Mark Warner Holidays and Ocean Club Resorts had a duty of care towards their guests.

[Freya]

The children's bedroom was out of earshot and completely out of sight of both the Tapas restuarant, and, on Wednesday evening, the Tapas bar.

A bedroom upstairs would be out of sight while parents sit downstairs....yet parents would be in the house.  People do tend to move the goal posts.

[Freya]

How about simple bloody commonsense ?

Your comment has nothing to do with the point I was making.

[Freya]

An identical safety sticker was definitely present on the sliding balcony door of apartment G5A.

Have you got a photo of that from the files then? Just I haven't seen it.

[Freya]

Watching Mr Amaral's film I observed at that filming date not just one, but two stickers on the sliding balcony door.
Fortunately I can now confirm that both stickers were indeed present in early May 2007.
I posted the text of one of the stickers (see photo above of same sticker at a nearby apartment).
The other sticker has a larger amount of text - I assume it is possibly further safety advice to guests.
I don't know what the text is - I will try to find out - not easy - but hopefully not impossible.

When was Amarals film made? which film? Have you a link please?

[Freya]

Watching Mr Amaral's film I observed at that filming date not just one, but two stickers on the sliding balcony door.
Fortunately I can now confirm that both stickers were indeed present in early May 2007.
I posted the text of one of the stickers (see photo above of same sticker at a nearby apartment).
The other sticker has a larger amount of text - I assume it is possibly further safety advice to guests.
I don't know what the text is - I will try to find out - not easy - but hopefully not impossible.

Maybe the other sticker you saw was information about the burglaries and crime at the resort ..sorry couldn't resist

[sadie]

Yep, there is a contemporary photograph, but I aint looking for it at this time of night.  Soz

Am tired.  Was up until after 6am a couple of nights ago, putting a report in, cos of the fiasco on here.  Will take me a few days to catch up with my sleep



Maybe tomorrow if you will remind me please, or next time I am here.

You have been very patient, Faith.  Thankyou

I haven't got everything together but I am tired atm, not 100%.  These will have to do for the present

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/CaroleTranmer-gate.jpg



This is attached to Carole Tranmers statement..  Her statement was a few days after Madeleine vanished.  Presumably the photograph was taken at virtually the same time.

Here you will see the bushes neatly trimmed back.  Everything grows at an amazing rate in Western Algarve presumably to do with westerley winds bringing in the rain and the warm climate.


The two main imporrtant things to do with the view are ino

1)  the little round bush just left of bottom centre
2)  the long hedge which runs lower centre left to upper centre right
There is what appears to be a tree in the way BUT it was no hindrance to our visibilty.  Presumably because our view was underneath the main head of the tree.  From examining photos, I think that would be true of the view The Mccanns had too

----------------------------------------------------------------------------


Good illustration of the way the bushes were cut back in this Photo taken soon after.  Officer Stan on duty, I think !  Tken from the balcony mentioned in "sadies theory"

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/6oct7/officer-stan-9167.jpg



These are contemporary photos. 

Like Pegasus I remember mention of the bush cutting back work being done in the statements.  Like him, I cannot remember in which statement .... but to have been mentioned means that the work had to have been done before the statements to the PJ  and Madeleine being taken.

I wonder if the gardeners weed in the corner of 5A garden, where the dogs are supposed to have alerted?  A good place, out of sight !


These photos, below  show overgrown bushes and the view from the Tapas Restaurant would have been entirely different had the bushes been overgrown like this.

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/fl/4927272917_8c46076cd5_z.jpg


And looking up the street

1.  Overgrown
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/bt/overgrown%205a.jpg


2.  Neatly trimmed back
http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/4aug7/mail-10-08-2007-corner.JPG



Huge difference and that is why it is important that only photos taken after the cutting back are looked at.




To remind you, the view from 5A to the tapas restaurant when the greenery is beginning to get longer again.  The view would have been better on May 3rd., because the round bush was clipped back and much smaller

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/14-May8/-image004.jpg


The two big windows immediately behind the pool.  We sat to the middle right left of the LH window.  The mccanns sat to the middle right of the RH window.

[pegasus]

When was Amarals film made? which film? Have you a link please?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLipX7KO3PXeOtB7-WD9sJqhS5yMJ0RGzA

[pegasus]

Have you got a photo of that from the files then? Just I haven't seen it.

The children on balcony warning sticker

SOURCE: Volume 4 Page 970 Foto 8

[pegasus]

A bedroom upstairs would be out of sight while parents sit downstairs....yet parents would be in the house.  People do tend to move the goal posts.

And audibility?

[sadie]

And audibility?

Depends on quality of build and soft furnishings, and especially on the number of floors and size of your house.

[John]

Pegasus

IF Madeleine were able to to open the patio door, then I am sorry , but you are wrong about her NOT being able to see the Tapas friends from the balcony.  No need for a plastic chair.  These railings were immediately outside the patio windows.  She had a clear view thru the railings ...  and the first thing that she would have noticed as she came out was the Tapas restaurant. 

It was a lighted place with movement in a dark area.   Her eyes would have gone straight to it ... and she would have seen her parents and friends.  No doubt have heard Gerry as well.  As you correctly surmise they could have heard her too, had she yelled



This photograph illustrates it very well .  The Tapas restaurant is the building with giant windows immediately behind the pool.  Madeleines Mum and Dad were in the RH window (westerly window)


http://www.mccannfiles.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/notwviewfrompatio.jpg


At the time of the abduction, the bushes had JUST been cut back, so the view would have been much greater.

You can hardly make out the restaurant never mind pick someone out in the dark inside it but then maybe binoculars were the order of the day.  Expecting a three-year-old who would clearly be distraught to find her parents in that confusion of buildings is plum silly.

A bit of common sense pleeeeease!!

[John]

Here is the definitive photo for exact sizes of shrubs and trees and the view of tapas table from balcony.
It is definitive because it was taken by PJ on the actual night of the "disappearance"
Please note this photo was taken several hours after, when the full moon had risen fairly high in the sky.
Earlier, at 10pm, it would I think have been darker than the photo shows.
And remember this photo was taken from adult eye-level - the view from small child eye-level would be less.
Lower photo ("Foto 16") here

Thanks pegasus.  The bottom photo (Foto16) is an excellent example of not what can be seen in the dark but what cannot be seen, shrubs or no shrubs.  Any toddler coming out onto that balcony and being faced with that view would just scream DADDY!

[Mr Gray]

You can hardly make out the restaurant never mind pick someone out in the dark inside it but then maybe binoculars were the order of the day.  Expecting a three-year-old who would clearly be distraught to find her parents in that confusion of buildings is plum silly.

A bit of common sense pleeeeease!!

If you work out where that photo was taken from...it has been taken with a very wide angle lens, that's why it has so much of the patio in the photo....this will have multiplied the apparent distance to the Tapas

[stephen25000]

If you work out where that photo was taken from...it has been taken with a very wide angle lens, that's why it has so much of the patio in the photo....this will have multiplied the apparent distance to the Tapas

....who were completely distracted whilst eating, drinking and talking.

Whilst the children were LEFT........................

[Benice]

If you work out where that photo was taken from...it has been taken with a very wide angle lens, that's why it has so much of the patio in the photo....this will have multiplied the apparent distance to the Tapas

Photos can be deceptive when it comes to distance.   The easiest way to work out how far away the group were from 5A is by simply measuring out 50 metres.   It's not difficult.    I've  been on caravan sites in the past where the clubhouse is about the same distance away from some caravans/tents, -  maybe even more - and parents have left their children asleep in them to go there in the evenings.