Lets have a look at the tapas-9 timeline and checks.

[AnneGuedes]

Nor running around the town with a dead child, just as his wife was instigating a search.

Whoever came up with such a preposterous suggestion?

Around ?
Which suggestion ?

[AnneGuedes]

We know that Mr McCann didn't call the police on his cell phone nor asked the Tapas staff to do it for him. Where was he ?

[Sherlock Holmes]

We know that Mr McCann didn't call the police on his cell phone nor asked the Tapas staff to do it for him. Where was he ?

Not disposing of his daughter!

[AnneGuedes]

Not disposing of his daughter!

I'm not affirming that, but how do you know he wasn't ?

[Sherlock Holmes]

I'm not affirming that, but how do you know he wasn't ?

Feminine intuition 

[AnneGuedes]

Feminine intuition 

Where was he then ?

[Benice]

Mr Oldfield never entered that flat, it is obvious. Apart from the erroneous description of the flat and the twins, he doesn't make sure Madeleine is in her bed, especially because if he can't see one of the twins, he can see the window bed that is empty..
This is a typically compliance check, but he couldn't be asked to invent that Madeleine was there or not.

You claim that as a fact Anne.   I thought we were not allowed to do that?

The object of Matthew's visit was not to check that all the children were still in the apartment  - it was to establish whether they were all still asleep.    As there were no sounds to say anything different he would naturally take that as evidence that they were all still asleep.  Nothing odd about that - how many of us have paused outside the bedroom door of our sleeping children - and simply listened and not gone into check whether they were still actually there?     

There was no need for him to take any particular notice of the surroundings - he was satisfied that they were all still asleep - and so 'mission accomplished' as far as he was concerned.

The idea that he should be able to accurately give a description of an apartment he had only spent seconds in - and  had no reason to keep a mental note of is unrealistic - and once again an example of people talking with the benefit of  hindsight which he did not have at the time IMO.

I do not believe he lied at all - but that doesn't mean his recollections were completely accurate - and there is nothing odd about that either. imo.

















     

[AnneGuedes]

You claim that as a fact Anne.   I thought we were not allowed to do that?

The object of Matthew's visit was not to check that all the children were still in the apartment  - it was to establish whether they were all still asleep.    As there were no sounds to say anything different he would naturally take that as evidence that they were all still asleep.  Nothing odd about that - how many of us have paused outside the bedroom door of our sleeping children - and simply listened and not gone into check whether they were still actually there?     

There was no need for him to take any particular notice of the surroundings - he was satisfied that they were all still asleep - and so 'mission accomplished' as far as he was concerned.

The idea that he should be able to accurately give a description of an apartment he had only spent seconds in - and  had no reason to keep a mental note of is unrealistic - and once again an example of people talking with the benefit of  hindsight which he did not have at the time IMO.

I do not believe he lied at all - but that doesn't mean his recollections were completely accurate - and there is nothing odd about that either. imo.

Sorry, Benice, I should have said "imo", because it's not a fact but an opinion.
The fact that Mr Oldfield described erroneously a dark bedroom proves nothing except that either he for some reason insisted in giving details or was asked those details by the PJ.
My opinion isn't based also on the fact he could see only one twin (he might have extrapoled the second) and not even on the fact that he couldn't see their little chests moving because they were the other way round.
My opinion doesn't take into account the fact that he actually did see an empty bed in that bedroom without being alerted.
My opinion is rather based on logic : if the McCanns wanted the kids to be looked at (a thing Mr McCann says he never did), they would have given him their key, quickest and simplest way. You don't ask someone who never did it in day light to go in the dark through 3 gates, a sliding, two types of drawn curtains, a TV set angle, etc. 

[pathfinder73]

Did she ? Who said so ?
Mr McCann seems to infer that it was common knowledge.

"I went up the second check with Russell, so he's a pretty slow eater, so it may well have been sort of closer to sort of twenty past, twenty-five past nine, sometime round there before we did the next check. Erm, so I went to check on G**** and I stood up and Russell stood up and said he was going to go and check as well and Kate stood up and I said, you know, do you want us to go and check on, erm, do you want me to go and check on your kids, erm, and she said yes. And I think I offered at that point just because we had been together all week and we had similar routines and it just kind of seemed like a nice thing to do that would save her a journey back up and, you know, it may or it may not have been different. But, erm, I said that and she said yeah fine and she said that the patio door was open and go in through there.

So I went back and did the check on five 'A', on Madeleine and the kids, erm, and went back through the patio entrance, so through the gate, through the patio doors, erm, there was, it was light enough to see through the apartment and there sort of a little table light on the right at the end of the sofa and when you walk into the room, you could see straight into it, because the door was open. Erm, I've spent a lot of time debating how far the door was open, from previous questioning, and, you know, it wasn't flat back against the wall, because that would have looked odd, it was just sort of halfway open, so it seemed slightly unusual that it should be so wide open, because you could see straight into the middle of the room from the angle that you approach it.."

So I approached the room but I didn't actually go in because you could see the twins in the cots and one of the, you could see the twins in the cots because they're in with, sort of the cots were in the middle of the room with sort of a gap of about sort of maybe a foot between the two, the cots had sort of got that fabric end and sort of a mesh side, so you could see the sides and you could see them, erm, see them breathing and there were two there and it was all completely quiet. And the other things you could see in the room, there was a, there was another bed at the back underneath the window at the far side and you could see the end of the bed, another bed here. And because I was looking for, you know, well people say, well why didn't you go in the room, why didn't you check on Madeleine, you were, you said you'd go and check, but it was just that, we were just satisfying ourselves that nobody was upset and awake and crying.

You know, nobody was awake, you thought, if something, just one, it'd be, it'd sort of feel a bit odd, you know, from the draughts, you know, when Kate went in something about the door shutting, there was, I presume, a through draught. So I just sort of went towards the doorway, I didn't step over the threshold, I didn't see Madeleine and I didn't check, I turned round and came back out, said all was quiet when I got back to the table and then we went on with food.

I can't see the shutters because the curtains were shut and, they're similar curtains to the ones you've got in there, and you just get an impression of just like green and yellow, but they were closed, they weren't sort of blowing about, because I'm sure I'd have noticed if there was sort of movement like that.

4078 "And you said when you went in you went in through the patio door?"

Reply "Yeah"

4078 "Or the poolside door?"

Reply "Yeah".

4078 "How did you know to go through there?"

Reply "Well Kate said that that one was open".

4078 "And when did she say that?"

Reply "When I offered to go and, erm, go and look".

[AnneGuedes]

One year after... and nobody (at the table) corroborating this.
Nice man.

[jassi]

I read it as Matt saying that HE sat down, not the McCanns.

[pathfinder73]

One year after... and nobody (at the table) corroborating this.
Nice man.

The simple fact is that Gerry and Kate never done that check as Matt & Russ were doing checks so he said to save her going he would do it. I don't find anything strange about it.

[pathfinder73]

I read it as Matt saying that HE sat down, not the McCanns.

Yes I've edited that out after reading it again. Thanks.

[pathfinder73]

There's 4 important time periods in this case:

1. DP's visit at 6.30 to Gerry's return at 7pm
2. 9-9.10pm
3. 9.55-10.25 First searches
4. 5-7am Private searches

[AnneGuedes]

The simple fact is that Gerry and Kate never done that check as Matt & Russ were doing checks so he said to save her going he would do it. I don't find anything strange about it.

Then you believe they were doing all the checks they said they did, in spite of what an independent witness said !
The AG didn't.

Will you at least agree it was an audio check (except for one twin) ?
Then, if you agree, why didn't he do it at the window ?