In her book Kate McCann asserts that Tannerman and Smithman are the same?

[John]

I believe Kate made her position abundantly clear in her book Madeleine which by the way was most certainly at odds with what the Portuguese police believed and whats more, she knew it.

Some extracts from Madeleine.

We subsequently learned that less than fifty minutes after Jane’s sighting – when I had still to discover that Madeleine was missing – a family of nine from Ireland had also seen a man carrying a child, this time on Rua da Escola Primária, a few minutes’ walk from apartment 5A, heading towards Rua 25 de Abril. Their description was remarkably similar to Jane’s. The man was in his mid thirties, 1.75 to 1.8 metres tall and of slim to normal build. These witnesses, too, said this person didn’t look like a tourist. They couldn’t quite put their finger on why, but again they felt it might have been because of what he was wearing. They also mentioned cream or beige trousers. The child, a little girl of about four with medium-blonde hair, was lying with her head towards the man’s left shoulder. She was wearing light-coloured pyjamas, had nothing on her feet and there was no blanket over her. Although, like Jane, this family had taken this man and child for father and daughter, they commented that the man did not look comfortable carrying the child, as if he wasn’t used to it.

The police did not appear to feel that Jane’s sighting in Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva and the man and child reported by the Irish holidaymakers in Rua da Escola Primária were related. They seem to have concluded that these were in all likelihood two different men carrying two different children (if, they implied, these two men actually existed at all). The only reason for their scepticism appeared to be an unexplained time lapse between the two sightings. They didn’t dovetail perfectly. To me the similarities seem far more significant than any discrepancy in timing. Every time I read these independent statements in the files (and neither could have been influenced by the other, remember – Jane’s description had not been released to the public before the Irish witnesses made their statements), I am staggered by how alike they are, almost identical in parts. As a lawyer once said to me, apropos another matter, ‘One coincidence, two coincidences – maybe they’re stil coincidences. Any more than that and it stops being coincidence.'

Who knows why there was a forty-five-minute gap between the two sightings, or where this man might have been in between? I long ago stopped trying to come up with answers because I don’t think I need to. If the child was Madeleine – and in four years, no father has ever come forward to say it was him and his daughter – why would we assume he would be behaving normally or logically? There is nothing normal about stealing a little girl from her bed, so why should his subsequent actions be predictable? The abductor would hardly have been expecting to see Jane walking towards him as he escaped, let alone have anticipated that Gerry would be standing talking round the corner. Whatever plan was in his mind, he might well have been forced by these near misses to change it pretty quickly.

SIGHTING ONE AND TWO
Witness One: Jane Tanner
Witness Two: Holidaymaker from Ireland

These two crucial sightings of a man carrying a child in the street, made around the time of Madeleine’s abduction on the night of 3 May 2007, have been discussed in detail in this book. The description of the man seen by Jane Tanner was eventually made public three weeks after Madeleine’s disappearance and an artist’s impression commissioned by our own investigative team was released in October 2007. Yet to this day no man has come forward to identify himself as the father, relative or family friend of the child in either case. Although the police appear to have considered these sightings to be unrelated on the basis of the forty-five-minute gap between them, the similarities speak for themselves.

Interesting that Kate refers to the "Holidaymaker from Ireland" and not the "Nine Holidaymakers from Ireland".

[AnneGuedes]

I believe Kate made her position abundantly clear in her book Madeleine which by the way was most certainly at odds with what the Portuguese police believed and whats more, she knew it.

Some extracts from Madeleine.




Interesting that Kate refers to the "Holidaymaker from Ireland" and not the "Nine Holidaymakers from Ireland".

She writes "a family of nine" and then "the witnesses"..
What "speaks for itself" to paraphrase her is her pretending that "the similarities speak for themselves."

[Wonderfulspam]

Only for ignorant people, SH, people kept ignorant of the Smith sighting by the media. Why do you think that only a local Irish newspaper told about the Smith sighting and, as you said, of the likely last sighting of Madeleine ever ?
Even the Portuguese haven't heard of the Smiths.

Personally I am a big fan of "The Smiths", 

'Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before'  IMO Smithman was not out looking for 'Half a person' that night, he was though thinking 'Please,please,please let me get what I want'.

There was 'Panic', it wasn't his 'Girlfriend in a coma'...he knew where he was heading... 'Nowhere fast'.... so he didn't need to 'Ask' for directions. 
 
Smithmans child did not look comfortable, maybe she was 'Still ill', he could have been struggling to carry her because 'Some girls are bigger than others'.

Anyway, 'I started something I couldn't finish',  'That joke isn't funny anymore' & 'I know it's over' said 'This charming man'.

[Anna]

Just been thinking about this and wondered if all the parents of the children in the crèche had been interviewed or had questionaires  sent out to them and if they all replied and were eliminated, then the smithman could not have been coming from the creche .
 This Could still be an innocent man though, with a child, who had no shoes on, 3/4, blonde and no mummy along with them ? Also as you said SH, surely Mum would persuade Dad to come forward to police.
 He didn't answer the Smith family when they spoke, so possibly not an English speaker or he didn't want his face seen

[pathfinder73]

Yes Smithman didn't speak to the family because it would possibly incriminate him and I bet he checked his watch to see what time it was when he passed them  If they ID Smithman I will tell you the exact time of that sighting.

[AnneGuedes]

Yes Smithman didn't speak to the family because it would possibly incriminate him

Yes, but he turned himself suspect (second thought, the first was "rude person") by not answering or waving, very unnatural when you cross someone at night in the deserted street of a village.
Had he spoken, it could have been worse.
And may be he couldn't really wave because both his arms and hands were busy supporting the little girl.

[pathfinder73]

Yes, but he turned himself suspect (second thought, the first was "rude person") by not answering or waving, very unnatural when you cross someone at night in the deserted street of a village.
Had he spoken, it could have been worse.
And may be he couldn't really wave because both his arms and hands were busy supporting the little girl.

Not even a nod just kept his head down. It's funny when you look at the times on the night and one have them down to the exact minute - not the normal 8.45 or 9.50 but down to the exact minute. Some can be explained checking time before leaving the table but not others unless you had a very good reason to do it - being that specific and overconfident could come back to haunt you.

[pegasus]

A simple explanation why the man did not reply to the greeting of Mrs S might be if he is a Portuguese father walking home and he does not speak English.

[AnneGuedes]

Not even a nod just kept his head down.

Actually he turned slightly his head, meaning he didn't want any intromission. Had he said something, they might have forgotten (imo they remembered  because he was "rude"), but of course he could have betrayed his identity, speaking, so he did well no to speak.

[AnneGuedes]

A simple explanation why the man did not reply to the greeting of Mrs S might be if he is a Portuguese father walking home and he does not speak English.

[j.rob]

Its not about semantics..its about telling the truth...statements like this that are false  are later posted as facts.

Yes it would have been good if the parents and friends of a very young and vulnerable child had told the truth.....is that what you are saying?

[AnneGuedes]

Yes Smithman didn't speak to the family because it would possibly incriminate him and I bet he checked his watch to see what time it was when he passed them  If they ID Smithman I will tell you the exact time of that sighting.

I seem to remember that exact time was determined to be 10:03, wasn't it ?

[Angelo222]

I seem to remember that exact time was determined to be 10:03, wasn't it ?

Yes, the exact moment that Kate was discovering that Madeleine was gone.  If the abductor took her around 9.45/9.50pm he would have time to walk down to where he became Smithman at 10.00/10.03pm.

It took several days for the Smith family to report this.  Are we really expected to believe an abductor could walk for this distance carrying a scantily clad youngster and not be seen by anyone else?

[Mr Gray]

Yes it would have been good if the parents and friends of a very young and vulnerable child had told the truth.....is that what you are saying?

 I don't think there is any evidence that they have not told the truth

[AnneGuedes]

Yes, the exact moment that Kate was discovering that Madeleine was gone.

No, Angelo, Mrs McCann didn't look at her watch.
This is likely the time, +/- a minute, when Smithman crossed the Smiths. He had to check his watch in order to have an alibi for that time, in case he would be suspected, don't you think ?