9.05pm. He sees all three children sound asleep. On his way back to the restaurant, Gerry bumps into Brit Jeremy Wilkins, with whom he had played tennis. Jane Tanner goes to check on her daughter who is ill.

9.15PM AS Jane enters their block - number five - she sees a man carrying what looks like a child wrapped in a blanket. She barely gives him a second glance. The restaurant is buzzing as diners take part in a quiz, organised by aerobics instructor Najova Chekaya.

9.30PM DR Oldfield gets up to look in on his children and offers to check on the McCanns'. Instead of going into apartment 5A he listens at the door. Satisfied the children are sound asleep, he rejoins the party and reports all was well. At around the same time, as the quiz ends, Gerry invites Ms Chekaya, 21, to join their table. She is with them for half an hour. Dr O'Brien also leaves the table for 25 minutes to look after his ill daughter, returning shortly before 10pm.

10PM KATE leaves the group to check on the children. Letting herself into the flat, she opens the door to the kids' bedroom and freezes for a split second. Madeleine's bed is empty. A bolt of terror shoots through her followed by panic. Hysterical, she races back to the restaurant. One witness said she shouts: "They've taken her, they've taken her.

The group run back with her to the apartment and help Kate and Gerry triple check every room, looking under the beds, in the wardrobes, behind the doors. Their panic grows. The couple are said to have known immediately that their daughter had been taken because Cuddle Cat was left on a ledge impossible for Madeleine to reach and a window shutter had been forced open.

10.10PM THE alarm is raised with the resort manager within 10 minutes. The Mirror has learned Gerry bursts into the Ocean Club's reception and asks for a priest and the police.

Told it is too late to get hold of the priest, he then runs down the hill towards the church, stopping cars and pleading: "Have you seen a little girl? She's my daughter and she's missing." Friends and staff join in the search. Kate stays with the twins, waiting for news.

10.41PM THE police claim they receive a call telling them that a child is missing.

11.03PM TWO local officers arrive at the club and after a laboured questioning session involving a translator then call the Policia Judiciaria who investigate serious crimes. Friends of the McCanns allege that shortly after 11pm, they see British expat Robert Murat, who lives nearby with his mother, join the search party at the Ocean Club. He denies this, saying he was at home with his mother.

MAY 4

4AM A TEAM of detectives set up an operation centre in four apartments near the McCanns' flat to start quizzing holiday makers, staff and Luz residents.

Sniffer dogs scour the town. The frenzied search is well underway. Police also begin bugging phones. By the early hours they have investigated more than 4,500 phone calls made in Praia da Luz. It is later claimed that a call is made at 2am by Robert Murat to computer expert Sergey Malinka, 22.

Murat would later be made an official suspect, his computer seized, his garden dug up and his movements scrutinised before police interest in him eventually waned.

Although Malinka is also quizzed by the police and his house searched, he told the Mirror he saw no record of the alleged call from the man who he had helped before with his real estate website.

However, since being linked to Murat, the young Russian said his life has been turned upside down. He said: "I'm innocent but I lost my friends and my business which I invested seven years on. Customers just left.

"People don't talk to me and some still point at me in the street so I don't go out. I have had raging calls at midnight threatening to chop my head off. I'm the bad guy.

"Now I'm thinking about moving to the sticks, away from all the people.

"My grandma went to the hospital and someone said to her 'your grandson's a paedophile'. I want it all to finish."

7AM THROUGHOUT Praia da Luz bins are opened, people look under cars, in gardens, in swimming pools and all along the beach.

One expat recalls: "The whole town joined in, people didn't go to bed, they were looking until 6 or 7am. The next morning we were all given maps with areas divided into different search zones and a picture of Madeleine.

"My husband came home after searching and burst into tears, we have children of our own and he was so upset after seeing the dad looking so distraught."

The search becomes manic. Police grab a six-year-old blonde English girl the following day on the off-chance she might be Madeleine. She screams as armed officers pick her up, leaving her horrified aunt racing to produce her passport.

Police officers tell fishermen and boat owners to keep an eye out for anything unusual and perhaps a "black bag".

One focus is 18 tide-washed caves which lie along the coast. But as one fisherman says this week: "There are small tidal movements so if the body was dumped far enough out to sea there is no chance it will be seen again. I still check the caves, just in case."

9AM A BRITISH expat barmaid turns up on the McCanns' doorstep, telling them she has had a psychic vision of Madeleine looking out of a window. She is the first of 150 psychics to descend on the resort, all claiming to know what happened to the girl.

Police take a statement from the woman and apparently search a nearby house which fits her vision, but find nothing.

10PM THE shattered McCanns face the media for the first time. Kate can barely speak. Her husband looks empty and dazed. His hands shake as he reads out a statement. In the following days, police say they have a sketch of a suspect but refuse to issue it. Kate begs Madeleine's kidnapper not to hurt her.

Later, after Kate is named by Portuguese police as a suspect, the 39-year-old GP is criticised "for not showing enough emotion".

But the McCanns are advised by a British abduction expert not to cry as this would give the child's abductor "a kick".

Revealed: The three timings 'key to solving Madeleine case', 09 November 2007

Revealed: The three timings 'key to solving Madeleine case' Daily Mail

by VANESSA ALLEN

Last updated at 21:41 09 November 2007

Police in Portugal have identified three time-slots which they believe hold the key to what really happened to Madeleine McCann.

Crucially all three "windows of opportunity" are linked to Kate and Gerry McCann's movements, suggesting detectives still believe they were involved in their daughter's disappearance.

Investigators believe Madeleine either died in her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve on May 3 or was taken from it.

The three time-slots were developed by Portuguese documentary-makers who claim they have stripped away the contradictions and inconsistencies in different witness accounts and used only definitive information verified by detectives.

Police have unviled a timeline of the events surrounding Madeleine McCann's disappearance

The first identified 'window of opportunity' begins at 6.30pm when Mr McCann was on the tennis court and his wife was alone in the apartment with Madeleine and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

At 6.40pm one of the McCanns' friends, David Payne, went to their apartment and saw Mrs McCann playing happily with the children.

By 7pm Mr McCann returned from playing tennis and the couple bathed their children and put them to bed by 7.30pm.

They spent an hour together in their apartment and then joined their friends in the apartment complex's tapas bar.

Mr and Mrs McCann arrived at about 8.30pm and were joined by the rest of the so-called Tapas Nine.

Mr McCann, 39, was then said to have returned to the apartment at 9.05pm to check on Madeleine, Sean and Amelie. He has since said he believes the abductor could already have been inside.

This is the second "window of opportunity" allegedly identified by detectives, but Mr McCann left the apartment by 9.10pm.

He met another witness, television producer Jeremy Wilkins, who confirmed that he stood and chatted with the consultant cardiologist near the apartment's staircase.

The pair were stood by the gate near the apartment's unlocked patio doors - where the intruder is thought to have gained entry - so the abductor would have been forced to flee through the bedroom window, on the other side of the apartment.

Mrs McCann said the window was still open when she went to check on the children at 10pm.

At 9.15pm another of the Tapas Nine, Jane Tanner, said she saw a man carrying a child away from the apartment and she now believes this was the abductor taking Madeleine.

But Mr Wilkins said he did not see Ms Tanner or the mystery man and that it would have been impossible for them to be there without him seeing them.

Detectives are probing claims that Mr McCann sent and received 14 text messages between 9.30pm and 11.40pm, which they believe are suspicious.

At 9.30pm the time-line says another of the group, Matthew Oldfield, went to the apartment to check on the children, but did not go inside. He said he saw Sean and Amelie sleeping but did not see Madeleine, whose bed was not visible from the patio doors.

Then at 10pm Mrs McCann, 39, returned to the apartment, discovered her daughter was missing and raised the alarm.

Portuguese police believe this was the third "window of opportunity" when Madeleine either died or was taken from the apartment.

Mrs McCann said she searched the flat three times before screaming 'She's gone!' But another witness, a Portuguese waiter, said she stood on the apartment's balcony and screamed across the swimming pool to where her husband sat with their friends at the tapas bar.

He said she shouted: "They've taken her, they've taken her, they've taken our little girl."

Mr McCann and the friends then ran to the apartment and began searching.

Police were called at 10.40pm, the first officers arrived at 10.47pm and senior detectives from the Policia Judiciaria arrived at 1am.

The apartment was not cleared of searchers until 2am, when police said there were up to 50 people inside.

The documentary 'Madeleine: Anatomy of a Mystery', was made by the Portuguese state broadcaster RTP, Portugal's equivalent of the BBC.

An English language version of the documentary is due to go on RTP's website on Saturday.

Reporter Sandra Felgueiras, who has covered the case since May, said: "We are certain that the time-line is the best ever produced.

"We have checked with our police sources and they have confirmed that this is the most accurate version of events produced to date."

But McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Several things in this supposed time-line do not ring true.

"But we are not going to comment on yet another speculative report in the Portuguese media about what happened that night.

"Kate and Gerry know that they had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance and they and their friends are happy to talk to police about any inconsistencies they may feel exist in versions of events that night."

Where was Gerry when the children went to bed?

'In the evening her parents gave her a bath, took out her trendy hair bead and washed her hair. Then they tucked her up alongside Sean and Amelie before kissing them all goodnight.'

Daily Mail 25 May 2007

At 6.30 Gerry McCann asks a friend, David Payne, to pop in on Kate to see if the children are coming down (to the tennis courts). He goes to the flat, he says all is well, but the children are too tired and are already in their pyjamas.

Panorama 19 November 2007

The 'last' photograph of Madeleine

The 'last' picture was taken by Kate on her own camera beside the pool in the Ocean Club Complex.

It is widely reported that the picture was taken at 2.29pm on May 3 - Kate's camera clock is one hour out, so the display reads 1.29pm.

However, there are no versions of the picture released which actually show the time displayed on the photograph to confirm this.

Although Portugal and the UK share the same time, it is reported that the camera clock was one hour out as Kate had not adjusted it after the change to British summer time on 25 March 2007.

The picture was not released to the press until 24 May 2007, 21 days after her disappearance!

	Gerry's movements on the afternoon of 03 May 2007
	It is widely reported that Gerry McCann was playing tennis on the afternoon of May 3rd. However, there are at least 9 differen