First of all, it should be noted that transcribing what Kate actually says in her interviews is
surprisingly difficult. Through observation of her talking on videos, she appears calm, articulate and in control.
However, when you begin to transcribe what she has actually said, it quickly becomes
apparent how she intersperses her words with lots of pauses, 'errms', nervous giggles/laughs, half constructed words
and noises - which may be the start of unfinished words or just pausing sounds. The tempo of her speach is also erratic
and she alternates between short bursts of extremely fast speech, when she feels under pressure, and long, drawn
out passges that are slow and almost become a drawl.
Although she presents a calm and controlled exterior to the world, her erratic and confusing
spoken word would appear to suggest that she conceals different emotions beneath her placid surface.
The first interview with Jane Hill from the BBC - 25 May 2007
This interview is interesting as it is the first interview given by the McCanns after the disappearance
of Madeleine. They had previously only given short, scripted statements.
Perhaps the most revealing question in the interview is this one:
Jane Hill: "I met people who didn't go to work for more than a week because everyday
they were down on the beach, searching the streets. Did you, as a mother Kate, just sometimes think 'I've got to go and be
out there with them. I want to go and just physically look as well."
Kate: (Pause) I mean, I did.
Errm... (Long Pause) Errm, we'd been working really hard really. Apart... I mean, the first 48 hours, as Gerry said, are incredibly
difficult and we were almost non-functioning, I'd say, errm, but after that you get strength from somewhere. We've certainly
had loads of support and that's given us strength and its been able to make us focus really so we have actually, in our own
way, it might not be physically searching but we've been working really hard and doing absolutely everything we can really
to get Madeleine back."
What is significant in Kate's answer here?
Four things: Kate's displacement
from the event, her inability to express what 'she' actually felt, an apparent, almost desperate, desire to promote a
'united' front and a reluctance to commit an answer to the question.
It is significant that she says "the first
48 hours, as Gerry said, are incredibly difficult". Her use of the word 'are' instead of 'were' is very revealing. It's
as though she's quoting something that she has been advised by a counsellor. 'The first 48 hours are the most difficult'.
What she has done here is displaced herself from the scene and is reporting on it, not from it.
It is also revealing
how she uses the word 'you' and, again, shows her displacement. She says: "after that you get strength from somewhere".
Why is she using 'you' in this sentence? The interviewer has asked her for her personal feelings. Why doesn't she say 'I got
strength...' or 'we got strength...' Again, she is placing herself outside the event, looking in.
She uses the
word 'we' six times in this brief quote because it would appear she's struggling to answer it, without revealing that
she has never actually searched for her missing daughter. Use of the word 'we' and also 'us', which is mentioned twice along
with Gerry's name, suggests she's trying to hide under a 'united' front. This suggests she feels vulnerable and
needs the support from Gerry to continue. The overall impression given is that they are not individuals, with their own feelings,
but a team who will not be diverted from the path they have chosen.
She also mentions the word 'really' three times, which could be interpreted as a conscious,
or subconscious, desire to convince the interviewer, and those watching, that she 'really' is telling the truth.
It
would appear from this passage that she's telling us, in a displaced way, how she thinks 'they' should
feel, not how 'she' herself really did feel. Why? Is it because she is nervous in her first interview or could
it be because she doesn't know how someone who has had their daughter abducted really feels?
Ultimately, Kate's answer, despite being wrapped in curious passages where she feels compelled
to mention the support they've received, is quite shocking. The fact is, despite locals giving up work for a week to
search the beach and streets for Madeleine, she has admitted that she never actually did any physical searching for her
missing daughter.
The only other question directed to Kate, specific to the disappearance was this one:
Jane Hill: 'And then on that Thursday night, Kate, when you realised that she wasn't
in her bed where you left her. Did you think even momentarily perhaps that she'd just woken up, wandered off of her own
accord, perhaps?'
Kate: 'Not at all, no' (There is then a pause, where Jane Hill may well
have expected Kate to elucidate the reasoning behind her bold answer but Kate doesn't say anymore - after an embarrassingly
long pause Gerry takes over and answers the question)
Kate's interview with Women's Hour - 08 August 2007
Jenny: 'There has been a lot of speculation as well though that the police have
treated you and your husband as suspects. How do you handle that kind of very personal speculation?'
Kate: 'I mean, I think you just gotta think to yourself... I mean, you
need the investigation to be thorough and, errm, you know, we'd welcome that really, errm, you know... you know, we've
got a very good working relationship with the Portuguese police and, errr, we've come a long way since the beginning of the
investigation. And I mean, the police were very open at the beginning saying everybody is a suspect and I think that's often the
case in, in many crimes as well'
As is common in Kate's answers, she often uses the word 'you' when she has been asked for her own
opinions. This would suggest she is placing herself outside the event. And yet again, when she feels vulnerable, she resorts
to frequent use of the word 'we' to remind us that she is part of a 'united' team.
By placing emphasis on the fact that 'we've come a long way since the beginning of the investigation'
it could appear that the most important aspect of the case, for Kate, is the investigation, not the recovery
of her daughter.
Jenny: 'Was she sleeping when you left her?'
Kate: (Long pause) 'Errm, yes, she was, yeah'.
Why should Kate need a significant pause to be able to answer that question? The immediate
impression from both the pause, her answer and the way she says it, is that she momentarily didn't know what to say.
But how could that be?
Jenny: 'What was your first thought, what did you think immediately had happened?'
(Upon discovering that Madeleine wasn't there)
Kate: 'Well, obviously I kind of looked and double looked and, errm, you know,
obviously, there was twenty seconds of, you know, she must be there (laughs). Errm, but there was no doubt in my mind
within (laughs) probably thirty seconds, errm, that Madeleine had been taken from that room. I can't go into the
reasons why I thought that but it was... no doubt whatsoever. And Madeleine wouldn't have walked out herself. I know
that.'
Kate gives an extraordinarily convoluted and inarticulate answer to a very simple question.
Jenny: 'And how will you deal with the guilt that will probably stay with
you forever of having left Madeleine alone?'
Kate: 'Well, I have actually come to terms a little bit with... with that,
Jenny, I mean, you know... I know the, errm, I know the situation that we were in that night and uh, I've said all along,
I didn't feel I was taking a risk. Errm, yeah, I... I do feel desperately sorry I wasn't with Madeleine at that
minute when she was taken. Errm, I'd also like to mention I've had so much support from so many people. I've had
so many letters and comments sent me.. sent to me from other families, and particularly other mums saying, you know, we
have done what you have done a hundred times over, do not blame yourself.'
There are three peculiar aspects to Kate's answer:
What does Kate mean by the phrase 'I know the situation we were in that night'?
Why does Kate say she is desperately sorry she wasn't with Madeleine 'at that minute when she was
taken'? She specifically emphasises 'at that minute' when she speaks.
Why does she seek to justify her decision to leave her three small children alone, every night
of the holiday, by suggesting that other families had done this a 'hundred times over'? This is surely a ludicrous
exaggeration. How many families have 'hundreds' of holidays with their children?
Kate's first interview without Gerry - The Independent 05 August 2007
Obviously, interviews printed in the media are not such good indicators as the pauses and half-words
are edited out and the result is a sanitised version of the interview.
Yet again, though, Kate's answers to questions specific to the investigation follow a similar pattern
as above.
Some examples:
Kate: 'There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind she'd been taken. That's why
the fear set in. Then you go through the guilt phase.'
Again, in that last sentence, she appears to have displaced herself from the event and sounds like
she is quoting something she has been advised by a counsellor. She's not telling us how she, as a participant in
the event, felt. She's telling us, in general terms, what somebody would feel who went through that situation.
Kate: 'You don't expect a predator to break in and take your daughter out the bed.'
This is a curiously dismissive, casual and unfeeling way to describe the nightmarish abduction
of your own daughter. And again, she speaks as though she's placed outside the event, using 'you' instead of 'I' or 'we'.
As she is being asked for her personal insight, would it not have been normal to expect a response such as 'We never
expected a predator to break in and take our daughter'.
Kate: 'Why would you for one minute think something like that would happen?' It's
not like we went down town or anything.'
Again, use of the word 'you', displacing her from the event, in a defensive, dismissive and
almost aggressive statement.
Kate: 'You can't imagine in your wildest dreams that anyone would do something
like that.'
Why use of the word 'you' and 'your wildest dreams'? Why not say 'I never imagined in my wildest
dreams that anyone could do something like that.' Again, as before, it places Kate outside the event, looking in and recounting
a story.
Kate: 'That night runs over and over in my mind, and I'm sure people will learn
from our mistake, if you want to call it that.'
We can surely call leaving her three small children, under 4 years of age, alone in a dark and strange
apartment a mistake, at the very least.
It's also worth noting that in this interview Kate states:
'Maybe it was because it was family-friendly, because it felt so safe. That week we had left them
alone while we had dinner.'
This clarifies that the McCanns left their children alone every
night of the holiday, whilst they went drinking with their friends. And:
'I was checking for her. Then there was panic and fear. That was the first thing that hit. I was
screaming her name. I ran to the group. Everyone was the same.'
Kate clearly states that she ran back to the tapas restaurant to sound the alarm. Other witnesses
have suggested that she shouted to the group from the balcony of her apartment. Indeed, if she did run back to the tapas
restaurant, it would appear an extraordinary decision to leave the twins alone again, when she was 'immediately'
convinced that Madeleine had just been abducted.
(This interview can be read below)
Leicester Mercury interview - 03 October 2007
On the whole a banal interview but containing two strange moments from Kate:
Interviewer: When were you aware of the green and yellow Madeleine bands?
Gerry:
"It must have been quite early on. When did they start? I don't know."
Kate: "Time passed by so surreally.
It was the first few hours, then eight hours, then 24 hours, 48 hours, then 72 hours... I don't remember. Each day felt like
a week."
What on earth is Kate talking about here? The question was about the green and yellow Madeleine wristbands
but Kate appears to be answering a completely different question!
Interviewer: What can you say about the legal side? It's been widely reported that
Portuguese Inspector Goncalo Amaral has been relieved of his duties...
Gerry: "We can't comment on
that. We want to emphasise enough our thanks, to the people of Leicestershire who helped to raise this money and for the support
we have received. It's just so uplifting. A few nights ago, we had a curry with some friends."
Kate:
"It was just a takeaway, we weren't out having a meal."
Yet another curious interjection from Kate. Why is she so sensitive about going out for a meal?
You can read the rest of the Leicester Mercury interview here
It is clear that by the time Kate and Gerry did their interview for
Spanish TV Station Antena 3, Kate had been well briefed and rehearsed on answers to the questions. In many ways, it was
a series of small scripted statements rather than a spontaneous interview. That may be the reason why Gerry looked so unhappy,
because he was unable to control the course of the interview and was left at the mercy of Kate's performance.
In Kate's early interviews, with Gerry, she said virtually nothing,
preferring to let Gerry speak and control the interview. The Antena 3 interview was all about Kate and the need to show
emotion. However, the reported tears and four breaks in filming have yet to be seen. It should be noted that Kate holding
a hand over her forehead does not equal real emotion. Nor does wiping your hand across your cheek to remove a non-existent
teardrop.
