Kate McCann: "Is that Madeleine or is that the bedding?"

EXCLUSIVE to mccannfiles.com

By Dr Martin Roberts
29 September 2009


COMING IN FROM THE COLD

Kate McCann concludes a recent 'blog' entry with the remark, "…we will never forget the great benefit of simple human kindness."

The following transcript (by 'Mitts') is of Kate McCann's opening statement from the Channel 4 documentary 'Madeleine Was Here'.

KM: "I did my check about 10.00 o'clock and went in through the sliding patio doors and I just stood, actually, and I thought, 'oh, all quiet', and to be honest, I might have been tempted to turn round then, but I just noticed that the door, the bedroom door where the three children were sleeping, was open much further than we'd left it. I went to close it to about here and then as I got to here, it suddenly slammed and then as I opened it, it was then that I just thought, 'I'll just look at the children' and I could see Sean and Amelie in the cot and then I was looking at Madeleine's bed which was here and it was dark and I was looking and I was thinking, 'is that Madeleine or is that the bedding?', and I couldn't quite make her out. It sounds really stupid now, but at the time, I was thinking I didn't want to put the light on cos I didn't wanna wake them and literally, as I went back in, the curtains of the bedroom which were drawn,… were closed, … whoosh … It was like a gust of wind, kinda, just blew them open and cuddle cat was still there and her pink blanket was still there and then I knew straight away that she had, errr... been taken, you know."

Does the benefit of 'simple human kindness' not extend, surely, to concern for very young children left unnecessarily exposed to the elements?

Once Madeleine's abductor had climbed out through the window of apartment 5A it will have remained wide open - for three-quarters of an hour by the time Kate returned. The outside air temperature was cold enough on the evening of May 3rd 2007 for Jane Tanner to wear a borrowed fleece when walking back from the Tapas bar to her own accommodation, and for her to register the significance of a child in arms, that she claims to have seen, having been dressed in nothing more than pyjamas.

So, when Kate McCann enters 5A through the patio doors, does she notice or remark on how cold it is inside? No. But she must have realised immediately that indoors was no warmer than outside, because "the bedroom door where the three children were sleeping, was open much further than we'd left it." Not a little further, notice. The combination of a well open door and a wide open window can only have resulted in a really cold apartment, especially since there was a draught through the window sufficient both to slam the door shut and, shortly thereafter, cause the curtains to billow into the room (the door could not have slammed shut beforehand, or Kate would not have encountered it open 'much further' than the parents had previously left it).

Under the circumstances a predictable reaction might have been twofold: On entering the accommodation - 'It's cold in here. Where is the draught coming from?' On nearing the unexpectedly open door - 'Oh dear, the children are sleeping in a draught.'

Did Kate harbour any of these thoughts? Apparently not. Had she not been slightly perturbed by the open door she might have been tempted to turn round (and leave the apartment directly). As it was, her immediate purpose became that of closing the door, not looking in on the children. So she must have been perfectly prepared to leave the children unattended in the cold for another half an hour at least, i.e., until the next pointless inspection. Matthew Oldfield had himself been inside apartment 5A around 9.30 p.m. we are told - he didn't notice the cold either and, for all we know, it may have been he who opened the bedroom door and exacerbated the situation. He certainly didn't close the window, because he did not enter that room and did not therefore see Madeleine.

Even after the wind had blown the bedroom door shut, Kate's reaction, upon re-opening it, was: "I just thought, I'll just look at the children and then I was thinking, is that Madeleine or is that the bedding?"
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Far from being concerned about three children asleep in a cold and draughty room in the dark, she merely fails to distinguish her eldest daughter from the bedclothes.

And when the wind made a more immediate impression by causing the curtains to billow in her presence, what did Kate notice straight away - the cold, or that Maddie was missing? No, 'that she had, errr... been taken.'

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A couple of comments from various forums:

"How could anyone mistake bedding for a child? Kate would have us believe that Maddie couldn't have gotten out of the bed by herself because the bedding was too neat,that was what she said caused her to know that Maddie had been abducted. Now if she is saying she couldn't tell the bedclothes from her child,the bedclothes must have been bunched up in a heap or rolled to appear like a body. Which is it Kate. You need such a good memory to be an accomplished liar and you just don't cut it!"

"So, although she knew that Gerry McCann and Mathew Oldfield had been checking in the period between her leaving the apartment and returning to do her check she still finds it remarkable that the bedroom door is open wider than it was when she left it earlier that evening. I wonder why she could not distinguish between Madeleine and the bedding with the shutter and window open when Gerry was able to look down on a sleeping Madeleine with the shutter and window closed. If the 'abductor' was hiding in the room when Gerry McCann checked at 9:05 pm and was seen by Jane Tanner at 09:15 pm then the 'abduction' had taken place and the shutter and window must have been open when Oldfield did his check, but he didn't notice anything. It's all a pack of lies of course; a story badly told, an insult to our intelligence. The question remains as always, "How on earth were they allowed to get away with this?"

According to Gerry she wasn't even in the bed was she?  Didn't he say that she was sleeping on top of the blankets because it was warm?

If it was that warm, maybe they left the window open with the shutters down but slits open, or even slightly raised a few inches, as it was found later and photgraphed by the police??  I can see an opportunist who knows how the shutters work, going for entry if they saw it was up a few inches. But why would a burgler/snatcher go back out the window when he could just walk out the front door which was closer, and didnt have to pass by the two cots, climb the bed, hold the curtains open and the shutter up.

But how warm or cold was it?  Kate said that I was chilly at night but contradicts herself when she says that despite the room not being used during the days, the shutters in the children's room were kept shut to stop the room from getting warm.  Surely if the evenings were chilly, a bit of warmth building up during the days would have been a small benefit?

So why were the shutters kept closed during the days?    Something to hide?