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A closer look at Ocean Club nanny Charlotte Pennington, who claims to be a key witness to many of the events surrounding
Madeleine's disappearance.
Note that the articles on this page were written prior to the release of the PJ files and based on newspaper
reports and Ms Pennington's appearance on The Dispatches documentary.
We now have the opportunity to compare that information with the actual witness statement given to the PJ on 07 May 2007.
Charlotte Pennington - Witness Statement
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Historical articles/reports
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Kate McCann DID scream 'They've taken her' claims new nanny witness
Daily Mail
By DAN NEWLING
Last updated at 16:41pm on 25th September
2007
The first eyewitness account of the frantic moments after Madeleine McCann disappeared can be revealed
today.
Nanny Charlotte Pennington confirms that Kate McCann did scream: "They've taken her,
they've taken her!"
The mother's precise words have become a pivotal issue in the case, with Portuguese police questioning
why she would automatically assume Maddie had been abducted.
Mrs McCann's family have countered this by insisting they recall her shouting: "Madeleine's gone."
Miss Pennington, however, one of the first people to set foot in the couple's apartment after the
disappearance, says she heard the mother use both phrases.
The 20-year-old Briton, who tended children for the Mark Warner holiday complex in Praia da Luz,
firmly believes the McCanns are innocent.
Speaking publicly for the first time yesterday, she described Mrs McCann in the aftermath as "a broken
woman" who was shuddering and unable to move.
"We are trained to comfort people in this type of situation but she was just inconsolable," she said.
Miss Pennington is considered a vital witness by Portuguese detectives with whom she spent more than
four-and-a-half hours giving a statement.
She also claims British expat Robert Murat, the first suspect in the case, was in the area of the
Ocean Club complex that night. He has repeatedly denied that he was there.
Talking from her mother's home in Leatherhead, Surrey, yesterday she told the Daily Mail: "I was
in the apartment less than five minutes after they found that Madeleine had gone.
"When we were coming out we saw Kate and she was screaming: 'They've taken her, they've taken her!'
"I was standing right in front of her outside the apartment's back door, in the alleyway. I was very
close to her. It might not have been the first thing she said. But she definitely said it.
"I was one of three Mark Warner staff who saw her shouting it. They have all given statements to
the Portuguese police saying that."
The "they've taken her" version of events was first given in the Portuguese press two days after
Madeleine disappeared on May 3.
It remained unchallenged until last Thursday when a source close to the McCann family claimed Kate
had actually shouted: 'Madeleine's gone!'
Miss Pennington flew out to start work at Praia da Luz on April 28 - the same day that the McCanns
arrived. She had worked for Mark Warner on two previous occasions.
She was employed as a nanny in the Ocean Club resort's Baby Club, looking after children aged four
to 12 months.
However, she also came into close contact with Madeleine, her two-year-old sister and brother Amelie
and Sean, and their parents, both doctors aged 39.
She dismissed claims that the McCanns were not seen for six hours leading up to the disappearance.
She said: "I was helping give the children high tea. The twins were there and Madeleine and both
parents.
"It was supposed to finish at 5.30pm but because they were a big group and really social, it didn't
finish until about 6pm. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all."
After tea Miss Pennington went to work at the resort's evening creche, in which parents could leave
their children while they went out for supper.
Just before 10pm the last mother arrived to collect her child from the creche and mentioned that
she had just bumped into a man, who had been shouting a name.
"She didn't get the name, but she said it sounded something like 'Abbey, Gabby or Maddie'. We automatically
went into lost-child procedure. In these situations, the first thing we do is investigate the scene.
"We knew that one of the other nanny's charges was called Maddie. We told the head of department
what had happened and she took us straight to the apartment.
"There were no children in the room. The twins had been taken out already, I think by one of the
McCanns' friends.
"When we were coming out we saw Kate and she was screaming: 'They've taken her. They've taken her!'
Asked if it was the only thing she said, Miss Pennington answered: "It might not have been the first
thing she said. But she definitely said it. She also repeated Madeleine's name and said: 'She's gone, she's gone'.
"I couldn't really believe what I was seeing - she was just so distraught. She was screaming out
and tears were running down her face.
"Everyone else was running around trying to help.
"Kate and her friend, who was looking after her, were the only ones who weren't out looking for Madeleine."
While Gerry McCann leapt into action and began frantically searching the resort, she said his wife
remained outside the apartment, shuddering with tears and unable to move.
Asked why she thought Mrs McCann might have shouted "They've taken her", Miss Pennington said:
"I'm not really sure. But maybe she saw some people looking at Madeleine earlier that day, and she
immediately thought that they must have taken her."
The nanny was one of three staff who steered Mrs McCann to the nearby reception area, where they
asked her to describe what Madeleine was wearing.
But she remained so hysterical that she could hardly communicate.
"We get missing children all the time, and I have seen plenty of hysterical mothers. But none of
them were like Kate."
She confirmed reports from the McCanns' friends that Murat was at the scene.
"He was outside the lobby just before we started on our big search," she said.
"He was adamant that he wasn't there. But he was. He was there in the road, he was just looking.
It was about 10.30. He was just watching.
"I didn't know his name then. But the next day he was our interpreter and I met him then. He didn't
take part in the searches, but he was there."
Murat has insisted that he was at his home nearby throughout the evening of Madeleine's disappearance.
Portuguese sources have claimed that he will soon be told that he is no longer a suspect.
Miss Pennington explained that she spent the rest of the evening searching for Madeleine, before
finally going to bed at 4am.
The following afternoon she was one of the first people to give witness statements to the Portuguese
police.
Since then, she said, she has spoken to a Portuguese detective once and to two British detectives.
*
It is worth noting that this interview with Charlotte Pennington appeared just three days after a
number of newspapers ran reports about a 'missing 7 hours' time period leading up to Madeleine's disappearance -
a period when it was alleged that no independent witness had seen Madeleine.
Metodo 3 had already been hired by the McCanns at this point and this may well have been their first
contribution to the case: Offering Charlotte Pennington to the Daily Mail, for an exclusive interview, that would dispel the
'missing 7 hours' reports.
Of course, Pennington subsequently cast doubt on this story, on the Dispatches programme
aired on Channel 4 on 18 October 2007, when she admitted that the last time she had seen the McCanns, together as a family,
was at lunchtime on 03 May 2007.
On the very day the Dispatches programme was aired, for which the McCanns would almost certainly
have had a pre-screening, the Daily Mail reveals - exclusively - that Gerry had asked David Payne to pop by the
apartment and check on Kate.
The 'source' told the Mail, "David Payne saw Madeleine at around 6.30pm. He popped in because Gerry
wanted to make sure Kate was OK. Gerry was playing tennis and David said he was going past. I expect it was said (by Gerry)
as: 'If you are heading back that way, stick your head in and see if Kate is all right'.
The 'missing 7 hours' that Pennington had just blown a huge hole in was instantly filled in again!
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Portuguese police to probe 'Madeleine dumped at sea' claim Daily Mail (article no longer available online)
Last updated at 14:48pm on 14th October 2007
Portuguese police are becoming increasingly convinced that Madeleine McCann's body was dumped at sea.
Detectives are believed to be keen to re-interview a British nanny who claims she saw a mystery boatman kicking at something
in the middle of the night two days after Madeleine McCann disappeared.
Former Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington said she spotted the man in a small dinghy just off the Praia da Luz seafront.
She claims he was kicking at an object stored in the boat's hull.
When she moved closer to investigate, the man - whose name she has given to Portuguese and British police - stooped out
of sight then hurriedly rowed away.
Portuguese police are taking the sightings seriously and Miss Pennington, 20, and are looking to interview her once again.
She was working in the Ocean Club's creche on May 3, the night Madeleine disappeared. She is the only person to have given
a full, public description of the events of that evening.
She told police how she heard Kate McCann scream: "They've taken her" on the night of May 3, when Madeleine vanished, and
that she saw the first official suspect Robert Murat standing outside the Ocean Club that night.
Miss Pennington said the man was wearing a reflective yellow jacket with a hood but she could not make out his face.
One police source today described the sighting as 'credible'.
Miss Pennington said: "I'm pleased they are taking this seriously as it means they aren't just looking at the McCanns as
suspects."
Miss Pennington's account potentially tallies with repeated suggestions that Madeleine was smuggled out of the Algarve
on board a boat, or that her body was dumped at sea.
It also tallies with a second report today claiming new evidence proves that Madeleine was alive when she was taken from
her bed.
Police have been told Kate McCann knew instantly her daughter had been snatched because the bedclothes were in exactly
the same position, raised above the mattress as if they were still lying over the little girl.
Friends of the McCanns believe this prove she was taken and did not just wander off, which would have ruffled the bedclothes.
*
The Daily Mail has a tendency to re-write and overwrite its articles. The article reproduced above was a re-write of
a previous article that was published on 27 September 2007. A section of the original article was removed from the subsequent
re-write and is reproduced here:
'Former Mark Warner nanny Charlotte Pennington said she spotted the man in a small dinghy just off the Praia da Luz seafront
at 11.30pm. She claims he was kicking at an object stored in the boat's hull.
When she moved closer to investigate,
the man - whose name she has given to Portuguese and British police - stooped out of sight then hurriedly rowed away.
Portuguese
police are taking the sightings seriously and Miss Pennington, 20, has twice spoken to Leicestershire detectives about her
evidence.
Yesterday Miss Pennington said the man was wearing a reflective yellow jacket with a hood but she could not make out his
face.
However the following day she was shocked to see a man - whom she had come to know over the preceding week -
wearing exactly the same distinctive jacket as the man in the boat.' |
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Charlotte Pennington is shown in three separate clips talking about the events of 03 May 2007:
Transcription 1:
'They were a very social group and they seemed all to be really respectful, nice, loving parents. Madeleine, I found
out to be quite bright... errm, quite shy... errm, very sweet, very beautiful girl.
On May the third, it was just Madeleine I was reading a story to. I later saw them around lunchtime. That's the last
time I saw them together as a family.'
Transcription 2:
'I was working that night at something called 'Drop-in Creche'. We had one child left and... errm, the mother came
in, picked up the child and just mentioned 'Hang on a minute, I've just seen a guy who's run past me, who seemed really distressed
and I recognised him as being a guest at Mark Warner, but he was shouting out something like 'Maddie' or 'Abbey' or 'Gabby'.'
Transcription 3:
'I went straight to the apartment. I sort of walked in, did a quick scan around and been told 'No, no. She's not here,
she's not here'.
Kate McCann was outside and she was very distressed. She was saying things like 'They've taken her' and 'She's gone'
and, you know, 'Where is she? Where is she?'
She was crying and there were tears down her face and it was absolutely heartbreaking to see.'
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From VERONICA LORRAINE and NEIL SYSON in Praia da Luz
Published: 03 Dec 2007
A nanny at the holiday complex where Madeleine McCann vanished claims she saw suspect Robert Murat there on the
fateful night, it emerged yesterday.
Charlotte Pennington, 20, is one of three witnesses who could blow apart the oddball's alibi that he was home with his
mum.
They have told private detectives hired by Maddie's parents they saw a man just like Murat walking on the road outside
the McCann apartment on the night she disappeared.
Charlotte — a childminder at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, Portugal — challenged expat Murat, 34, the next
day. He denied being near the scene. Charlotte said he clammed up when she tried to grill him further.
Days later she and five fellow nannies saw Murat again in a supermarket. He was talking to a mystery man who bore an
uncanny likeness to a sketch of a suspect cops were seeking.
Charlotte is said to have told private investigators from Spain's Metodo 3 agency the man was "between 27 and 35, with
medium build, very dark eyes and a Portuguese or Spanish look".
The other two witnesses, both tourists, gave detailed, independent statements. A Portuguese newspaper said: "The mystery
man was seen by the babysitters in Faro airport on May 13 when they returned to England. As soon as she arrived in the UK,
Charlotte reported it to cops, who passed the information to the Policia judiciaria."
Murat has always maintained that when Maddie, four, disappeared on May 3, he was at home with his mother Jenny, 71.
Charlotte said she saw him near the McCanns' holiday flat at around midnight. Yesterday it was claimed police used Murat
as a translator — giving him access to the crime scene — as he was a long-time informant.
Towel
The hunt for Maddie — whose 39-year-old parents Kate and Gerry have also been named suspects by Portuguese detectives
— has centred on a disused barn near Praia da Luz where a blood-specked towel was found.
The samples have proved too tiny to match to Maddie’s DNA.
But fibres on the towel allegedly strongly match samples from the boot of a car rented by Kate and Gerry after Maddie
vanished.
Police are also said to be investigating a mobile phone call between Gerry and a pal 38 days after the disappearance.
Dr Russell O'Brien, 36, was with the McCanns, of Rothley, Leics, the night Maddie went missing.
Gerry told cops the call was made within four kilometres of his holiday apartment.
Phone records show the pair were 25km apart.
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The sighting of Cooper's 'Creepyman' with Robert Murat
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Charlotte Pennington, a nanny at the Ocean Club holiday complex where the McCanns were staying, told police last May she
saw Murat chatting to "a man aged around 27 to 35, average height, very dark eyes and of Portuguese or Spanish appearance".
She told detectives she saw expat Murat, who lives with his mother near to holiday complex, talking to the man outside
the Baptista supermarket in Praia da Luz.
Daily Mail 21 January 2008
Nanny Charlotte Pennington's description of a person she saw with Mr Murat also matches the man shown in the artist's impression.
And Charlotte Pennington, a nanny at the McCanns' holiday complex, says a suspicious man she saw in Praia da Luz was
"similar" to the drawing.
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A closer look at Charlotte Pennington
Nigel Moore
31 January 2008
Charlotte Pennington, who was employed as a nanny at the Mark Warner Ocean Club at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, would
appear to be blessed with an uncanny knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Although, from Kate and Gerry McCanns' perspective, it could be said that the opposite is true. As if by magic, Pennington
appears with a 'sighting' at just the right time to support the McCanns' theories on what happened that fateful night of May
3rd.
The fact that she claims to have worked as a fairy since the age of 14 may go some way to explaining her
remarkable abilities.
So, what did she see?
She says was there with Madeleine at the kid's club on 03 May 2007, the day of Maddie's disappearance. Thus providing
herself as an 'independent' witness to the fact that Madeleine was still alive on 03 May 2007.
She was there, inside the McCanns' apartment, within five minutes of the alarm being raised, and claims to have
witnessed both Kate McCanns' emotional state and the words spoken. Thus supporting the belief that this was the time
of the abduction and that Kate could not have acted that amount of grief.
She was there to see Robert Murat hanging around the Ocean Club. Thus supporting the McCanns', particularly Kate's,
desire to imply that Murat was involved in some way. It was reported, on 27 January 2008, that they believe
he may have acted as a 'look-out' for a gang of paedophiles.
She was there to see Robert Murat speaking with a suspicious looking man, the following day at the local supermarket, who
now appears to match the description and artist's impression produced for Gail Cooper's 'Creepyman'. Thus further
connecting Murat with an 'abduction'.
And, finally, she was there to see a suspicious man kicking something in a boat, 2 days after Madeleine's disappearance.
Thus supporting one of the McCanns' theories that the abductor escaped by water - probably to Morocco.
But do Charlotte Pennington's crucial testimonies stand up to scrutiny? Unfortunately, like a great deal of this
case, they are riddled with inconsistencies.
Pennington, who also works as a part-time actress - having briefly played the part of Libby Bailey in
the New Zealand soap 'Shortland Street' - would be familiar with the need to arrive on cue.
But then, as we all know, sometimes actors get their lines wrong...
Time with Madeleine on 03 May 2007
The Daily Mail published details of an interview with Miss Pennington on 25 September 2007, in which she dismissed
claims that the McCanns were not seen for six hours leading up to Madeleine's disappearance.
She said: "I was helping give the children high tea. The twins were there and Madeleine and both parents. "It was supposed to finish at 5.30pm but because they were a big group and really social, it didn't finish until about
6pm. There was nothing out of the ordinary at all."
However, speaking on the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary 'Searching For Madeleine', aired on 18 October 2007, she says:
"On May the third, it was just Madeleine I was reading a story to. I later saw them around lunchtime. That's the last time
I saw them together as a family."
So, which is true? Did she last see Madeleine and the McCanns at 6.00pm or at lunchtime? And why the discrepancy?
The Daily Mail report of 14 October 2007, reporting on Madeleine's movements at the kid's club, only mentions nanny
Catriona Baker being with her that day. The report states that Maddie was placed in a small group of children
between the ages of 3 and 5 years with Miss Baker.
Charlotte Pennington was employed as a nanny in the Ocean Club resort's Baby Club, looking after children aged four to
12 months. So, why would she have been looking after Madeleine, who was not a member of her Baby Club, and reading
her a story that particular day?
Pennington describes how she heard of Madeleine's disappearance from a woman who had come to collect her child from
the evening creche, where she was working. The woman had recounted to her how she had just bumped into a man who had been
shouting a name.
Pennington continues: "She didn't get the name, but she said it sounded something like 'Abbey, Gabby or Maddie'. We automatically
went into lost-child procedure. In these situations, the first thing we do is investigate the scene.
"We knew that one of the other nanny's charges was called Maddie. We told the head of department what had happened and
she took us straight to the apartment.''
Here Miss Pennington clearly states that Madeleine was 'one of the other nanny's charges', referring to Catriona Baker.
Yet she says in her two previous statements that she was with Madeleine that day. If that was true, why didn't she automatically
make the connection that this was 'Maddie', the girl she had read a story to that very day and had been with until 6.00pm
when the McCanns arrived to collect her and the twins?
In the Dispatches documentary, Pennington says: ''They were a very social group and they seemed all to be really respectful,
nice, loving parents. Madeleine, I found out to be, quite bright... errm, quite shy... errm, very sweet, very beautiful girl.''
The statement suggests an intimate knowledge of the McCanns and, more specifically, Madeleine. Yet, it appears, Pennington
was unable to connect the names 'Abbey, Gabby or Maddie' to herself and Madeleine.
This would seem to imply that Pennington never actually had charge of Madeleine on any day and, therefore, did
not know her at all, apart from her name being connected to the charge of another nanny.
So where does her intimate knowledge of Madeleine's personality come from?
And why is she making strong implications that Madeleine was in her charge when she clearly wasn't? The moments after Madeleine disappeared
Talking from her mother's home in Leatherhead, Surrey, she told
the Daily Mail: "I was in the apartment less than five minutes after they found that Madeleine had gone. When we were coming
out we saw Kate and she was screaming: 'They've taken her, they've taken her!'
"I was standing right in front of her outside the apartment's back
door, in the alleyway. I was very close to her. It might not have been the first thing she said. But she definitely said it.
I was one of three Mark Warner staff who saw her shouting it. They have all given statements to the Portuguese police saying
that."
In terms of the timeline, this is a very interesting quote. She says she was in the McCanns apartment ''less than five
minutes after they found that Madeleine had gone''.
She said previously that the woman who came to collect her child from the evening creche, from whom she first found
out a child was missing, arrived just before 10.00pm.
So, by the time the woman reached the creche, according to Pennington's account, a chain of events had already taken place:
Kate had discovered Madeleine missing; she had searched the apartment herself; she had run to the tapas restaurant to raise
the alarm with Gerry and their friends and she had returned to the apartment and waited for it to be thoroughly
searched by Gerry and their friends.
There would then have been a passage of time before the man, presumably Gerry, had gone out into the streets
shouting out Maddie's name (which incidentally, the McCanns have insisted they never called her - it was always 'Madeleine').
And then, finally, there would have been a pasage of time for the woman to arrive at the creche, collect her child and
then tell the staff what she had heard outside.
That whole process would surely have taken longer than five minutes to complete, and finish, before 10.00pm. Pennington's
statement suggests the alarm was actually raised sometime well before 10:00pm, but this would then have
major repercussions on the McCanns stated timeline. Indeed, it would make the raising of the alarm at 9:30pm, as was
stated in some early reports, seem much more likely.
Pennington's account of entering and leaving the apartment is also confusing in relation to her position and Kate's.
She says at first that ''When we were coming out (of the apartment) we saw Kate and she was screaming 'They've taken her'.''
This seems odd because it appears to imply that Kate was outside the apartment - possibly just outside the patio doors.
But why was Kate outside the apartment screaming 'They've taken her' when everyone else was inside?
Pennington continues: ''I was standing right in front of her outside the apartment's back door, in the alleyway. I
was very close to her. It might not have been the first thing she said. But she definitely said it. I was one of three Mark
Warner staff who saw her shouting it.''
So where was Pennington when Kate was screaming? Was she just coming out of the apartment and presumably beside Kate or
was she standing in the alleyway with three other members of the Mark Warner staff?
Pennington's account on the Dispatches documentary does not make it any clearer. She says: ''I went straight round
to the apartment. I sort of walked in, did a quick scan around and been told 'No, no, she's not here, she's not here'.
''Kate McCann was outside and she was very distressed. She was saying things like 'They've taken her' and 'She's gone'
and 'Where is she? Where is she?'.''
One wonders, by this time, to whom Kate was talking, or screaming.
And for who's benefit.
But there is one more crucial sentence from Miss Pennington that poses a huge and shocking question mark over our
understanding of the events of that evening.
She says: "There were no children in the room. The twins had been taken out already, I think by one of the McCanns' friends.''
Remember, Pennington ''was in the apartment less than five minutes after they found that Madeleine had gone.''
So where were the twins?
By 10:50pm, we know the twins were back in their cots as the first local GNR police officers attending the scene remarked
on how strange it was that the twins did not wake during all the commotion and screaming.
So, it begs the question: Why were the twins not there when Pennington arrived in the apartment?
If Pennington's statement is correct, then it leaves three possible scenarios:
1) The twins were moved out of the apartment, in the immediate aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance, and then returned
to their cots later. If so, why were they removed? And where did they go and who moved them?
2) The twins were moved prior to Kate's alarm call, perhaps because they wanted to clean the bedroom and were
then returned to the McCanns' apartment before the GNR arrived? If this were true, where did they go and who moved them?
3) The twins were never put to bed in the McCanns' apartment that night. They either regularly slept elsewhere on the holiday
or they slept elsewhere on that particular night and were transferred back before the GNR arrived. But why would they be sleeping
elsewhere? And again, where did they go and who moved them?
If the twins were not in the apartment, this would certainly explain Kate's decision to run back to the tapas restaurant,
apparently abandoning the twins alone in the unlocked apartment.
However, if Pennington's statement is correct, and we are to believe the twins were moved in this way, then it would now
seem even more extraordinary that the twins did not wake.
And the implication of that appears to be obvious.
Sighting of Robert Murat
Miss Pennington's Daily Mail interview confirms reports from the McCanns' friends that Murat was at the scene.
"He was outside the lobby just before we started on our big search," she said.
"He was adamant that he wasn't there. But he was. He was there in the road, he was just looking. It was about 10.30. He
was just watching.
"I didn't know his name then. But the next day he was our interpreter and I met him then. He didn't take part in the searches,
but he was there."
It is difficult to understand how Pennington can so clearly identify Robert Murat - a man she admits she did not know previously
- in a chaotic scene where, by all accounts, there were people all over the place. A 'big search' implies there were lots
of people there and this was night time, under street lamps that do not appear to be very powerful.
Can she really be sure this was Murat and not David Payne? The Payne's reportedly left their two children in the kid's
club, with Madeleine and the twins, under the charge of Catriona Baker. So, it is quite likely that Pennington had never met
David Payne previously either.
The Sun further confuses the account when it reports: 'Charlotte said she saw him (Murat) near the McCanns’
holiday flat at around midnight. Yesterday it was claimed police used Murat as a translator — giving him access to the
crime scene — as he was a long-time informant.'
This account, which does not come with a direct quote, does, however, appear to be sourced directly from Miss Pennington. Yet,
it clearly contradicts her previous statement that she saw Murat at 10:30pm, in the street outside the lobby, just before
they were about to launch their 'big search'.
So, where did Pennington see Murat? Outside the McCanns apartment at midnight or outside the lobby at 10:30pm?
The two diverse accounts surely cast a major doubt over Pennington's testimony.
Murat, the suspicious looking man and 'Creepyman'
A few days after Madeleine's disappearance, Charlotte Pennington reported seeing Robert Murat chatting to a man outside
the Baptista supermarket in Praia da Luz.
Initially, the sighting was used to further imply that Robert Murat was involved in some way. It was suggested that this
man fitted the description given by Jane Tanner of a man she allegedly saw walking 'urgently' away from the McCanns'
apartment on the night of 03 May 2007.
On 20 January 2007, the McCanns' released an artist's impression of a man Gail Cooper allegedly saw acting in a 'creepy'
way during the weeks before the McCanns arrived in Praia da Luz. Suddenly, Pennington's 'sighting' was dug up, brushed
off and represented to the public as a crucial piece of crucial, long-lost information.
In the space of 24 hours, the man who Murat was chatting to had suddenly been transformed from Jane Tanner's 'abductor'
into Gail Cooper's 'Creepyman'.
Firstly, the Daily Mail reports that: 'Charlotte Pennington, a nanny at the Ocean Club holiday complex where the McCanns
were staying, told police last May she saw Murat chatting to "a man aged around 27 to 35, average height, very dark eyes and
of Portuguese or Spanish appearance".
She told detectives she saw expat Murat, who lives with his mother near to holiday complex, talking to the man outside
the Baptista supermarket in Praia da Luz.'
The following day, the Daily Mail makes a stronger connection when it reports that: 'Nanny Charlotte Pennington's
description of a person she saw with Mr Murat also matches the man shown in the artist's impression.'
Later, The Sun, appearing to run a direct quote from Pennington, pushes the connection further, when it reports: 'And
Charlotte Pennington, a nanny at the McCanns' holiday complex, says a suspicious man she saw in Praia da Luz was "similar"
to the drawing.'
So, in what way is Pennington's sighting ''similar'' to the description and artist's impression of Gail Cooper's 'Creepyman'?
Pennington describes a man ''between 27 and 35, with medium build, very dark eyes and a Portuguese or Spanish look''.
Cooper, in describing 'Creepyman', says: "This man was very unpleasant and creepy. I'd put his age at 38 to 45. He was
very scruffy and had a 70s-style black Mexican moustache. He wasn't Portuguese—I think he was North African, either
Tunisian or Moroccan."
So, in what possible way could these two men possibly be described as ''similar''?
From the two descriptions, they have absolutely nothing in common whatsoever.
Yet newspapers, or perhaps more pertinently Metodo 3, seem intent on connecting the two. Newspapers will run with
it because it's a good angle and will sell papers, Metodo 3 because that is what they are being paid by the McCanns to do.
They have an agenda.
And that agenda is to propagate the abduction theory to the exclusion of all others.
The sighting of the boatman
Two days after Madeleine's disappearance, Miss Pennington claims to have seen a mystery boatman kicking at something
in the middle of the night.
Pennington said she spotted the man in a small dinghy, just off the Praia da Luz seafront, kicking at an object stored
in the boat's hull.
The Daily Mail continues: 'When she moved closer to investigate, the man - whose name she has given to Portuguese and British
police - stooped out of sight then hurriedly rowed away. Miss Pennington said the man was wearing a reflective yellow jacket
with a hood but she could not make out his face.'
So, what are the concerns here?
Firstly, the report says Pennington spotted the man in a 'small dinghy'. However, the very next sentence describes a
'boat' which was apparently big enough to store a reasonable size object in its hull.
Secondly, one wonders why a person, who it is implied may have had Madeleine stored alive, or dead, in a box in his dinghy/boat,
would choose to wear a bright yellow, reflective fisherman's jacket.
Thirdly, the sighting took place 'in the middle of the night' when the seafront is pitch black. Those people searching
for Madeleine, on the night of 03 May 2007, have described how they could only see as far as their torches shone and it was
actually quite a frightening experience.
So, how could Pennington see anything, let alone a man apparently some distance away that she had to move closer to try
and see.
And what was Pennington doing in the middle of the night, in the pitch black on the seafront? Did she have a torch?
Fourthly, Pennington admits she did not see the man's face and that he stooped down and quickly rowed away. So,
how could she possibly know who he was, in order to give his name to the police?
The first published reports of the sighting claimed that Pennington was shocked to see the man again the next day,
still wearing his bright yellow, reflective fisherman's jacket. She claims that she recognised the man as someone 'whom
she had come to know over the preceding week'. But how? How can she recognise and name a man just from a jacket, seen from
distance, in the pitch dark?
It should be remembered that Praia da Luz is a small fishing village and the sight of a fisherman's jacket, in such a setting,
would surely not be unusual. In fact, it would be a surprise if it wasn't commonplace. |
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Where was Charlotte Pennington?
Nigel Moore
Monday 30 June 2008
The question: 'Where was Charlotte Pennington when Madeleine was reported missing?' would appear to be one
of the few questions surrounding the case that can boast a straightforward answer.
In a case that has become characterised by the frustratingly unsatisfactory quotes of unnamed
friends and sources, Ms Pennington has afforded us the rare luxury of being able to listen to her own words from
her own mouth - at least until the Dispatches documentary 'Searching for Madeleine' was removed from YouTube and Channel
4's own 4oD service.
On that documentary, Ms Pennington recounted the following story: "I was working that night at something called
'Drop-in Creche'. We had one child left and... errm, the mother came in, picked up the child and just mentioned
'Hang on a minute, I've just seen a guy who's run past me, who seemed really distressed and I recognised him as being
a guest at Mark Warner, but he was shouting out something like 'Maddie' or 'Abbey' or 'Gabby'."
She then continues: "I went straight to the apartment. I sort of walked in, did a quick scan around and been
told 'No, no. She's not here, she's not here'.
"Kate McCann was outside and she was very distressed. She was saying things like 'They've taken her' and 'She's
gone' and, you know, 'Where is she? Where is she?'
"She was crying and there were tears down her face and it was absolutely heartbreaking to see."
So, in Ms Pennington's own words, her movements would appear to be crystal clear and unequicocal. End of story.
Yet, in Danny Collins recently released book 'Vanished' a completely different picture is painted. We are used to reading
slight variations of stories connected to the case, to the point where double-vision is a regular occurence, but
we are less used to somebodies movements being directly and confidently contradicted in print.
So what does Mr Collins say about Ms Pennington's movements and what is the significance of them, if true?
Mr Collins states that rather than being in the communal 'Drop-in creche', Ms Pennington was actually babysitting in
a 'nearby apartment' and was brought to the McCanns' apartment by the sound of Kate McCanns' screams from the balcony of apartment
5A.
He claims that Ms Pennington was the first person at the scene and that she told police that Kate 'clutched at her' and
'sobbed in panic as she tried to answer the young childminder's questions'.
Whilst Ms Pennington does indeed describe the frenzied state of Kate McCann, she does not mention the undoubted
importance and significance of being the first person to arrive at the scene.
However, if Ms Pennington's own account is true then it would have been impossible for her to have been the first person
at the scene as the incident she describes clearly indicates that the alarm had been raised some time before she was made
aware of it.
She does state in the Daily Mail article of 25 September 2007 that "I was in the apartment less than five minutes after
they found that Madeleine had gone".
However, that would seem unlikely given the fact that after Kate had reportedly discovered Madeleine missing she would
have had to inform the rest of the group by returning to the Tapas bar; allowed time for a further search of the apartment
by Gerry and their friends; allowed time to consider what to do; allowed time for Gerry to decide to go out onto the
streets and then do it; allowed time for the woman to hear him and later report what she had heard to Pennington and then
time for Pennington to ascertain which apartment was involved, gather herself and then actually reach the apartment. It would
seem unlikely that that whole process would have taken 'less than five minutes'.
In the same article, Ms Pennington further describes how: "We knew that one of the other nanny's charges was called Maddie.
We told the head of department what had happened and she took us straight to the apartment.
"There were no children in the room. The twins had been taken out already, I think by one of the McCanns' friends."
Leaving aside discussion around the distrubing suggestion that the twins were not in the apartment at that time (Where
were they and why and how did they return by the time the GNR arrived?), Ms Pennington states that she attended the McCanns
apartment with her head of department - yet again clearly suggesting that she wasn't the first person on the scene.
So, who to believe? Ms Pennington herself or the words of a Spanish-based veteran investigative journalist? Faced with
such a choice the natural inclination would surely be to side with the individual who was actually there and witnessed it.
Yet, the level of detail in Collins text suggests his knowledge extends beyond that of a blindfold, a stick and
a piñata.
Mr Collins also has something very significant to say about the occupation of the apartments by the McCanns
and the Tapas Seven.
Mr Collins states that the McCanns were in apartment 5A, as we all know, but that Jane Tanner and Russell O'Brien were
next door in apartment 5B. This appears to directly contradict Clarence Mitchell's statement that Rachael Oldfield was next
door on the evening that Madeleine is alleged to have been left crying, unattended.
What Mr Mitchell actually said was: "Equally, one of the friends, Rachael Oldfield, was in the apartment next door in
a bedroom adjacent to the wall where Madeleine was in her bedroom and she heard no crying at all all night."
The natural assumption from Mr Mitchell's statement is that Rachael Oldfield was 'in the apartment next door' because
that was her apartment. After all, what would she be doing in somebody elses bedroom, on her own, whilst all the other members
of the holidaying party were out enjoying themselves? All night.
Of course, making assumptions is a dangerous thing to do. But it does seem peculiar that Mr Mitchell has specifically
identified Rachael Oldfield - why not simply say that the Oldfield's were next door and heard nothing? If she heard nothing
all night, then she must have been there all night. If so, where was her husband?
If Mrs Oldfield was alone, it would suggest she was alone for a reason. After all, we have been told, first
hand by Kate, that they were operating a system. She said: "We all knew what we had to do, what we would do and.. you
know, it worked as a system we had going and it just seemed totally right somehow".
Could it be that Mrs Oldfield was babysitting? That the 'system' involved one member of the group babysitting all
the children? There is, it must be stated, no evidence to suggest this is the case but, at one point, there were curious
reports of all the children sharing the McCanns' apartment on the night of 3rd May. But was this true or just another
flight of fancy?
Mr Collins states that Mark Warner only rented out the ground floor apartments and that the holidaying group were all
based on that floor, contradicting previous reports that the Payne's were located on the floor above. Collins says that
the Payne's were 'further down the walkway' and that the Oldfield's were based the furthest away from the McCanns'
apartment.
So what significance does this have to the whereabouts of Charlotte Pennington on that evening? Possibly, a great deal.
Mr Collins tells us that Ms Pennington was babysitting in a 'nearby apartment' when she heard the screams of Kate McCann.
He tells us that Mark Warner only rented the ground floor apartments and so, therefore, we are compelled to ask: Was Ms
Pennington babysitting for one of the Tapas group and, if so, which one?
If we are to believe reports, the Payne's were the only couple to own and use a working baby-monitoring device, so would
therefore have had no need of a babysitter. The Oldfield's were the furthest away from the McCanns apartment and it would
therefore seem very unlikely that Ms Pennington could have heard the screams of Kate, if she was babysitting inside the
Oldfield's apartment.
So, that just leaves the apartment of Tanner and O'Brien, next door to the McCanns, where Kate's screams would have been
easily heard.
Yet, if Collins is correct in the statements he has committed to print, then two questions immediately spring to
mind: Why was Pennington employed as a babysitter, when the group had a communal checking 'system' that supposedly 'worked'?
And if Pennington was babysitting the children of Tanner and O'Brien, then why was Russell O'Brien reportedly absent
from the group until just before 10:00pm?
Of course, the possibility that there was another family occupying an apartment in the middle of the Tapas groups
apartments must be considered. However, it is very curious that if there were such an apartment, and such a family, then
why have they never been identified, mentioned or even remotely hinted at?
The fog that surrounds the mystery continues to show no signs of lifting.
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The actress - imdb site (link)
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Overview
Trivia:
She is the youngest daughter of Collette Pennington (now Whiton) and sister of Owain Pennington...
more
Alternate Names:Charlotte Whiton
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Filmography
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Additional Details
Other Works:(2004) She acts in productions at the Howick Little Theatre and is currently starring in The Prime of
Miss Jean Brodie there. She was a contestant in the recent Miss Howick competition and was
awarded with a prize for the best speech.
more
STARmeter:
89% since last week
why?
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Charlotte Pennington - A fairy since the age of 14
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In October 2006, Charlotte Pennington registered with nanny-agency.com. The link to their site no longer appears to work
but, at the time, they described themselves as:
'The best online aupair and nanny search service, work and jobs with 1000's of nannies and
nanny jobs. Save on traditional nanny agency fees. We also have Mother's Help, Nurses, Governess' & Housekeepers.'
Miss Pennington's rambling advert ran as follows:
'i had caught the acting bug and had drama cursing through my veins. my mother, collette, picked up on this and started
taking me along to her rehearsals and shows. the theatre became an absolute haven for me. the evocative allure of the stage
pulling me closer and closer as i watched every flicker of emotion pass through the actors faces, the costumes, the make-up,
the people. i just knew that this is it, my raison d’etre. around the year 2000 my mother remarried, to a man called
stuart wighton(whom i now think of as dad, and deciding to be known as charlotte wighton, rather than charlotte pennington)
and i propelled head first into the serious world of drama that i had not yet experienced. from the year 2000 to the year
2004 i had played over 16 lead roles of which included my all time favourite role, juliet from none other than romeo and juliet
and anne boleyn from anne of a thousand days. i also competed 3 times a year over a course of 5 years and was fortunate enough
to have done extremely well and my passion for the stage was able to be seen. my long term goal is to go to drama school which
i will do once i have accumulated the fees. while all of the above was going on i did of course have school, friends and jobs.
at school i took drama ( of course) but also history, photography, media studies, pe, english, history of art , travel and
tourism and human biology all of which i loved. and maths, which i did not. my jobs consisted of nannying, clerical work,
promotions work, acting and modelling and being a fairy. i’ve worked as a fairy since i was 14. it all started when
i walked into a shop called the enchanted forest and the owner said i looked like a fairy and would i like to work there.
would i ever?! it was a perfect fit, my love for performing plus my love for children combined with the added bonus of glitter.
working there meant a hectic, erratic, sporadic and completely opposite to the 9-5 cliché. it was full on with handling different
duties; fairying, catering, booking, accounts and retail.but it was all done in a fairy costume and with a smile. but exam
time rolled around and i had to temporarily hang up my wings. after the exams i had an idea that i could run my own fairy
business, which is exactly what i did. cultivating a network for my parties was a lot of fun (reminded me of a sort-of clean
cut disney mafia) i was intrigued one day when i saw the shop where i had my 7th birthday party, the fairy shop was still
around so i went inside and had a case of déjà vu, not only did it look the same, granted a tad smaller, the owner mentioned
i looked like a fairy and would i like a job? by now you are probably conjuring up some elfin creature complete with pixie
ears but i can assure you this is not the case. i think perhaps i have always given off this vibe as children all over and
in any place have the urge to smile and wave at me, which i don’t mind one little bit! so, i ended working for the fairy
shop as well as having my sideline business all the while attending the nanny centre and getting my nanny certificates and
training. now i am hoping for another chapter of my life to begin so . i hope i have let you in a little bit of my world and
that you understand more of the sort of person i am.'
It would be interesting to know how many parents were prepared to leave their children in Miss Pennington's care after
reading that.
Perhaps that is why she ended up working at the Mark Warner Ocean Club.
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