Just to remind us what Fiona thought 1 year after the event:
"Erm, tut, I looked, when I went into the room that Madeleine was sleeping in, the room was dark, Madeleine, erm, Madeleine's bed was sort of folded back, the sheets, quite kind of neatly really, erm, Sean and Amelie were fast asleep in their cots, they didn't stir, you know, I was opening the cupboards in the room and moving around the room, they didn't stir at all, which that was, that was odd. Erm, we were trying to ascertain whether Madeleine could have got out, and I've already said earlier the shutters were very heavy, and I was almost trying to convince Kate that she could have opened the shutter and climbed out, although knowing that wasn't a likely thing, but at that point we were just trying to pacify Kate in that Madeleine was going to be alright. Erm, and I, I think I touched the webbing in that room, but because Sean and Amelie were asleep, I didn't actually open the shutter in that room, we went, I went to the front of the house and I was trying to lift the shutter at the, at the back, just to prove whether, you know, whether it could have been opened and whether Madeleine could have opened it from the inside'.
00.50.31
1485
'And''
Reply
'I mean, it was fairly obviously, I think, that that wasn't what had happened and what could have happened'."
So Fiona is trying to get Kate to accept that Madeleine opened the shutters and by implication the window herself. One year later she is saying it was odd the twins remained asleep but did she say anything at the time?
Fiona goes on to describe what happened when the GNR arrive. Strangely to me she is not mentioning and confirming Silvia's account of arriving along with the GNR and being the interpreter.
"Reply
'Erm, well the next thing really was that the Police, two Policemen arriving, erm, at Kate and Gerry's apartment and they were Portuguese obviously, didn't really speak any English and that was, that was awful again really, because we were obviously desperate and frantic and at that point time, we were just conscious of every second that was passing by and by that time it was over an hour, I'm sure, before they arrived, but it felt like longer. Erm, and they wanted to come in the room, obviously, and, you know, see where Madeleine had been sleeping and they were checking the shutters and we were just trying to get over the urgency and it just didn't almost feel that they were recognising the urgency, although obviously with the language barrier, I can appreciate, you know, it's very, very hard. Erm, and Kate was getting hysterical at this point, erm, she, you know, screaming, erm, because she just wanted somebody who she felt was doing, doing something that was going to make a difference. Tut, erm, and then, they were the only two Police Officers we saw for, it seemed like quite, I don't know, this is where the time gets difficult, but another hour I'd say, erm, and then I was conscious of more sort of uniformed Police being around, sort of out the front. I mean, we were to'ing and fro'ing between the front of the apartment and the back of the apartment. And, erm, there were loads of MARK WARNER staff obviously running around the streets, they kept coming up the stairs at the back saying 'Have you checked the apartment' and we're like, you know, 'Yeah, she's not here'. Erm, tut, and there were some other locals who were all trying to be helpful, some helpful, some not. There was a woman who worked, I think she was work, had worked in the bar in Praia da Luz and she had actually almost invited herself up onto the balcony and was just quite drunk and not being, just not saying anything very helpful and I remember getting quite cross with her, saying 'Look', you know, 'Why are you here', you know, 'If you're going to be helpful get out and look for her' and, erm, and I remember Gerry actually asking her quite politely if she wouldn't mind just leaving them. Erm, I think she was the only one really that, that actually came anywhere near the apartment that wasn't one of us or a Policeman."
Does she mention Silvia at all?
No but he makes a point that some male person was doing translating on the night.
That is two major contradictions appearing in Fiona's statement.
1. Where is Silvia and what is she doing?
2. Who is this male person who the GNR don't see yet according to Fiona they are talking to him?