Why not report the abduction at the Tapas Bar rather than Main Reception?

[John]

It looks like Matthew was literally all over Praia da Luz that night.  In addition to visiting the main reception twice he also visited the Millennium Restaurant (now renamed the Mirage) and the beach.

so Fiona, I think, asked me to go and phone the Police, so I actually went down the route to where she would have gone for Nursery drop off, which his back to the, to the main reception essentially, so I went down that route looking for her at that time and I asked the reception to phone the Police, and that must have been about five past, it's difficult to know what time it was at that time, but maybe about ten past ten, five past ten, ten past ten'.

 

00.51.10 4078 'Quite quick then''

Reply 'Yeah, sort of pretty much, you know, straight away, erm, I think it was only, but then it was a kind of, it was surreal when you got there, I said, you've got to phone the Police, you know, a child's been taken, and they went, oh no, she's probably just sort of woken up and he thought she's probably sort of wandered off or something like that and you thought, yeah, maybe you're right, maybe you're right, erm, can you please, it was sort of, it was kind of, it was sort a weird kind of lack of urgency, you know, he'd ring, but you had to sort and stand there and say, ring now, ring now, so I don't know if they rang at that point, but certainly, erm, you know, I certainly asked them to, about perhaps sort of maybe about ten past ten maybe. Erm, then we went back up to, or I went, because I was on my own, I went back up to the, erm, to the apartment and it was just obvious that she wasn't in the apartment, but we were still sort of just milling about on the street, everybody was just running around just sort of trying to, you know, sort of search nearby roads. And so we, erm, I volunteered to go up to the, erm, I went up to the Millennium Restaurant because it was just one of the routes that I thought she might have taken, although I couldn't say why I thought she would because we'd only been there once on that night before and maybe she'd been for the restaurant, so we'd only been at the initial welcoming, that was the only time that we went for that meal in the evening because the food wasn't great there, it wasn't quite up to the MARK WARNER resorts of, but anyway, so we did other things and that's why we liked the Tapas, so there was no reason really why she'd have gone up there, but it was a, just a different route. So a lot of it in terms of timing is blurred, but up and onto the top road to the Millennium Restaurant, which is pretty much you come up and along this road for about sort of five or ten minutes and sort of this end of town, let them know that a little girl was missing and then gone back through the back streets, down on the beach and then back to the apartment. Erm, at some point we were back and forth to the, to the reception as well. And I think what the reception probably did was ring the MARK WARNER people and say, there's somebody that's saying there's a child missing, because by that time there were lost of MARK WARNER people around, erm, and they were very good, they, you know, they obviously, you know, got there and that might have been the impetus that got them to ring the Police, if, because I understand that there is some discrepancy about when we thought we'd called the Police and when the Police were actually called and that might be that they went on the, on that route first and then went, I think it's Stuart HILL or, well the Manager, the sort of Manager got involved, that might have been when it occurred. Erm, so there was plenty of running around through the back streets and back to the apartment and then, you know, where's the, where are the Police, where are the Police, erm, and so went back down to the reception, this would have been about thirty minutes or so later, erm, back to reception, erm, and at that point, Gerry had come down as well, erm, and, erm, you know, was obviously, you know, sort of intermittently sort of calm and then completely, you know, hysterically upset,

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MATTHEW-OLDFIELD-ROGATORY.htm

[John]

Some members might be somewhat surprised at how far the Millennium Restaurant actually was from the Ocean Club Garden complex where the Tapas-9 group were staying, a distance of some 510metres.

[icabodcrane]

Thanks for that interview with Matthew,  I hadn't seen that before

So inbetween his two visits to reception, Mathew had covered the mile long two-way journey to the Millenium restaurant  and been to the beach and back   (  what is the distance between the beach and the apartment ? )

[Redblossom]

Madeleine might have gone to the Millenium restaraunt where she went the once? Instead of the tapas complex where she went every single day? Right, Matthew

I volunteered to go up to the, erm, I went up to the Millennium Restaurant because it was just one of the routes that I thought she might have taken, snip

[Mrs. B]

"....Millennium Restaurant, which is pretty much you come up and along this road for about sort of five or ten minutes and sort of this end of town, let them know that a little girl was missing"

[Eleanor]

Madeleine might have gone to the Millenium restaraunt where she went the once? Instead of the tapas complex where she went every single day? Right, Matthew

Don't be silly.  They were looking anywhere they could think of.

[Benice]

I believe something of the kind was done that night. Yes.

The absurdity being proposed here is that people would choose to relay a complex message to the police via a barman who may or may not have had a direct outside phone line and certainly would not find the message easy to understand because he was not fluent in English when people who were fluent in English and would certainly have an outside line and who would be best place to contact senior management were only about ONE MINUTE further away.  The possibility that Matthew/Gerry or whoever believed that it might have taken more than a minute to get the message across to the barman/waiter or chef doesn't even occur to these people.

They seriously expect readers to think that it would have been normal to IGNORE the fluent (in English) receptionist with the certain phone to try to find a waiter whose English was not good to convey this important message to the police.

The whole premise of the thread is utterly absurd.

I agree.    When something like this happens you would automatically go the people in charge of the complex  i.e. to the people whose job it was to specifically assist you, if and when you needed help.  It simply wouldn't occur to you to go to a bar.  imo.

     

[John]

I agree.    When something like this happens you would automatically go the people in charge of the complex  i.e. to the people whose job it was to specifically assist you, if and when you needed help.  It simply wouldn't occur to you to go to a bar.  imo.

   

Yes, they did do that and in Matthews own words the response was...

...it was surreal when you got there, I said, you've got to phone the Police, you know, a child's been taken, and they went, oh no, she's probably just sort of woken up and he thought she's probably sort of wandered off or something like that and you thought, yeah, maybe you're right, maybe you're right, erm, can you please, it was sort of, it was kind of, it was sort a weird kind of lack of urgency, you know, he'd ring, but you had to sort and stand there and say, ring now, ring now, so I don't know if they rang at that point, but certainly, erm, you know, I certainly asked them to,...

So much for going to reception!

[AnneGuedes]

I agree.    When something like this happens you would automatically go the people in charge of the complex  i.e. to the people whose job it was to specifically assist you, if and when you needed help.  It simply wouldn't occur to you to go to a bar.  imo.

   

How could they anticipate calling not even the emergency number was going to take some 25 minutes ?

[Redblossom]

I agree.    When something like this happens you would automatically go the people in charge of the complex  i.e. to the people whose job it was to specifically assist you, if and when you needed help.  It simply wouldn't occur to you to go to a bar.  imo.

   

It was not *a bar* or any unconnected place, to management, it was pretty much the hub of the resort, the staff at the tapas  would have been able to alert management much quicker than running down there, or prewarn them, staff and supervisors they will have been aware of all week, to suggest none of them spoke english is preposterous, in fact they did and they rang reception as well as alert the millenium restauarant so staff there could join in the search

[amaraltheofficeboy]

It was not *a bar* or any unconnected place, to management, it was pretty much the hub of the resort, the staff at the tapas  would have been able to alert management much quicker than running down there, or prewarn them, staff and supervisors they will have been aware of all week, to suggest none of them spoke english is preposterous, in fact they did and they rang reception as well as alert the millenium restauarant so staff there could join in the search

so it was reported to Tapas restaurant AND to main reception.

I can't see a problem

[Mrs. B]

And again....

Questioned if he was the person who called the reception to tell them that a child had gone missing, he states that he cannot definitively remember if he did or not. He admits that he could have been the one to call.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/RICARDO-A-D-L-OLIVEIRA.htm

[Redblossom]

so it was reported to Tapas restaurant AND to main reception.

I can't see a problem

The problem here is some people saying it would be ludicrous for members of the tapas group, the men, to go to the tapas restaraunt for help because people there probably had no phone, didnt speak english, wouldnt have been able to alert anyone, so matts only option was to run to main reception, which is hogwash in itself as all points have been refuted

In fact none of them did, ie ask the tapas staff to alert anyone, they just told them what was happening,it was the waiters and others there at the time that between them rang main reception to alert them

Ricardo the waiters statement

David Payne and Matthew were nervously searching the area.

The witness went to them, he does not remember which one, and asked what was happening. One of them responded to the witness in English stating 'A GIRL IS MISSING?' that a child had gone missing. After a few moments, around 5 or 10 minutes, he heard screaming from the apartment zone and saw a woman on the balcony of 5 A. He did not understand what she was saying. As it was night, and given the distance from the Tapas bar to the apartment, he was not able to determine if there was someone else next to the woman on the balcony. At that moment his colleague, Joe, met up with him and asked the witness to call the police, and that a child has gone missing and could not be found. Immediately afterwards, Joe left toward the street. He does not know who gave this information to Joe but the witness (or his colleague who believes the witness did so) called the reception asking them to inform the police.

[John]

And the thing is too, Gilet makes a big deal of her claim that nobody spoke English in the tapas or would have wanted to get involved.  I find this utterly ridiculous.  We know that Jeronimo for instance was Portuguese but had lived in the UK since he was 10 years of age.  As well as being able to speak English just as well as you or I he was also fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.  Jeronimo even told Gerry that he would contact the workers at the Millennium Restaurant which sort of rendered Matthews trip there a wild goose chase.  Confusion personified!

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/JERONIMO-SALCEDAS.htm

[John]

It just makes you wonder how many telephoned the cops on their mobiles as well?