A FALSE ALARM

It was with some reluctance, apparently, that Jane Tanner confided in her friends Rachael, Fiona, Russell, Matt, Dave, and ultimately the McCanns, concerning what she believed to be her sighting of an abduction in progress. This must have been something of a double-edged sword for Gerry, and possibly explains why he sat head bowed, at the table, while others discussed and annotated the all-important timelines (versions 1 and 2) around him. He was no doubt thinking through, even then, how best to incorporate this unexpected revelation into the account (see article, A Tanner in the Works, for discussion). The only detail of Jane Tanner's that need concern us here, however, is the approximate time of her 'sighting,' which we can allow her to fix for us with reference to her own witness statement to police on 4 May, 2007, when events will clearly have been freshest in her mind.

"She remembers that at about 21h10 Gerald left the restaurant to go to the apartment to check on the children. Five minutes later, the witness left, to go to her apartment to see whether her daughters were O.K. At this moment she saw Gerry talking to an Englishman called Jez...

"She passed by them knowing that Gerry had already been in the apartment to check his children.

"Meanwhile a man appeared, carrying a child...She noticed the individual's presence exactly when she had just passed by Gerry and Jez who were talking..."

Shortly after 9.15 p.m. then (a little earlier, a little later, it makes no difference really); comfortably after 9.00 p.m. in any event. This is the factor to register.

Gerry McCann too made a statement to police that day, and here is an excerpt from it:

"...at 9.05 p.m., the deponent entered the club, using his key, the door being locked, and went to the children's bedroom and noted that the twins and Madeleine were in perfect condition. He then went to the toilet, where he remained for a few instants, left the apartment, and then crossed ways with someone with whom he had played tennis."

Six days later (10 May) Gerry made a further statement, not dissimilar to his first as regards the invigilation of his children in their own bedroom, except for inclusion of the following:

"He adds that he did not enter any other part of the residence, where he was for only two or three minutes..."

Although an apparent afterthought, this caveat too will prove important in due course.

An astute commentator on the McCann case who is, shall we say, 'on furlough,' has previously drawn attention to the worthless nature of witness statements that include proxy observations of what others may or may not have said, or done, at any particular time. Unless the witnesses were present themselves, such reported details, second-hand at best, can otherwise represent no more than surmise.

Predictably there are quite a number of instances where Kate McCann, in her book 'Madeleine,' takes it upon herself to describe what others said, did, felt etc., including an episode on p.70 (paragraph 3), where she describes Gerry's 'check' at 9.05 p.m.

"He glanced into our room to make sure Madeleine hadn't wandered in there, as she was prone to do if ever she woke in the small hours. Seeing no little body curled up in our bed, he went over to look in on the children."

In his own (10 May) statement to police Gerry McCann is at pains to emphasize that he did not enter any other room (except the bathroom).

Now, under the guise of 'artistic licence,' Kate could quite easily have dressed this brief visit up in all sorts of thoughts attributed to husband Gerry, as he stared down at his 'three beautiful children' from the doorway to their bedroom (without going fully inside and tripping over the abductor of course). It would not have altered the basic facts as given by him to the Portuguese police, nor as discussed between them afterwards no doubt, in the course of the author's verification of detail to be included in the manuscript. But Kate does not do this. She adopts a different course entirely; one which gives rise to yet another question: In recounting an incident on Gerry's behalf and, one supposes, 'telling it like it is' (or was), why has Kate McCann seen fit to include an unnecessary embellishment; one that is not completely in tune with the facts one supposes Gerry might have confirmed to her? She had only to refer to his statements in the files after all.

This little side-step is clearly not predicated upon Gerry's knowledge. It is inaccurate. Ah, but then Gerry is only described as having 'glanced into' the room - not altogether a contradiction (he didn't go in, only 'glanced in'). Except that the orientation of the parents' bedroom and the disposition of the furniture (as represented by the diagram on p.46 of Kate's book) were such that one could not have 'glanced in' from outside the room and seen the complete surface of both beds - they would have been occluded by the door, even if open at a right angle. The best one could hope for might be sight of the bottom left-hand corner of the bed farthest away. In order to properly ascertain that there was 'no little body' at the pillow end of either bed (and what child is not going to go there), one would need to take at least one step inside, so as to see around the door, unless of course it was completely folded back against the wall, which it could not have been, as there was a wardrobe there.

Strange indeed. Stranger yet when one discovers that, despite having read the police files in 'microscopic detail,' Kate (no doubt prompted by her script consultant(s)) still manages to incorporate a diagrammatic floor plan of apartment 5A, the dimensions of which are at odds with those recorded by the police, incorporating a potentially significant error into the bargain.

In her diagram, Kate shows the door to their bedroom as hinged to the right, opening from the left. Although the police plan omits this detail, forensic photographs taken inside the apartment show quite clearly that this door is actually hinged on the left, opening to 90 degrees, in line with the bare wall.

This arrangement ought, in fact, to lend greater credibility to Kate's mention of Gerry's 'glancing in,' as an open door in this position cannot have obstructed his diagonal line of sight to the beds. And yet...

The very photographs which clear away the door from Gerry's hypothetical viewpoint, reveal that this is still obstructed; not by the door any longer, but by the wardrobe. In comparing the picture taken of the empty beds with the view looking out from the room it becomes apparent just how far inside the room the photographer had to stand in order to photograph (and hence to see) both beds in their entirety. Even if only to 'glance' adequately at both beds, in the dark, one would have to stand inside the room - beyond the reach of the door and clear of the wardrobe. This is confirmed by the Channel 4 documentary, 'Madeleine Was Here.' The camera (and lights) follow Gerry through the front door and into apartment 5A, passing the alcove to the right where both bedroom doors are located. The door to the parents erstwhile room is fully open and, at 28:57, as Gerry walks straight on into the main living room, the attentive viewer will just glimpse a portion of the far bed - but no more than that.

Kate's description of Gerry's behaviour does not draw on Gerry's knowledge, but can only be a product of her imagination, her knowledge. Quite apart from its being a contradiction, it has also forced its way unnecessarily into Kate's account of the scene, which attempts, impossibly, to alter the course of events in retrospect. If, as he has stated, Gerry visited the children's bedroom, then left the apartment without entering any other room save the bathroom, he cannot first have glanced into (i.e. entered) the parents' room, then moved to the bedroom opposite in consequence. And since Gerry would not have spoken to Kate of his going, or even glancing, into rooms he did not visit, then he would not have discussed the absence of 'a little body' from their bedroom either.

So how is it that Kate McCann knows there was 'no little body' on their bed for Gerry to see at 9.05 p.m. that night? I suspect the source of her information to be the same as that which prompted her to say, during an interview for BBC regional news a long time ago:

"You don't expect somebody to go into your apartment and take your child out (of) your bed."

Which brings us full-circle to the sighting, by Jane Tanner, of Madeleine McCann's supposed abductor at approximately 9.15 p.m. Regardless of whom Jane Tanner may or may not have seen carrying a child in arms at that time, the child could not have been Madeleine McCann if she were no longer in the apartment by 9.05. Of course Gerry McCann claimed he saw Madeleine in her own room that night, under the very conditions in which Kate would be unable to 'make her out' less than an hour later. Kate has however contradicted Gerry's account of his own visit, in giving everyone a somewhat altered 'account of the truth.' And she 'knows what happened.' Not only, therefore, is Gerry McCann's statement about his three children called into question, but it is appropriate to recognize that, if it took the various parents barely 45 seconds to return to their respective apartments from the Tapas bar, then it certainly did not take 15 - 20 mins. for someone to carry a 'little body' across the street.