On 18 August 2007, the Portuguese national newspaper Sol published an article by Felicia Cabrita as follows...
SOL - AUGUST 18
New contradictions in Maddie's case
By Felicia Cabrita, with Margarida Davim
Translation by astro
The version that the McCann couple and their group of friends have been giving about what happened on the night that Madeleine disappeared, is shaken by new testimonies that were collected by Sol.
The English started by saying they took turns every 15 minutes in order to, through the windows of the rooms where the children were sleeping, listen if anything abnormal was happening. This vigilance system, which they assure was efficient throughout a week of holidays, is questioned by an English citizen who lives in the apartment above the one that was occupied by Kate and Gerry McCann.
Employees deny Russell
Fenn told Sol that, on the night before she disappeared, Maddie cried for quite some time, calling out daddy! daddy!
Also the table waiters that were working in the resort's restaurant, the Tapas, where the group of friends had dinner that night didn't notice much movement of checking on the children. One of them guaranteed to Sol that, since the beginning of dinner (which started between 8.30 and 9 p.m.), only two men got up, almost simultaneously.
One of them was Russell O'Brien, one of the doctors of the group, who was absent for most of the dinner and who returned to the table 5 minutes before Kate went to her apartment and noticed Maddie was missing. Russell then explained that his daughter was sick, and even vomited so it was necessary to change her bed sheets. One of the employees of the Ocean Club, who was heard by Sol this week, contradicts his version: "If that had happened, he would have to ask the housekeeping service for some clean sheets, which did not happen".
During the short hour that dinner lasted, the group asked for, and consumed at their table, eight bottles of red wine and six of white wine, according to the restaurant's records.
GNR was on location since 11 p.m. With the help of a member of staff from the Ocean Club, who helped as a translator until 4 a.m., they collected the first reports. Although Maddie?s mother guaranteed that, when she noticed her daughter was missing, the shutters of the room where the children were sleeping were up and the window was open, the members of this police force did not detect any clues to indicate that these had been forced.
On the other hand, the resort's employee guaranteed to Sol that the shutters are so old and simple that, with the sun exposure they were subject to in these 14 years, if anyone did try to open them from the outside, they would have broken. The main door to the apartment didn't show any signs of a break-in, either.
The McCann family were never alone. Dozens of members of staff at the resort appealed to the local population, mostly English citizens, and the surrounding areas were searched thoroughly. The couple was busy making phone calls.
Aurelio Guerreiro, the owner of a bar at the marina in Vilamoura, was close to being involved. His testimony to Sol confuses the McCanns' time version. Sometime between 0.30 and 1 a.m., Aurelio got a phone call from an old customer: Pat Perkins, the human resources director from a public English organism. She calls him, upset: "She told me the daughter of British friends of her, who were vacationing close to Lagos, had disappeared over 3 hours ago, that they were completely alone and that nobody was helping them to search for her".
Kate McCann had just informed her parents of the tragedy. Pat, who lives in Liverpool, confirms: "I was at Kate's parents' house at that moment. But I have nothing further to add".
Guerreiro tells what he did after Pat called him: "I understood she wanted me to go meet them, but I was an hour away from their location, and I could not close the bar, I decided to call the police". After PJ in Portimao confirmed to him they already knew about the case, Aurelio phoned Kate, at the number that Pat had given him: "An English man picked up. He thanked me, and contrary to what I expected, he didn't ask me for anything".
Minutes after this phone call, Gerry asks for the priest from the Luz parish to be called for him but the Ocean Club staff members refused, given the time it was. At 4 in the morning, Jane was asking a member of GNR: "Have you cut off all the roads already?". Minutes later, Gerry, given the fact that the priest didn't appear, asked another element of GNR to show him the way to the church.
Couple wants to return to England
As Sol has been reporting, the clues that were collected by PJ with the help of English police, lead to a turnaround in the investigation. One of the dogs used by the British marked Maddie's death inside the apartment. On the other hand, blood was found inside the bedroom where the McCanns children were sleeping, which has been dissimulated with the help of whiteners, and is still being analysed in a British laboratory.
The path that the English dogs followed 2 weeks ago, in the surroundings of the apartment, exclude the possibility that the child was abducted and is still alive. The dogs walked the only two paths that Maddie's family and friends knew.
One of them leads to Luz beach. The Irish citizen Martin Smith, a local resident for years, told Sol that on that night he crossed ways with a man who was carrying a child, with the characteristics of Maddie. That path was searched by police and other people. Six days after the disappearance, Gerry, who was accompanied by an unknown individual, also seemed to participate in the searches, but on the opposite side of the way the dogs walked.
Parents are leaving
Throughout this week, much was speculated in the press. The Times published that the blood that was collected inside the apartment is not Maddie's but from an individual from the European northeast. The English lab denied this, stating that they have not finished their work yet. The McCanns were saying yesterday in several newspapers that they were considering going back to their country.
