Tidying Up

EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
27 September 2010


TIDYING UP



In October last, an astute observer of McCann inconsistency (we'll call him 'H') noticed something remarkable about the Portuguese police photographs of Madeleine McCann's holiday bed: It had been made. This is the only interpretation that can be placed on the pictures, since the obvious state of the bedclothes was other than that described to the police by Gerry McCann.

Gerry's recollection of his daughter Madeleine's last dormant position is reflected in his arguido statement, given on 7 September, 2007:

'Moreover, he says that with respect to Madeleine she was in the same position where he had left her at the beginning of the night. Madeleine was lying down on her left side, completely uncovered, i.e. lying on top of the covers with the soft toy and blanket, both pink, next to her head; he does not know if they were in the position that can be seen in the photograph attached to the files.'

Two years later Gerry is a touch more precise:

"So, I actually came in and Madeleine was just at the top of the bed here, where I'd left her lying and the covers were folded down and she had her cuddle cat and blanket, were just by her head." ('Madeleine Was Here' documentary, broadcast 07 May 2009).

Madeleine did not have to be lifted out of her bed, merely off it. But how far, exactly, were the covers turned down?

According to the PJ's report of Gerry McCanns' witness statement, made on 10 May 2007, and which Dr McCann signed as an accurate record of the interview:

"Also relevant to the bed where his daughter slept is how it was found on the night of the disappearance. States that his daughter slept without the covers, as was normal, due to the heat, with the bed sheets folded towards the foot of the bed."

The topic of this bed, like so much of the detail pertaining to the immediate aftermath of Kate McCann's 10.00 p.m. revelation, is old news; news which doubtless the McCanns and others would consider well and truly submerged beneath the ocean of time that has washed over the case since. And yet nothing was washed away completely, not even, as we know, the traces of various biological deposits in the lounge area of apartment 5A; behind the sofa - on the floor, on the walls and on the curtains.

That the bed did not, nor does not, appear 'slept in', is unquestionably a first-order inconsistency, catalogued by the watchful H, along with so many other discrepancies. But there is another, second-order aspect to this particular state of affairs, which speaks to the issue, not of immediate circumstance, but the very sequence of events that Thursday, 3 May, 2007.

The question that one might reasonably, if not obviously, ask in connection with a newly made bed is, 'Who made it?'

Well it certainly wasn't an abductor. I think we may conclude with confidence that nowhere in the annals of crime against the person is there a record of anyone first ransacking a property then tidying up after them. Or of snatching a child from its bed then tucking the bedclothes back in. Kate and Gerry were both struck by 'the way the scene was left' as well as being scrupulous enough, according to them, to leave things untouched following Madeleine's disappearance. But might they not have allowed themselves just one little lapse, Kate manifesting maternal concern by fidgeting with the her daughter's bedcovers in the course of her vain search perhaps? Not at all.

Kate McCann has told us (during their first interview, with the BBC's Jane Hill on 25.5.2007) "The first 48 hours were incredibly difficult and we were almost non-functioning I'd say, but after that we got strength from somewhere."

'Non-functioning' is Kate McCann's chosen phrase to encapsulate the apparent catatonia the parents experienced on discovering their daughter's absence. While still in apartment 5A they were given to sitting on beds, but not making them. And within a matter of hours they were accommodated elsewhere.

So Madeleine's bed was not made by an anonymous intruder immediately after Gerry McCann's visit to the apartment at 9.05 approx. Nor was it made by the McCanns at any time after 10.00 p.m. Which means that the status of the bed, as confirmed by the official record, must have been imposed upon it either by someone else, or at sometime before the alarm was raised.

The only other person to have visited the apartment between Gerry's and Kate's 'checks', at 9.00 and 10.00 p.m. respectively, was Matthew Oldfield, who looked in around 9.30 p.m., or so we are told. But we cannot attribute any bed-making to him, because he did not even enter the bedroom in question. Nevertheless, Oldfield has something of pertinence to contribute to the discussion, which we shall come to a little later. First, let us be clear that, on 10 May, 2007, Gerry told the police 'his daughter slept without the covers, as was normal, due to the heat, with the bed sheets folded towards the foot of the bed.'

(This is not how the bed appeared when photographed. Turned back at one corner is not 'folded toward the foot of the bed').

And in September Gerry recalled that Madeleine was lying down on her left side, completely uncovered, i.e. lying on top of the covers.

So we have Madeleine uncovered and sheets folded back in May, then, once the evidence is in, Madeleine uncovered and positioned on top of the covers, which could not have been folded back or the child could not have been lying on them. Well, either the bedclothes were arranged as originally described or they weren't, but in the latter case there is nothing to inform anyone as to how, exactly, the occupant left the bed. It certainly would not represent a 'slam dunk' abduction scene. Factoring in one of Kate's early favourite public statements further complicates the issue. "You don't expect a predator to break in and take your daughter out of her bed" culminates in the prepositional phrase 'out of her bed'; a distinctly, and significantly, different construction from 'off of her bed.' To be taken out of something an object must first have been in it, not on it.

In any event, one is faced with a bed, the last recorded configuration of which is a state of readiness (for someone to get into) not a state of disarray, as might be associated with a hurried exodus. If the bed covers had been folded down toward the foot of the bed (Gerry McCann's first postulate) then they would have been found and photographed in that position. They were not. Instead, Madeleine was sleeping on top of the covers (Gerry McCann's second postulate) and the bed therefore in the state in which it might have been left by the McCanns before Madeleine was placed upon it, seemingly in an uncomfortable and fairly pointless position, since she'd have to be lifted up again should the temperature have dropped and the covers been called into service once more.

If this was 'how the scene was left', bearing in mind that there was not a shred of evidence otherwise to indicate the presence of an intruder in the McCann apartment, then it was left in that state before 10.00 p.m., not afterwards, and not by any child snatcher.

Turning now to Matthew Oldfield's evidence, the first thing to take on board is a significant contextual comment regarding curtains and which features in his rogatory interview :

"...and 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..."

It is important to bear in mind that Oldfield is here describing to the interviewing officer a pair of curtains positioned at the far side of a room he did not enter. Indeed he did not even stand at the relevant doorway. He can distinguish two colours - in the near dark (let's be charitable and suppose the street lighting infiltrated the room to a certain extent).

Now let's review what Oldfield had to say about Madeleine's bed specifically.

Oldfield: "Errm... and there's another bed along here, which is where Madeleine was supposed to be, errm... and you could just maybe catch the... it was probably set back a little bit, so you could just sort of catch about sort of six or eight inches of the... so you could see the outside corner, the corner deepest into the room".

4078: "Okay. So concentrate, if you can, on what you saw of that bed and tell me what you saw?"

Oldfield: "Nothing, apart from that, it's just the end of the bed and that's... and that was it. And, so, it was just like the outside corner, there was no... couldn't see the whole length; couldn't see colours or legs or anything draping over it".

So the colour of the curtains was discernible, the colour of the bedding less so. And this item of furniture, let's not forget, was altogether nearer in Oldfield's line of sight than the curtains. Now here comes the $64000 question from the interviewing police officer followed by Oldfield's respective variations on the theme:

4078: "Did it have bed clothing on it, can you remember, or was it just a plain mattress or some sort of mattress cover or (inaudible), can you remember?"

Oldfield: "Errm... my, errm... this would be sort of a guess, I think what I could see was a sheet and I think it was a metal base coming round the corner, but I couldn't swear to that. There was only a small bit that was visible".

4078: "Okay".

Oldfield: "I don't think it was a bare... a bare mattress, I'm fairly sure there'd have been a sheet on it, but I don't remember anything sort of as bulky as a duvet over it".

4078: "Okay. And is there anything else you can say about what you saw of that bed?"

Oldfield: "No, errm... I don't remember there being a pattern on it, it was... it was just sort of a glimpse and I don't know how reliable my memory is for this. I think it was plain coloured, maybe, if I was to go for it, I'd say it was sort of a light blue, but I really don't recall anything specific about the end of that bed, apart from just registering that there was a bed against that wall and that's probably where Madeleine was".

After something of a lateral excursion, the curtains re-enter the dialog:

4078: "Okay. And you saw the side of the cots and you saw the shapes and knew that they were both breathing?"

Oldfield: "Yeah, I mean, you've got two cots, you know, along this side, you've got the short... the long axis along the long room and the short end, which I think is (inaudible). I think we had a similar in, errm... with G****, and there'd be a slight spacing and then netting and so, from the side, you'd see, errm... part of this one, slightly obstructed by this one, but enough to see through the grill, errm... and this one you'd see through the... through the mesh side, you'd see the kids".

4078: "And the lighting was sufficient within the room that you could make out what it was?"

Oldfield: "You could make out that it wasn't blankets and just something piled there, you could see the chest moving".

4078: "Okay. Could you see anything else from where you were stood?"

Oldfield: "The rest is just sort vague impressions of, errm... of the colour of the curtains, I couldn't tell what particular pattern, but I just remember green and yellow with that. And there may have been a duvet on the back bed behind the two cots. But nothing else specific".

Again, Oldfield is more confident about describing the more distant image, but leaves us with the impression of a bed covered by a light blue sheet, which is not quite the same as a gingham bedspread, colour co-ordinated with the curtains.

Accepting the accounts of both Gerry McCann and Matthew Oldfield leads to the inescapable conclusion that Madeleine's bed was made before her absence was announced. Now who would have been in a position to have done that?

Alternatively, one might question, with ample justification, whether Oldfield's observations concerning the bed can be relied upon at all, since, as other students of these issues have already pointed out, his description of the interior features of 5A better match the interior of 5D, this being the true location of green and yellow curtains! And if Oldfield's powers of recall in this respect are not to be relied upon, then what does that suggest as regards his supportive testimony in general, or that of any the Tapas 7, including their ringleaders?

It begins to look as if the stratagem of 'leaving no stone unturned' has come full circle, with its originators situate between a rock and a hard place. Ultimately that rock too must be accounted for.

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Geez............that's sharp observation.

Which gives rise to speculated theory that Maddie could have been dead and disposed off earlier than 3rd. When they premeditated the cover up plan they plain forgot to counter in bed and bedding situation.

Oldfield: "I don't think it was a bare... a bare mattress, I'm fairly sure there'd have been a sheet on it, but I don't remember anything sort of as bulky as a duvet over it".

4078: "Okay. And is there anything else you can say about what you saw of that bed?"

The made-up unslept in bed did not escape investigators. Interviewers focus on it and leading him with questions pertaining to it means the police were onto their lies and charade ....and gathering evidence ...

Oh deary me Just please take a close look at the turned down covers, are they flat as they would be if somone had laid asleep on them, no they are not they are merely turned back.