The 'Abductor'

Martin Brunt talking about Jane Tanner on Sky.com 28 November 2007

"When she first spoke to the police she said", "I’m not sure if he was carrying anything." "Yet 6 months on, he was carrying a child, in a very strange way, and the child was wearing the very same pyjamas that Madeleine was wearing."

"The police at the time, off the record told us that they thought Jane Tanner was not a very reliable witness. They were not suggesting that what she was saying was done in malice, but they thought she was changing her story from time to time. That’s why they never issued any appeal around it"

When and where did Tanner see the abductor?

A seemingly simple question yet, like so much in this case, no simple answer.

Original reports stated that the sighting took place at 9:30pm as Tanner was leaving her apartment for the tapas restaurant - she was reportedly running late.

It is was reported that she saw the 'abductor' on the corner of the road and, it is alleged, she initially told police she wasn't sure if the man was carrying anything.

It was then reported that she witnessed the man run down the hill, alongside the apartments and Ocean Club reception, heading in the direction of the Baptista supermarket.

This would be a very interesting sighting as it ties in with witness Martin Smith's testimony that he saw a man carrying a child wrapped in a blanket beside the Baptista restaurant that night.

But the original version soon changes.

Tanner, apparently has a change of mind, and decides the sighting actually took place at 9:15pm, as she was returning to her apartment to check on her children.

She says that as she came out of the Ocean Club reception and started to walk up the hill, towards her apartment, she saw the man walking 'urgently' across the top of the road.

He was now carrying a barefoot child who was wearing pyjamas with a 'pinky-aspect' to them. The blanket was nowhere to be seen.

Crucially, the 'abductor' was now heading in a completely different direction: Towards the house where Robert Murat lives.

And the child was now Madeleine.

But the new version has a problem. At 9:15pm, Gerry was on the very street that Tanner allegedly walked up, talking to Jeremy Wilkins.

Mr Wilkins was somebody that Gerry had got to know through playing tennis at the resort. However, Wilkins is very clear that he saw nobody pass him and said it would have been virtually impossible for anyone to pass him without being seen.

Initial reports stated Gerry and Mr Wilkins were standing at the top of the alleyway that runs directly behind the McCanns apartment, very close to the back-gated entrance that led up to the patio doors of the McCanns apartment. That makes the possibility of Tanner walking past unnoticed seem even more outrageous. Indeed, early reports suggested she even ackowledged Gerry.

By the time of the Panorama programme broadcast in November, Gerry and Mr Wilkins had miraculously been transported to the other side of the road. Any mention of verbal/non verbal communication between Tanner and Gerry was gone.

And why was Tanner walking up the hill to her apartment?

Presumably to enter her apartment by the front door, which is on the hidden side from the tapas restaurant. Yet, the group have all stated they left their patio doors unlocked to enable them to quickly check on their children and in case of fire. Although, it must be said, the children were so young it is unlikely they could have co-ordinated an escape effort if there had actually been a fire.

So, this would appear to support the initial statements from the McCanns closest family and friends that the patio doors were, in fact, locked.

They only became unlocked when it became quickly clear to the first attending GNR officers that the shutters had not been 'smashed' to gain entry.

They needed another entry point for the 'abductor'.

And the patio doors opened.

The artists impression

What is so extraordinary about this artist's impression of the man seen by Jane Tanner?

No, it's not that it was drawn by a 'world-renowned' FBI artist who has drawn the man's right arm in a position that is physically impossible to achieve, without dislocation of the elbow.

No, it's the not the fact that the alleged abductor has no face.

No, it's not even that the child's pyjamas seem to have been copied directly from the photograph of the pyjamas Madeleine was alleged to have been wearing when she disappeared. Including the frills.

So what is extraordinary?

Well, first we have to fully understand what this picture represents. It's a picture of the man Kate, Gerry, their families and their friends are convinced took Madeleine from their holiday apartment. Their consistent and unwavering belief is that this is the man who has taken their daughter from her bed.

He was seen by Jane Tanner and she recounted seeing him immediately she heard that Madeleine had disappeared. This picture was drawn after the artist spoke with Tanner. It is therefore not unreasonable to describe this, by the McCanns' own assertions, as the single most important piece of evidence to suggest that Madeleine has been abducted. Indeed, it could be described as the only 'evidence'.

So, bearing in mind the McCanns' oft repeated commitment 'to leave no stone unturned' in the search for their 'special' daughter and with a website being visited by millions worldwide and with well over £1 million sitting in Madeleine's Fund, specifically donated to find their daughter, why did this picture take until October to be commissioned?

That's 175 days. During which time, the McCanns had travelled to Rome, Madrid, Berlin, Amsterdam and Morocco and Gerry had travelled to the USA and the UK twice. They'd had thousands of posters printed, wristbands made and balloons set off. They'd been made 'arguidos', returned to the UK and Gerry had returned to work. During all that time, they'd received levels of press coverage never witnessed, in such a case, before.

But, we are left to conclude, they apparently couldn't find the time, or money, or inclination, to commission the only tangible connection that exists in the search for their 'abducted' daughter. Not until 5 months later.

Now that is extraordinary.

But it isn't the most extraordinary thing because this artist's impression wasn't even commissioned by the McCanns. It was commissioned by Metodo 3, the investigation agency hired by the McCanns to investigate Madeleine's disappearance.

In Gerry's blog of 26 October 2007, the day after the picture was released, and referring to Metodo 3, he wrote the following:

'They have also released a sketch of an eyewitness who saw a man carrying a small child away from near the apartment on the night Madeleine disappeared. We believe this child was Madeleine.'

In 175 days, they have assembled a support team of the finest lawyers and PR people, with no expense spared. A team well beyond the financial capabilities of most people. A team formed specifically to build a defence case for them, in the event that they are ever charged with Madeleine's disappearance.

Yet, in all that time and with all that money, they would appear to have never once given consideration to the release of a simple drawing, to lead them to the abductor and what should be the most important thing in their world.

Madeleine McCann. Their daughter.

How the abductor has changed shape over 6 months

25 May 2007 (Link) / (Link)

Detectives issued a description of a man seen on the night the four-year-old went missing in the resort of Praia Da Luz in the Algarve. Officers said the man was "carrying a child or an object that could have been taken as a child".

The man is said to be white, aged 35-40, 5ft 10in tall, medium build with hair that was short on top. He was wearing a dark jacket, beige or golden long trousers and dark shoes. At a news conference, Ch Insp Olegario de Sousa urged the man or anyone who had seen him to come forward.

05 June 2007 (BBC Crimewatch)

Gerry says the 'suspect' was 'probably carrying a child' and was 'Approximately 35 years of age, approximately 1 metre 75. There's a little bit of discrepancy, I think mainly in conversion, I think initial descriptions said 1.70, but went into 5ft 10in. So, I think you can assume round about 5ft 8, 5ft 9, something like that. He had dark hair, parted to one side, slightly longer at the back. And he was wearing a dark jacket, slightly longer than a suit jacket and light coloured trousers which may have been beige or mustard coloured and dark shoes.'

09 June 2007 (Gerry's Blogs)

We have also asked for people to contact their local police if they have seen a man matching the description of the suspect carrying a child seen around the time of Madeleine’s abduction. He is 30-40 years, 1.70-1.80m (5ft 7in - 5ft 11in), caucasian and was wearing a dark jacket, beige or mustard coloured trousers with dark shoes.

26 October 2007 (Gerry's Blogs)

(Referring to Metodo 3, the private investigators hired by the McCann's to look for Madeleine)

They have also released a sketch of an eyewitness who saw a man carrying a small child away from near the apartment on the night Madeleine disappeared. We believe this child was Madeleine. The Portuguese police have released the description of the man previously: he is 35-40 years old, approximately 5ft 8in - 5ft 10in (1.72-1.78m), Caucasian with southern European/Mediterranean appearance, slim build with dark hair.

28 October 2007 (Link)

The height of the man - aged around 35 with black hair, wearing a maroon shirt, camel-coloured trousers and black or brown shoes - was also miscalculated by cops when they converted feet into metres.

Jane says the person she saw was 5ft 9in rather than 5ft 8in as previously reported. She is also adamant the child was not wrapped in a blanket.

16 November 2007 (Link)

Last month the McCanns released artist's sketches of a man drawn by an FBI-trained forensic artist using details from Ms Tanner. She had described the man she saw as aged about 35 to 40, 5ft 6in (1.7m) tall, and slim and the child he was carrying was described as wearing the same pyjamas as Madeleine.

The artist, commissioned by private detectives working for the McCanns, left the man's face blank as Ms Tanner was unsure about some details.

19 November 2007 - Panorama programme / (Link)

Jane Tanner describes the man she saw as 'probably 5ft 8in tall, he was taller than me but not 6ft and so between those two', with dark shoulder length hair and a heavy dark coat. She says the man was unusual because he was wearing too many clothes for a tourist, although earlier she had said the weather was cold and that she had to have a big jumper on.

She goes on to say: "I would say the man I saw was more local, or Mediterranean looking, rather than British. He had dark, almost black, long hair and had swarthy skin. He was dressed in that sort of smart casual way European people dress."

How reliable is Jane Tanner's sighting?

There are a number of reasons why Jane Tanner's account of the 'abductor' raise concern:

His height has been inconsistent, ranging at various times from 5ft 6in to 5ft 11in. On Panorama she describes that 'He was about probably 5ft 8in tall, he was taller than me but not 6ft and so between those two'. In one sentence he appears to have grown 2 inches, from 5ft 8in to 5ft 10in (somewhere between the two of 5ft 8in and 6ft).

His hair has gone from 'hair that was short on top' to 'quite a lot of dark, reasonably-long-to-the-neck hair'.

His build has gone from 'medium' to 'slim', although this must have been difficult to ascertain as Tanner describes the man wearing 'quite a lot of clothes' and 'a big heavy jacket'.

He was originally stated to be 'carrying a child or an object that could have been taken as a child' and now Tanner states that 'I could tell it was a child, and I could see the feet and... feet and the bottom of the pyjamas', she continues 'the pyjamas had a pinky aspect to them'.

His skin has gone from 'white' to 'swarthy' although she admits to being 'a reasonable distance away' from him and that 'He had his face turned away from me, sort of sideways and it was very dark. I just didn’t see it properly, I wish to God I had'.

So, what of the sighting itself?

That is alleged to have taken place at 9.15pm, under cloud cover and one hour after sunset, when the area was dark and in street light. This, by her own admission, would have made her ability to see and register precise details extremely difficult, if not impossible.

The man was walking away from her, from left to right in the photograph above. This photograph is taken in what, from Tanner's own description, must have been the exact spot she first saw the man. Tanner was previously reported as stating that the man had been 'walking urgently', so by the time she saw him and registered the fact, he must have been halfway across the road. This would, in itself, make a description of him, and what he was carrying, even more difficult, as the more he walked the more he would have been concealing whatever he was carrying.

If you refer to the photograph again, you will see that there is a street light positioned on the corner towards which the man was 'walking urgently'. One of the characteristics of street lights is that they affect natural colours of objects placed beneath them. As a result, the colours of objects cannot easily be distinguished since they are seen almost entirely by their reflection of this narrow bandwidth of yellow light from the lamp. Praia da Luz has sodium vapor street lamps which emit this yellow light. Could Tanner have identified 'pyjamas that had a pinky aspect to them' from distance and in those circumstances?

There is also the concern that, if Tanner's sighting was valid, how could she not have noticed, and reported, that the McCanns' bedroom shutter and window were wide open, when she returned to her own apartment which was next door but one. If you look at the pictures in the Apartment 5A section, you will see that the windows and shutters of 5A and 5B are right next to each other. Indeed, from the outside they are so close they appear to be for the one apartment. Tanner would have walked directly past them.

If we return to the end of May, we read a completely different version of events, as reported in The Times. Their report states that Tanner had told police she saw a blonde-haired girl being carried away from their holiday apartment wrapped in a blanket.

It states that Tanner was on her way to dinner when she saw the man close to the open window of the bedroom where Madeleine had been sleeping. The girl he was carrying was wearing pink pyjamas, the same as Madeleine's.

Tanner, referred to as 'The family friend' in the article, is reported to have said she had seen the man at 9.30pm as she arrived late for dinner with Kate, Gerry and other friends at the tapas restaurant.

A police source is quoted as saying: "She thought it was odd, but thought it was the man’s own child. He was walking urgently, neither running or walking but something in between."

This report not only contradicts our current understanding of the time the 'abductor' was seen but also the location the sighting occurred. In addition, it reports that Tanner was late for dinner and heading for the tapas restaurant, whereas in the Panorama programme she states she was going the other way, from the tapas restaurant to her apartment.

It is, perhaps, not surprising that Portuguese police had refused to release details of Ms Tanner’s claims for more than three weeks and only made a public appeal after the McCanns threatened legal action and allegedly secured the intervention of Gordon Brown.

A senior police source said that they had not released the description because Ms Tanner’s evidence had changed over time and they feared it could hinder their inquiry.

The question of Madeleine's pyjamas

Jane Tanner quoted in The Sun on 20 November 2007:

"Then, at around 11.15, two policemen arrived and I told them. Later CID arrived. They did this thing called a cognitive technique, where they put you back in the moment, and it was then that I remembered the pyjamas."

"They were pink and white, they were what Madeleine was wearing. I just felt so awful, I felt I could have stopped this from happening. I think of that everyday."

These two pictures show Gerry and Kate holding up pyjamas said to be the ones Madeleine was wearing in bed when she disappeared. The McCann's claim these particular pyjamas belong to Amelie, their other daughter, and that they are identical to the pyjamas Madeleine was wearing.

The picture on the left was taken on 04 June 2007 during the Crimewatch programme and the picture on the right was taken at their press conference in Berlin on 06 June 2007.

If you refer back to the picture drawn by the FBI forensic artist at the top of this page, you will see that the bottom of the pyjamas, in that picture and as described by Jane Tanner, come to Madeleine's ankles. By comparing the pyjamas in all these photographs, it is quite clear that the pyjama bottoms shown are not full 'ankle length' but 'cut off' below the knee style.

This would undoubtedly mean, as all pyjama legs 'ride up' when a child is carried, that the pyjama legs would have ridden above the knee, almost certainly making them impossible to see or describe. Especially at night, from distance and when being carried in the position Jane Tanner has described.

Tanner has admitted she saw only the 'feet and the bottom of the pyjamas' yet describes a 'pinky aspect' to them. The bottom of these pyjamas are actually white with a tiny floral design and were, as described above, short 'cut-off' style. The only 'pinky aspect' in Madeleine's pyjamas was the top, which in itself was very short sleeved, and which Tanner has admitted she couldn't see.

The 'pinky aspect' is an extremely important detail of Tanner's account and it's there for two important reasons. Firstly, it links the sighting to Madeleine by virtue of the pyjamas Madeleine is alleged to have been wearing and secondly, it pinpoints the sighting as that of a girl. That is important as it immediately suppresses any debate that this 'child' could have been a boy.

When did Gerry find out about Tanner's alleged 'sighting'?

Tapas Jane: My Guilt For Maddie (The Sun - original link)

By ANTONELLA LAZZERI

Published: 17 Nov 2007

As Jane heard the news, she realised the child she had seen nearly an hour earlier being carried off was almost certainly Madeleine.

When two cops arrived around 11.15pm Jane told them. She did a more formal interview at around 3am. Gerry was present and it was the moment he learnt Jane had seen an "abductor".

Until then she had not had the opportunity to tell Kate and Gerry. They had been too busy hunting their daughter.

Jane said she felt "total guilt" when she revealed what she had seen. Later she found out Madeleine had been wearing pink and white pyjamas.

Note: Firstly, we need to appreciate that this article, published on 17 November, is almost certainly 'McCann approved' in its contents, having the full support of Clarence Mitchell.

What this article says about Tanner's sighting of the abductor is that when police arrived at 11.15pm (note: they actually arrived at 10:50pm) 'Jane told them' but what did she tell them? Martin Brunt's statement, top of page, indicates that in her original police statement, Tanner only mentioned a man - she was not even sure he was carrying anything. Yet by 3.00am she appears to have had a 'vision' and can remember everything - interestingly and perhaps disturbingly whilst Gerry was beside her in a 'formal' interview.