A child abducted yet nobody thought to phone the police immediately?

[VIXTE]

Like in stone age. He went and didn't obtain the simple thing he was asked to..
Once more : their national emergency number would redirect the caller to the 112 of the host country.

Yes.. to me that is one of the strangest stories in the whole case..

Then Mark Warner started their own procedure they do when a child goes missing.

So, it could also be them deciding to not to call the police..

I wish we can know why the police wasn't called at this time and whose decision this was!

[Carana]

I wasn't aware of that number until Madeleine disappeared.

In similar circumstances, I would probably have got someone to run down to reception, explained the situation, and got them to call. The reception was the caretaker in a sense, and they did get the missing child action plan organised very quickly and dealt with contacting the police. Having alerted the reception and delegated that task, it left other members of the group free to search.

Even if they had phoned 112, in the panic, would any of them have been able to remember or explain the precise address of the apartment?

[Carana]

I'm quite sure they would have been capable of knowing their own apartment number! The rest is pretty easy.... Ocean club, Praia Da Luz. PLEASE COME QUICKLY - SOMEBODY HAS TAKEN MY DAUGHTER FROM THE APARTMENT

That message was conveyed to the reception, which then got the missing child protocol going. At that time, none of them could have known whether she'd be found in 5 mins or not.

Who, of the GNR, actually spoke English? The meeting place was the OC reception, where Portuguese speakers were there to help.

[AnneGuedes]

That message was conveyed to the reception, which then got the missing child protocol going. At that time, none of them could have known whether she'd be found in 5 mins or not.

Who, of the GNR, actually spoke English? The meeting place was the OC reception, where Portuguese speakers were there to help.

Come on, Carana, Mrs McCann knew immediately ! Or don't you believe her ?

[AnneGuedes]

All GNR officers know English, first foreign language taught at school from 10 on .
If Portuguese are not fluent in English as they wish they should, they pretend not to speak.

[Carana]

Come on, Carana, Mrs McCann knew immediately ! Or don't you believe her ?

A panicked Kate and then Gerry thought that, but that doesn't mean that everyone else assumed that to be the case at the time.

[Carana]

All GNR officers know English, first foreign language taught at school from 10 on .
If Portuguese are not fluent in English as they wish they should, they pretend not to speak.

 Home » Algarve » Algarve GNR officers brush up on foreign languages
Algarve GNR officers brush up on foreign languages
in Algarve · 14-11-2013 15:46:00 · 1 Comments

A partnership between the Algarve’s National Republican Guard (GNR) force and the regional job and training institute will provide around one hundred officers with fifty-hour courses in English and German.
Algarve GNR officers brush up on foreign languages

A first lesson under the new partnership was held on 4 November in Portimão, attended by close to two dozen officers who enrolled on the course.
The courses, which were drawn up and agreed in October, are aimed at officers who have direct contact with the general public.
On 7 November English courses kicked off at GNR police stations in Albufeira and Tavira, and more are planned for the coming year.
The courses are expected to take fifty hours to complete and are attended by officers outside their working hours, being seen as a bonus for both the officers and the institution they represent.
Given the Algarve’s popularity as a tourist destination, particularly among Britons and Germans, as well as other northern European nationalities, a sound knowledge of the English and German language is a huge advantage for officers when communicating with citizens.
According to a note from the GNR, these courses are being promoted as “essential tools” for officers, not only to improve their public service but also for when liaising with other entities, and offer a learning that is of “enormous importance” to their day-to-day routines.

http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/algarve-gnr-officers-brush-up-on-foreign-languages/29932

[AnneGuedes]

For you to brush your Português, Carana ;)
O sistema de ensino português proporciona a todos os alunos a aprendizagem de duas línguas estrangeiras durante a escolaridade obrigatória. A primeira língua estrangeira (LE I) curricular obrigatória integra os planos de estudo desde o 5.º ano de escolaridade, e a segunda (LE II) a partir do 7.º ano de escolaridade. Tanto a LE I como a LE II são de frequência obrigatória até ao 9.º ano de escolaridade.
http://www.dgidc.min-edu.pt/ensinobasico/index.php?s=directorio&pid=85

[j.rob]

The bottom line is this. Jane Tanner claims she was in their apartment when she heard a commotion outside. This commotion was her friend Kate apparently raising the alarm having checked on her children in their apartment at around 10pm and having found Madeleine missing.

Now, much emphasis was made by Jane Tanner and Kate and the rest of their party about Jane Tanner's sighting of a man carrying a sleeping child near the apartment at around 9.15pm. So important did Jane Tanner consider this sighting to be that when she heard of Madeleine's 'disappearance' it is claimed in Kate's book that she put two and two together and felt 'sick'.

The inference is clear - at 10pm, when Jane Tanner heard that Madeleine was missing, she felt sure that she had seen Madeleine's abductor carrying her away. This is a theme throughout Kate's book and the McCann friends emphasized that as far as they were concerned this was a key sighting.

So, given that Jane Tanner 'felt sick' shortly after 10pm, when she made an association between the man she had seen carrying a child, and Madeleine's disappearance, do you not think it was somewhat irresponsible of her not to just call the police there and then? Why delay? The fact that she delayed and in fact so did Kate and Gerry who relied on the reception, suggests that the McCann party were just as responsible for a delay in the police turning up as anyone else. If not more so.

But, of course, you could argue that the McCanns and their friends - while ostensibly pretending to want the police to turn up, in actual fact were keen to cause a delay, which they would then seek to blame on the very people whose presence they were really not wanting!

Oh what tangled webs we weave...

[j.rob]

And they have the audacity to blame everyone else for their own failures. Their failure to look after their daughter. Blame it all on the bogey-man, the Portuguese police and pretty much anyone else.

It's time they stood up and faced the music because the charade has gone on way too long and threatens to turn the UK and our justice system into a world-wide farce.

[Redblossom]

Yes indeed. But of course that does beg the question that perhaps they CHOSE not to phone 112, for their own reasons, until later. Once the alarm had been raised (and the timings here are suspicious) it was only a matter of time before the police would arrive on the scene.

But it's a bit rich for the McCanns to criticize the delay in police arriving when they had chosen not to call them immediately, or get their friends to call them. In her book Kate claims that Jane Tanner immediate reported her sighting to the police when she heard about Madeleine's disappearance.

I would like to see the mobile phone records for this. That would mean that Jane Tanner called the police just after 10pm.  Yet the first call to the police is logged as being later than this.

I bet they don't exist. JT is said to have spoken to GNR once they arrived just before 11pm and not before. Id like to see a quote from KMs book saying that. My kindle is broken so can't check it.

[AnneGuedes]

So, given that Jane Tanner 'felt sick' shortly after 10pm, when she made an association between the man she had seen carrying a child, and Madeleine's disappearance, do you not think it was somewhat irresponsible of her not to just call the police there and then? Why delay? The fact that she delayed and in fact so did Kate and Gerry who relied on the reception, suggests that the McCann party were just as responsible for a delay in the police turning up as anyone else. If not more so.

But not only she didn't call the police but she didn't dare tell this to the McCanns. Instead she told it to Rachael and to Fiona and they remain horrified and quiet up to the GNR's arrival, an hour later.

[sadie]

Yes.. to me that is one of the strangest stories in the whole case..

Then Mark Warner started their own procedure they do when a child goes missing.

So, it could also be them deciding to not to call the police..

I wish we can know why the police wasn't called at this time and whose decision this was!

I have thought exactly the same VIXTE.
Why the delay?  Perhaps everyone was frightened of the Police?  Surely the recptionists weren't involved and using delaying tactics.  I guess that OC never expected such a serious scenario and preferred to internalize the trouble, rather than have the world know about a child missing from one of their flats.

Perhaps they were very sensitive about news of all the burglaries getting out ?.

[Lace]

Oh come on really. The father can take a heart out of someones chest and repair it, yet he doesnt know that in any European country you just dial 112 for emergency services. Its not like they havent been on holiday before.

Didnt the late Mrs Fenn offer to ring the police?

ITS our responsibility, to make sure we know how to deal with emergencys whilst on holiday, BEFORE we leave.

I believe it was about 11 o'clock that Mrs Fenn offered to call the police,   by then they had been called a second time.

[j.rob]

But not only she didn't call the police but she didn't dare tell this to the McCanns. Instead she told it to Rachael and to Fiona and they remain horrified and quiet up to the GNR's arrival, an hour later.

Yes. It makes no sense if you follow their theory of events.

However, it does make sense if you follow a different possible scenario. One in which some of all of the McCann group had some level of involvement and/or knowledge of Madeleine's 'disappearance. It you consider that scenario then it would make sense that there was a deliberate delay in phoning the police.

The police were not called until there was a state of panic and confusion. By the time they arrived, all hell had broken loose. When there is a state of confusion, it is harder to remember who did what when or where people were at a particular time.

If is is correct that the phone call logged with the local police was at 10.40pm, then the police would not be on the scene until close to 11pm.

Given that some witnesses in the resort in their statements put the timing of hearing about a missing child as early as 9.20pm or 9.30pm, then that  means the police were not on the scene until an hour and a half after the (alleged) abduction. Or at hour after the time that Kate raised the alarm

Realistically, that would probably place any abductor well away from the resort and maybe the local area by the time the police arrived.

What is still confusing is the witness reports of hearing a commotion between 9.20pm and 9.45pm. If those timings are right, then the McCanns and/or their friends raised the alarm earlier - more like 9.15pm - the the approximate time that Gerry was coming back to the table having spoken to Jeremy.

So Matt's 9.30pm check and Kate's 10pm check could not have happened, if the alarm had already been raised.

What is going on here? They must have been added later.

But why? To allow extra time? To postpone the time of the alleged 'abduction' to postpone the time that the police were called? To allow time for Smithman or whoever to do whatever was necessary.

Or what?