Breakfast at the Millennium - Why the lies?

August 07, 2019

Breakfast at the Millennium - Why the lies?

One of the pieces of the puzzle that most perplexes me is the question of where did they eat breakfast?

This is an apparently inconsequential issue which only assumes any importance because there is good reason to think that the McCanns plus their Tapas 6 chums have lied about the matter in a coordinated but seemingly pointless and indeed counterproductive way. Because the McCann's go to some lengths to highlight the matter, it is reasonable to assume that if indeed they are lying, they are doing so to cover up or distract from some fact that they really do not want us to know.

The official story as told by the McCanns and confirmed by each of the the T6 (as far as I can recall) is that on the first full day Sunday, the McCanns’ along with everyone else trooped off to the Millennium restaurant to partake in the free breakfast. The story is then that it was such a trek to go there and they then opted to take all their future breakfasts in their apartment.  In her book Kate  goes to  some lengths to justify this decision.  She  estimates the distance o the Millennium at more than twice the 500m  it  is.  She  says  they didn't have a buggy, though MW  offered  complementary ones which she does not mention.  They did have 3  kids which of course would make  it more difficult, but on the other hand everyone  else (and all  the  previous tenants of 5a  who  testified did  make  it to  breakfast.

The problem is that there or 5 or 6 breakfast staff at the Millennium who are very clear that the McCann’s ate there every day that (if you take into account the testimony of all the breakfast staff). The most clear cut statement is from the maitre d' woman who effectively signed the McCann's into breakfast each day. She is quite clear that they ate there. None of these staff recall Maddie in particular and just talk about the family being there so I think it is possible that at least on some days they may not have realised Maddie was missing.  It should  be  noted  that whereas all the breakfast waiting staff interviewed  remembered seeing them at breakfast, none of the evening waiters claimed to have seen them.  That the McCanns attended breakfast at the Millennium is  also  supported by the  Rogatory testimony of Diane Webster (Fiona Payne's mum).  Dianne Webster who as I have argued before, may have been duped as to various things but who appears not to be an on-message insider. She says that she herself only attended breakfast twice on the Sunday and on Wednesday when rain delayed her normal morning tennis lesson, but on both occasions, she believes Kate and Gerry McCanns were there (she does not mention their kids)

"4078 ”Tell me about the Wednesday then as far as you can remember from there.”
Reply ”Well that morning I did go to the Millennium with Dave and Fiona err for breakfast because there was no tennis and I think we, we sat there and I think, I seem to recollect seeing Kate and Gerry then who were sitting with us and I think they’d just finished their breakfast or something, again I’m not clear on that.”"

DW Rogatory

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So, what’s going on here??? Are all the independent witnesses just making this  up?  The Portuguese police were also suspicious as Amaral notes because they found NO evidence of breakfast food in the Apartment.  This is a very odd thing to find had as was officially the case Thursday 3rd just been a normal day up till 10pm when Maddie was found missing.  Would parents of three young kids really have failed to have anything in the  flat for them to eat in the morning, had their routine really been to eat at the  apartment?  I'm sure we have all been "out of milk" or "out of cereals" etc but how many times in your life have  you found yourself "out of everything" when you have supposedly been eating breakfast for 5 in the  apartment for the whole week?

Why lie about this relatively inconsequential fact? For those of us who believe in a pre-Thursday demise, these unbiased witnesses are a bit of a problem, people tend not to specifically have seen Maddie, but at least don’t notice that she was missing? I think this is particularly difficult for those who support a Sunday, Monday or Tuesday death. If she died on Wednesday, there would only be one day to confuse people for. I am struggling with an explanation for this lie? Is it possible that she died on Wednesday and they were concerned that someone at the restaurant would have specifically noticed her missing so they thought they would claim they were not there from Sunday? Does anyone have a good explanation?

Jill, do you know who is the writer of this blog?

Nope, I haven't got a clue!

Someone called Greg posted it in the CMOMM facebewk group. I'll ask him if it's his blog.

If Madeleine died as early as Sunday, the McCanns wouldn't want to be seen as a family of only four, hence the need to not be seen together, in public with just the twins.

Is it possible then, that the twins either had breakfast in the apartment, in another apartment, or at the crèche and that the McCanns ate at the Millenium after dropping them off at the crèche? 

Shortly after they broke the news of Madeleine's disappearance, Cat Baker claimed to have met the McCanns at breakfast.

Ladyinred wrote:Jill, do you know who is the writer of this blog?

I can confirm the writer of the blog is Greg Jones...he's a member of CMOMM facebewk.

I don't suggest the witness is lying but as I've said many times in the past, anyone working in a tourist complex see so many guests come and go in any one season, it's very doubtful they can accurately recount who is who, nor indeed when why or how. Especially when only at the door on a meet and greet stance.

As I've also said many times in the past, the witnesses would have been asked general questions - unless under suspicion or of particular interest to the investigation. This witness was neither.

I speak here from experience having lived in an hotel for a couple of years, over and above staying on a regular basis beforehand. Seasonal staff do not pay very much attention to who's who - unless they see it as a potential conquest if you know what I mean.

Unless the staff knew there should be three children at breakfast with the mccanns they would have seen the parents and two children along with presumably the rest of the tapas 7 and it would have been easy to mislead the staff into thinking either the mccanns and children were a complete family or that everyone in the group was present when in fact they were minus 1.

. . . which may be the reason for the 'ludicrous' way in which they say they exited the apartment after Monday, with GM closing the patio door behind KM and the twins, and then - allegedly - going out by the front door (with MBM, implied) and closing it behind him, before scooting round the corner, which takes all of one minute.
Result –  KM and twins always seen together, as she goes to the Jellyfish creche by the pool, and GM never seen with them, or possibly with anyone.
The important thing is that they were never seen as a family group by people who knew them and could have been questioned in detail.
Even on the Thursday afternoon there was that ridiculous (sorry, LUDICROUS) charade of sending the rest of the Tapas group PLUS all the other children to the Paraiso, – leaving MBM alone in the creche - allegedly - before the High Tea, where again they were seen by no one who would have taken any particular interest.
And then running past to give them all a proper implanted memory and to fix the time line

Verdi wrote:I don't suggest the witness is lying but as I've said many times in the past, anyone working in a tourist complex see so many guests come and go in any one season, it's very doubtful they can accurately recount who is who, nor indeed when why or how.  Especially when only at the door on a meet and greet  stance.

As I've also said many times in the past, the witnesses would have been asked general questions - unless under suspicion or of particular interest to the investigation.  This witness was neither.

I speak here from experience having lived in an hotel for a couple of years, over and above staying on a regular basis beforehand.  Seasonal staff do not pay very much attention to who's who - unless they see it as a potential conquest    if you know what I mean.

This woman's job was to meet people at the door and check if they were to dine FOC as part of their package or to pay.  On meeting these guests, would she have asked for their names or just the room numbers?  Surely the McCanns would have been just a couple of the many guests who she had seen that week, and she would have only seen them for a few seconds as they booked in.

This this woman must have an amazing memory if she can really remember on which days one family, out the many that she must have dealt with, took breakfast at the Millennium. Does she remember the days of all the guests or just the McCanns?  Why them?

sharonl wrote:If Madeleine died as early as Sunday, the McCanns wouldn't want to be seen as a family of only four, hence the need to not be seen together, in public with just the twins.

Is it possible then, that the twins either had breakfast in the apartment, in another apartment, or at the crèche and that the McCanns ate at the Millenium after dropping them off at the crèche?

Creche did not offer breakfast or lunches, so nope, the twins did not eat there.

It's also interesting that the McCanns made a point of telling us that they had gone to the local supermarket to stock up supplies for breakfast and yet this article claims that there was no sign of any breakfast supplies in the apartment. 

Also, what about the bedtime milk and cookies?

Who to believe, the Mcann's, proven liars, Globe trotting attention seekers, money grabbing self preservers, or an ordinary woman doing her job. Mmmmm let me think.

The Mcann's said they had breakfast at home, no evidence of food in the apartment.

Cecilia Carmo, who's job it was to receive guests at the entrance of Millennium restaurant. Cecilia said the Mccann's seemed a normal family. She observed Madeleine clinging to her Father, she said she was shy and did not respond to her.

So she saw madeleine and also spoke to her, she has no reason to lie,I believe her.

She also said the resort is very calm, so perhaps not a lot of people were using the Millennium restaurant, another reason she would remember people in my opinion.