Did this finding get followed up by the PJ?

[Robittybob1]

I think it would only be possible to understand this if one was there for they are referring to a site map and just from the words we have no idea where they are looking at at one time.

SC statement:
"SC: Yes.
I am certain that I read about this at the beginning, which (inaudible)' I think that afterwards, and afterwards coincides with the fact that he was the man from the laundry and of the van parked there, because as i have already explained, we were here in a small street here above which linked to the main road and to everything beside here on top, the rest was all pathways and I remember that on two or three occasions I thought...this is a dead end road, the van was parked there, I never saw anyone and more than once assumed that it would be cleaning staff and only this thought coincided with the presence of the man from the laundry, and if there were any reply to be made in relation to the link between the van parked there and the laundry man. "

So Steve is doing his own detective work, he has seen the van parked by the laundry " he was the man from the laundry and of the van parked there" and the same van near Murat's place.  Puts 2 and 2 together, that must be the laundry van and he is the laundry man.

[Robittybob1]

More evidence that Steve and his mates were  having doubts about where the Portuguese investigation was going:

"SC: Of course with Murat there is Murat and the Russian individual, you know....I thought that we might well be looking for the totally wrong person and the fact that a bed existed in the garage and some children's toys.

DCF: Yes.

SC: I thought, ohhh...its worth mentioning this and that's the reason I mentioned it in my statement.
DCF: Fine,"

And all the British cop says to that is "fine", and "Yes".  Was he confirming Steve's doubts?  And did Steve really mention his doubts in the first statement.  I bet that was received with open arms by the PJ when they read that!

[G-Unit]

More evidence that Steve and his mates were  having doubts about where the Portuguese investigation was going:

"SC: Of course with Murat there is Murat and the Russian individual, you know....I thought that we might well be looking for the totally wrong person and the fact that a bed existed in the garage and some children's toys.

DCF: Yes.

SC: I thought, ohhh...its worth mentioning this and that's the reason I mentioned it in my statement.
DCF: Fine,"

And all the British cop says to that is "fine", and "Yes".  Was he confirming Steve's doubts?  And did Steve really mention his doubts in the first statement.  I bet that was received with open arms by the PJ when they read that!

'we might well be looking for the totally wrong person'

Was he and others looking for someone? Who did they think they were? What made them think it was their place to be looking for anyone?

[Robittybob1]

'we might well be looking for the totally wrong person'

Was he and others looking for someone? Who did they think they were? What made them think it was their place to be looking for anyone?

The whole community got involved in the "who dun it".  I think that is just human nature when we see a case unfold to wonder if the police are on the right track. 
Not everyone would know about this garage with toys in it overlooking the McCann's property so it was just a handful of people who knew this.  Would Robert Murat himself have been aware of the garage?

[barrier]

The whole community got involved in the "who dun it".  I think that is just human nature when we see a case unfold to wonder if the police are on the right track. 
Not everyone would know about this garage with toys in it overlooking the McCann's property so it was just a handful.  Would Murat himself have been aware of the garage?

Was he asked,would he care.

[Robittybob1]

I don't know anything about that as yet but I have found out that Mario Fernando Madeira Marreiros (laundryman) was a witness to a sighting apparently.
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/73may13/Portugal_29_05_2013.htm

The source of that http://theportugalnews.com/news/portuguese-cleaner-speaks-of-weird-stranger-at-madeleine-apartment/28528 appears to have been written 29-05-2013 and when you think about it that is a very long time after the event to be bringing up new information.
OK the article points out the conflict with his original statement. 
"In his initial testimony given five days after her disappearance, and which is available at http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARIO_MARREIROS.htm he told investigators that he did not know “of anything suspicious that could be related to the events.”"

Did he forget to mention it then?

[Robittybob1]

Sunny - there are two unknown or even 3 unknown men in SC statement.

There is Dave the English man who helped with the keys. (that is one, and there are the two others, the Tapas Guy and the Portuguese Man).
SC states:
"A man with three children whom I met in the Tapas Bar and who I referred to as the "Tapas Guy" and a Portuguese man in a garage whom I will refer to as the "laundry man".

I think you have identified the Laundry man, but isn't it the Tapas guy who has the apartment with the garage.
I think the Tapas Man could have been identified separately.
Tapas man has the dreadlocks and his name was Michael Sperry or something like that. At this stage I don't think the laundry man is living in the apartment block opposite the McCanns apartment but I'm unsure.

Is there anyone good at comprehension that can get us on target here please?

There is a guy referred to as the Tapas Guy - but that term is not mentioned again, but he is English not Portuguese whereas the laundry man is Portuguese so they must be distinctly different people.

The English man has grey hair, but I don't think Steve gets to talk to the Portuguese man (how could he?) so when Steve is told "his son lives there"  that is in the garage, it doesn't mean the Portuguese man lives in the garage but Portuguese man's son not the English man's son.
I'm struggling with who's who!

For some unknown reason I thought "Tapas man" could have been Michael Sperry but TextUSA mentions another named individual.
TextUSA "Neil Berry and Raj Balu, with who he says he spoke briefly with on May 03 in Tapas, he's able to remember their names but Philip Edmonds who he says his daughter plays with and gets into a conversation intimate enough to be told the other man would be leaving earlier the next day, he can only remembers him by “Tapas Guy”."

Well how did the name "Philip Edmonds" come up as there is no file in the PJ file  for him.

http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2013/03/madeleine-mccann-kray-twins-margaret.html  is quite an extensive look at Philip Edmonds.  But all I can see was that he had intentions of flying out to Switxerland the night before Madeleine went missing.

[Edmonds is listed on the Tapas booking sheet at same time as Carpenter.]

[Robittybob1]

Does the Tapas booking sheets have Philip Edmonds associated with Stephen Carpenter?

Yes.  http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/03_VOLUME_IIIa_Page_608_small.jpg

[Robittybob1]

What about that "Sperrey" also mentioned on that sheet? 
http://textusa.blogspot.com/2015/02/bladderman.html  has a lot of detail.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/TAPAS-EMPLOYEES.htm#sperrey

covered on this forum in the past. http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2505.msg81772#msg81772

[Robittybob1]

Sunny - there are two unknown or even 3 unknown men in SC statement.

There is Dave the English man who helped with the keys. (that is one, and there are the two others, the Tapas Guy and the Portuguese Man).
SC states:
"A man with three children whom I met in the Tapas Bar and who I referred to as the "Tapas Guy" and a Portuguese man in a garage whom I will refer to as the "laundry man".

I think you have identified the Laundry man, but isn't it the Tapas guy who has the apartment with the garage.
I think the Tapas Man could have been identified separately.
Tapas man has the dreadlocks and his name was Michael Sperry or something like that. At this stage I don't think the laundry man is living in the apartment block opposite the McCanns apartment but I'm unsure.

Is there anyone good at comprehension that can get us on target here please?

There is a guy referred to as the Tapas Guy - but that term is not mentioned again, but he is English not Portuguese whereas the laundry man is Portuguese so they must be distinctly different people.

The English man has grey hair, but I don't think Steve gets to talk to the Portuguese man (how could he?) so when Steve is told "his son lives there"  that is in the garage, it doesn't mean the Portuguese man lives in the garage but Portuguese man's son not the English man's son.
I'm struggling with who's who!

I find that the claim of 3 unknown men wasn't enough.  There appears to be 4 unnamed men in Stephen Carpenter's statement.  There could be 5 if we include the son who lived in the garage.

1 There is Dave the English man who helped with the keys. (known to be Dave Shelton http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=10045.msg481479#msg481479

2, the Tapas Guy  (thought to be Philip Edmonds)

3 the Portuguese Man the laundry driver thought to be Mario Fernando Madeira Marreiros http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARIO_MARREIROS.htm

4. The grey haired English man who owned the apartment http://www.valgarve.com/12-coraluz-praia-da-luz.html but at this stage unknown.

It seems reasonable to assume that Sperrey and Carpenter were known to each other as they were staying in Fiji Palms  (I've seen some references to Fugi Palms but I think that was a spelling mistake).

[Robittybob1]

Now that I feel like I have a better understanding of SC's statement I will re-read it and point out pertinent issues.

1.  "A man with three children whom I met in the Tapas Bar and who I referred to as the "Tapas Guy" and a Portuguese man in a garage whom I will refer to as the "laundry man".

I feel the way he says this he met both of these men face to face.

2. DCF says "I will now describe the resort and to help me with this description I will base myself upon an aerial photograph from the Sun Newspaper dated the 16th May, which we do not have here today, but which is not important."

Part of that is reading from SC's first statement (red text) and part explanation of the current situation (blue text).

I'm a bit surprised that DCF says that the lack of a map is not important.  But later on they seem to be referring to a map of some sort.

3.  "On Sunday the 29th April C**** and I participated in a coffee morning of the MW tennis group where I met Gerry, Kate, J****, C****, R****, A***, G***, A***'s sister and A***, there were other tourists there whose names now escape me. In total there were approximately some sixteen people at this coffee morning and tennis was one of the activities that the man, or that both subscribed to during the week. I am summarising a bit, because....."

" tennis was one of the activities that the man, or that both subscribed to during the week."

I have yet to understand why Steve said "that the man" --- was he describing a specific man?

4. GMTV GMTV (now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited) was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee,[1] broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010.

5. "DCF: You go on to describe in a little more detail the searches in the apartments neighbouring on Gerry and Kate's apartment, then you met Neil and Raj who began to talk and told you that they had collaborated in the searches the night before.

SC: Yes. .

DCF: And they explained to you that they had seen a man with dreadlocks and they felt there was something suspicious about him, that they were not satisfied with him. "

That whole section was the first statement summarised by DCF.

It would be interesting to know how Neil and Raj could have seen the man with dreadlocks?  When was that?

6.  "DCF: Then he introduced himself saying that he lived in Portugal and that he had just bought an apartment block."
I'm totally uncertain who had bought an apartment block.

[Robittybob1]

Looking back through the forum there was a thread http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=2917.msg101640#msg101640  where it is explained the the word "dreadlocks" is an incorrect translation.

Pegasus pointed out "The original English language rog of SC is not in the published files.
Only the Portuguese police translation of it is in the published files, and it says "tochas".
The page is: Cartas Rogatorias File 3, page 44
(On forums you see the word "tochas" incorrectly reverse-translated back into English as "dreadlocks")."
this appears to be confirmed.

[Robittybob1]

I find that the claim of 3 unknown men wasn't enough.  There appears to be 4 unnamed men in Stephen Carpenter's statement.  There could be 5 if we include the son who lived in the garage.

1 There is Dave the English man who helped with the keys. (known to be Dave Shelton http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=10045.msg481479#msg481479

2, the Tapas Guy  (thought to be Philip Edmonds)

3 the Portuguese Man the laundry driver thought to be Mario Fernando Madeira Marreiros http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARIO_MARREIROS.htm

4. The grey haired English man who owned the apartment http://www.valgarve.com/12-coraluz-praia-da-luz.html but at this stage unknown.

It seems reasonable to assume that Sperrey and Carpenter were known to each other as they were staying in Fiji Palms  (I've seen some references to Fugi Palms but I think that was a spelling mistake).

http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=4989.msg180297#msg180297
Misty and Pegasus discuss aspects of SC statement.

"Quote from: misty48 on August 18, 2014, 01:46:58 AM
I've just re-read the statements of JT, GM & JW and I can't find any reference as to whether any cars were parked on that particular road that night or not. It was only stated that the road was "quiet".
Gerry said he crossed the road to speak to Jez, although Jez disagreed with that. If there were cars parked on 5a side of the road, maybe it was because of the presence of "several vehicles" that JW didn't see JT.
The questioner(s) appear to have failed to ask a very basic question to all 3 witnesses.
The grey-haired man with SC was, I think, George Crosland, but again, I'm struggling to find a link to where I read the identification.

And Pegasus wrote: "SC says the greyhaired man had just purchased an entire block - I think block 2.
On this map, in the Waterside Garden area, you can see block 2 just north of block 5."

Does it say apartment or the entire block of apartments?

["DCF: Then he introduced himself saying that he lived in Portugal and that he had just bought an apartment block."  That is the grey haired man, and I don't think that was the man with the dreadlocks, for Michael Sperrey was no where near 50 years old.]

[Robittybob1]

Another thread from the past discussing what the laundry man saw.
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=4989.msg177105#msg177105 started by Misty!

from the article "Twice-divorced Mario, who has a 21-year-old son and lives in a village on the outskirts of Praia da Luz, worked at the Ocean Club for nine months.

Describing the man who haunts him he explained: “He was quite tall and looked sort-of Scandinavian.

"He had lots of hair, close to his head — like it was glued. It was straight hair. He was about my age now — 45, 46.”

If he was 45 then 6 years after Madeleine went missing the "laundry man" must have been 39 at the time.  Not 50 as SC thought.
But that also makes the son only 15 at the time.  I'm beginning to wonder if the "Laundryman" Steve met  was Mario.

[Robittybob1]

Jane Tanner's description of the man carrying the child 4th May statement.
"Personal description:

( * ) Dark skinned individual, male sex, aged between 35-40, slim physical appearance, about 1.70m tall. Very dark, thick hair, longer at the back (she could only see him from behind). He was wearing linen type cloth trousers, beige to golden in colour, a "duffy" sic type jacket (but not that thick). His shoes were dark in colour, classic type. He had a hurried walk. He was carrying a child, who was lying on both his arms, in front of his chest. By the way he was dressed, he gave her the impression that he was not a tourist, because he was very "warmly dressed"."