Just posting on this old Timeline thread because the issue was raised on the New German Suspect thread. It was claimed there that staff witness statements definitely place Gerry McCann in the Tapas Bar at the time of the Smith family sighting. I don't believe that thedir statements do prove any such thing. Times are not precise and because discrepecies are normal it's virtually impossible to guarantee what time GM was absent from the table and for how long.
For example the waiter, Joaquim Jose Moreira Baptista, is reported by the PJ to have told them: "When asked, he said that during dinner the men from the group would leave the table, returning to the table a few minutes later. The witness says that he does not know where they went. These absences would last for about 15 minutes. He cannot say with what regularity these absences occurred.
The witness remembers these occurrences well as would often have to take a plate of food requested by one of them back, due to the guest's absence, when he would find that the guest was not at the table when he came to serve the food.
When questioned, the witness says that he remembers on Thursday 3rd May, on the day of the disappearance, that the parents went to dine at the restaurant with the usual people. He cannot be precise, but the witness says that the group arrived between 20.00 and 21.00. He remembers there being about 9 people in total. He states that he received the food orders from the group.
Later, between 22.00 and 22.30, when the witness was in the kitchen, he was informed by a colleague that in the meantime a client had entered the restaurant shouting and that afterwards the whole English had left in a panic.
"
The bartender, Jeronimo Tomas Rodigues Salcedo, in an interview with the PJ stated: "I remember that when I took notice of the disappearance, I had been in the restaurant speaking with my two colleagues?Ze and Ricardo who were on break. I returned to the restaurant and noticed that the table of nine was empty with the exception of the older woman. I went over to the table and joked with her: ?They've left you alone?? She responded more of less with these words: ?No, they went to see if the little girl was there.? I responded that I hoped they would find her somewhere in the apartment. At saying this, I saw the man. Who I knew later to be Madeleines father, running to the pool and to the childrens play area in the Tapas zone as if looking for someone. It immediately hit me that after talking to the older woman, that the little girl had not been found. I offered to alert the workers at the Milenium Restaurant and the man agreed. He then left again running to continue searching. I believe that this was between 21H30 and 22H00 but do not remember with certainty."[/b]
And the kitchen assistant, Svetlana Starikova Vitorino, who also worked front of house told the PJ: "one individual, purportedly the father of the missing, left the dinner table where a group of friends (in number 8 or 9), for about 30 minutes. After having returned, a woman whom she believed to be his wife, also left the table, there having passed a few moments, all the guests left the table in question, except one elderly lady, who told her [Svetlana's] colleagues that that child had disappeared."
I don't believe that any of these statements can either confirm or disprove that GM was definitely at the Tapas bar at the time of the Smith sighting. Furthermore how much do we know of GM's movements after the alarm was raised?
