I saw lurkerThe Sun
Clodagh Hartley In Praia Da Luz and Antonella Lazzeri
31 October 2007
Nanny tells of man in bushes outside Maddie flatA NANNY has told investigators she saw a man lurking in bushes outside the holiday flat where Madeleine McCann disappeared.
The woman was babysitting a boy of six in apartment 5A of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz MONTHS before the McCanns stayed there.
But her description appears to MATCH that given by a friend holidaying with the family who is convinced she saw sleeping Madeleine being carried away.
The childminder also said she spotted the man “hiding in shadows” on a Thursday – the same day Madeleine, four, vanished.
Last night a spokesman for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry, both 39, said they were “grateful” for the testimony.
Clarence Mitchell added: “This evidence backs up what we have always said, that Maddie was taken from her bed by an abductor.”
The nanny – identified only as M.H. – reported the chilling incident to police in England shortly after the hunt for Madeleine began in May, but did not speak to cops in Portugal.
Last week she repeated her story on a hotline set up in Spain by investigators hired by the McCanns.
Citing sources close to the couple, Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo said the nanny was asked to look after the boy while his parents played tennis.
It reported: “During the night she received a call from her bosses warning her there was a problem with rats in the apartments.”
She briefly checked outside and thought she saw one – but it was a man’s shoe.
It went on: “She shouted and the man ran from the shadows.”
The nanny said the dark-haired man, aged 25 to 35, “looked like a local” and wore light-coloured trousers and a blue check shirt.
El Mundo said she reported the sighting to her boss – but he “seemed more worried about the rats”.
Meanwhile, a furious insider at Portugal’s forensic labs said ALL their evidence was contaminated – and admitted: “It’s a total mess. It is unbelievable that in Portugal a technical team which preserves evidence has not yet been created.”
A friend of the McCanns added: “On the night Madeleine was taken there were loads of people in and out. Once it was obvious she had not wandered off it should have been immediately sealed.
“Then there were police officers smoking and dropping ash and butt ends, while vehicles were driven by other police officers to test sites instead of going on a low-loader.
“It is a disgrace, and Kate and Gerry are very upset. They feel the chances of catching Madeleine’s abductor may well have been affected by the slapdash way the forensics and police have behaved.”
Yesterday Kate looked tired and tense as she drove from the family home in Rothley, Leics.
Clarence Mitchell has reportedly said that Kate and Gerry are no longer using the Find Madeleine Fund to pay their mortgage.
He is said to claim the couple only made use of the cash for two mortgage payments earlier this year.
They apparently stopped using the fund as soon as they became 'arguidos' or formal suspects.
Daily Mirror 11th August 2008.
Portuguese police ignored tip off about abductor in Maddy case.
Newly-released evidence reveals a man tried to abduct a child at McCanns' flat 8 months before Maddy was taken.
A suspected abductor was spotted spying on Madeleine McCann's flat before she vanished - but Portuguese police ignored the tip-off, it emerged yesterday.
British babysitter Margaret Hall was caring for a girl aged six in the same apartment when she saw the prowler lurking in the dark and peering inside.
A statement and his description were passed to officers - who dismissed it as irrelevant, their files on the bungled probe reveal.
Last night a friend of Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry branded the police reaction "astonishing".
The couple's private Metodo 3 detectives will now urgently pursue the potentially vital lead.
Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Kate and Gerry hoped from the outset that police were following up every lead in the most thorough and professional manner possible.
"Where any information is found to not have been followed up, our private investigators are working on it, all of it."
Their zeal is in marked contrast to that of local cops, who shrugged off the report as "of no relation to the...investigation" and never bothered to contact Margaret.
British police intelligence has suggested Madeleine may have been snatched on May 3 last year days after being snapped by a spotter for Belgian paedophiles.
Margaret had reported her autumn 2006 sighting to Metodo 3 in November 2007 and they informed police. Parents of the youngster she was looking after were out for the night and had warned her about rodents in Apartment 5A at Praia da Luz's Ocean Club complex.
Margaret encountered the prowler as she went to check for rats at about 12.30am.
The Metodo 3 statement given to official detectives reveals: "She left by the main entrance and, in a dark area, with movement sensitive lights, she noticed something moving and thought it was a rat.
"She was shocked when on closer examination she saw it was the brown shoe of a man who was peeping in the dark area outside the apartment.
"She shouted and the man came out of the darkness, activating the lights. He walked towards her and said, 'No, no'."
The prowler was said to be aged 23-25, of Mediterranean appearance and with long, black curly hair. He wore light trousers and a checked blue shirt.
Margaret is convinced he had a Portuguese accent.
Kate and Gerry's pal Jane Tanner has told police that on the night Madeleine vanished she saw a dark-haired man in beige trousers carrying a child and hurrying from the direction of the flat.
Margaret reported her sighting to her boss but he was more bothered about a rat infestation.
The babysitter - who spent six months working for the Ocean Club complex until November 2006 - contacted Metodo 3 via their helpline.
The Spanish private sleuths met Portuguese police on November 14 last year and passed on the tip-off. But Portuguese officers dismissed it out of hand because the sighting came around eight months before Madeleine vanished.
Their 30,000 pages of case notes reveal: "The director of M3 (Metodo 3) handed us a small notepad with information relating to Madeleine's disappearance.
"They said the information had come from their Spanish Madeleine helpline.
"We notice that it reports facts which took place in August/Sept of 2006, which seems to us outdated and of no relation to the material under investigation."
British nanny Charlotte Pennington worked at the resort last year and said she had heard reports of a suspicious man lurking around apartments.
Meanwhile, it has emerged police failed to quiz Liverpool man George Brooks, 61, who saw a suspicious couple carrying a child in Praia da Luz hours after Madeleine vanished.
By the time police finally visited the restaurant where he worked, he had left and they made no further effort to contact him.
Several holidaymakers also told police about a man behaving strangely near Praia da Luz.
Metodo 3
Spanish private investigators, based in Barcelona, are said to be being paid £50,000 a day to hunt for Madeleine.
Since taking on the case it has received 16,000 calls from potential witnesses.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/portuguese-police-ignored-tip-off-about-abductor-326072Daily Mirror 20th August 2008.
Madeleine McCann: Nanny's new sketch echoes picture of kidnapperThis is the shadowy figure seen lurking in the bushes outside the flat from where Madeleine McCann vanished.
And the woman who confronted the straggly-haired stranger eight months before is convinced he is the same man family friend Jane Tanner spotted carrying a child in pyjamas the night Maddy disappeared.
Despite telling police, British nanny Margaret Hall was not asked to help with an artist's impression.
Now, thanks to the Daily Mirror, a sketch of his face can be seen for the first time.
Margaret yesterday told the Mirror she saw the prowler hiding in the dark as she left through the back entrance after baby-sitting at apartment 5A of the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, the year before Maddy was taken from the appartment.
She screamed in terror as the unshaven figure stepped out.
His movement set off a security light and the nanny clearly saw his face. "He came towards me saying 'no, no'. I just turned round and ran back to the apartment," she said.
Shaking with fear, she was later led back to her own flat.
The man had vanished but Margaret, 51, reported the incident to bosses at the resort the next day.
She was back in the UK when she heard of Maddy's disappearance in May last year - and a chill ran down her spine when she realised the little girl had been taken from the apartment where she had worked.
Her mind immediately pictured the scruffy, long-haired stranger.
She told police in her home town of Bolton and was interviewed but no photofit was ever issued.
Margaret later saw the sketch of a man carrying a young girl in pyjamas and instinctively she thought to herself: "That's him."
It had been made from details given by Jane Tanner, a pal of Gerry and Kate McCann.
Margaret added: "My description of the man is very similar to that of Jane Tanner's.
"He had long hair but it was quite scruffy and straggly looking.
"He had said 'no' in English but he was not English because of his skin colouring. He looked more Portuguese than anything."
After hearing nothing from the police in the UK, she went straight to Metodo 3, the private investigators working for Kate and Gerry.
They passed her information to Portuguese police, who dismissed it as being "out-dated".
Her information only came to light after Portuguese officers released all their files relating to Maddy earlier this month.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-nannys-new-sketch-329189
