Joana Morais: The McCann's Stockholm Interview

The McCann's Stockholm Interview


“Well obviously they were very young, but they have re-counted things that happened prior to May 2007, which has kind of thrown me a little bit.”

by A.Miller

The interview in Stockholm has perhaps provided us with the most polished and proficient performance by the McCann couple to date, polished in both their appearance and almost off pat delivery of their tale of abduction.

A McCann ‘outing’ would never be complete though, without a dash of damage-limitation always included for good measure, not solely to serve the purpose of diminishing their part in whatever became of Madeleine - though that too, but rather another desperate attempt, an exercise in painting a pretty picture portraying themselves as not only the injured party but of being whiter than white. Sad faced Kate -I’m damned if I smile, damned if I don’t- McCann, a keen dramatist, coupled with the discomfiting smirk of Gerry -where is the child- McCann never fail their audience, their self-centred conduct always makes for cringe worthy viewing.

An interview with the McCann’s coupled without the main ingredient - the now customary sprinkle of ‘put downs’ directed at the Portuguese Police and anyone else in fact, who may disagree with their abduction theory – is something too that we have come to expect.

The upside is perhaps that each time Kate McCann makes an appearance, deliberately or otherwise there are disclosures.

The McCann twins, Kate tells us, understand the reason behind their parents visit to Sweden – And no, it’s not “All about the Money” it is to ask the good people of Sweden for their help in finding their missing daughter...

She tells us too, that the twins are able to re-collect events prior to May 2007 which she states has “thrown her”. In what way one might wonder? Does Kate McCann hope that they may recall the night of 3rd May 2007 and be able to throw some light as to who removed Madeleine from Apt 5A? Does it worry her that they might remember something crucial, or, was she simply thwarting an unwelcome question by the interviewer when he made the point that the twins may be too young to actually remember Madeleine?

When asked what her thoughts, now almost five years on, as to what happened to Madeleine, Kate McCann replies:

“Well my view hasn’t changed you know since 4th May really, and that is, that a man took Madeleine. And that man was the person who our friend Jane Tanner saw carrying a child away from the area of the apartment. And sadly I don’t really know anything else since.”

No prizes for spotting the deliberate mistake... But what possible reason could Kate McCann have for stating 4th May and not 3rd? Another red herring, she is rather fond of fish! Time will no doubt tell, but one thing we can be sure of - this was not a faux pas.

She does not “really know anything else since” she declares. Extraordinary that she should say this, as since the sighting by her good friend Jane Tanner there was another sighting by the Smith family, which sadly from Kate’s statement, seems to have escaped her memory.

Patio Door/Curtains

The question of the patio door being left open/closed by Kate after entering 5A on her check is as always a puzzle! In the interview with Oprah Winfrey, Kate states she looked behind her to see if she had left it open. She said she had not. In ‘Madeleine Was Here’ the McCann documentary, the ‘episode’ as to whether she closed the door behind her on entry, is not included at all in their portrayal of events. One wonders why – two different versions?

Now in the interview in Sweden, it re-surfaces.

Kate McCann said in this interview in Stockholm, that when the children’s bedroom door slammed shut, she checked the door behind her (patio door) to see if on entry to 5A she had left it open? She stated she had not. She, therefore based on this, knew that the bedroom door slamming shut was not caused by airflow from patio entrance. Yet, surprisingly, she did not then investigate what had caused the bedroom door to slam closed, where this gust had come from? To most, the obvious answer the bedroom window, but Kate does not check this out, she continued to close over the bedroom door in preparation of leaving 5A without investigating further... then she notices Madeleine is missing.

Not dissimilar to Gerry McCann. Looking in on his children, the open bedroom door once again being the ‘alert’ that something was not right. Yet on discovering his children were asleep had not been out of bed, he too fails to investigate further, he returns to the Tapas.

Quite extraordinary behaviour from both parents each stating the door caused them, if not concern, made them curious, yet each not bothering to discover why the door was open.

In a televised interview a few months back the McCann couple stated that Madeleine could not have exited 5a through unlocked patio door as Kate said “It’s just not possible” as Madeleine would not have:

a) Opened the long curtains, then closed them behind her;
b) Opened the patio door then closed it behind her;
c) Opened the child gate at top of stairs then closed it behind her;

If the child could not get past the first obstacle, the curtains, then stands to reason she would not have needed to attempt the other obstacles (the shutters). What it tells us though, is that when the McCann couple left the apartment by whichever door – the curtains framing the patio door were drawn closed, meeting in the centre.

If the McCann’s left by the patio door, and depending on whether the patio door from the inside opened right to left or vice versa, did they on leaving draw back the curtains at the central point where both curtains met so as to exit, in so doing, disturbing them, then returning them to original position? Or did they slip through the curtains at whichever side the door opening would be?

If they were able to do so, slip through without opening the curtains there is no reason to suggest that a child, just days shy of her 4th birthday would not be able to do likewise, that she could not slip behind curtains, and with much greater ease than her parents and their friends.


Process files - Volume I, Page 19 - Police photographic reportage of the Crime Scene

Also it appears that the patio door not only had heavier style curtains but also net curtains, of a flimsier material. So, two sets of curtains for the parents, those checking to deal with?

Which then begs the question, when Kate McCann entered 5A did she draw open these curtains to one side to gain entry, or did she simply flap around until she found an opening to get through?

What did Matt Oldfield do on his check? Did he return curtains to original position on leaving? And Gerry McCann, how about him? He claims to have left by this route also?

If Kate did not open the curtains on entry, when she then “looked behind her” to check if she had left the patio door open, her view would have been obscured. How could she have been sure it was closed without going over to the door and taking a closer look?

We therefore have to assume the curtains were open at that point, whether opened by Kate on entry, or that they were never closed at any time that night. In which case, Madeleine would not have had any “problem” with curtains as suggested in their interview.

Not one of them has ever mentioned curtains, having to negotiate them on entry/exiting by the patio door!

In police photos the curtains are open. Would that be how they were found to be on their arrival? Did the McCann couple/their friends draw them open and pin them back before police arrived?

Kate McCann always said, “if they had had to think about their decision to leave the children it would not have happened.” They have said many times that they, due to Madeleine telling them she was awake and crying the previous night, that they talked it over and decided to make more regular checks than on previous nights. Clearly, then if they were making more regular checks on the 3rd then they did not check as often as half hourly on the other nights.

Kate said, interestingly that it felt like a really “natural” thing to do, to go eat at the tapas restaurant on the complex. Not a mention, that it felt unnatural to leave three babies under 4 years of age alone while they did so. It is the most bizarre of statements, yet no one but no one questions them on this, not in any robust way? We have Gerry declaring how overprotective Kate was with the children. This is absolutely not demonstrated by their actions on any night during that holiday- their “collective mistake.” But how could the collective mistake have been allowed to continue when on the morning of 3rd Madeleine alerted them to their mistake. There it should have ended. On the night of 3rd there should not have been a repeat of this “collective mistake.” Some may consider, accept that it was a mistake up until that point, but most definitely not thereafter can it be described as such. It then became, without question, child neglect. They knew the risks, they knew their children had been awake and crying, they knew by leaving them they were placing them in a vulnerable position, a state of fear. They made a conscious decision to do so.

Gerry describes the alleged abductor as having taken a risky opportunity, Gerry and Kate McCann simply took avoidable risks with their children's lives.

More important might be that all of the above contradicts the rogatory statement given by Fiona Payne, when she declared that Kate McCann told her she left the patio door unlocked for Madeleine to be able to exit the apartment in her parent’s absence.

And I must point out also, in the McCann documentary, ‘Madeleine Was Here’ the film footage depicts the children’s bedroom as having net curtain, it is seen blowing in the breeze. (I do appreciate this was filmed in Rothley) Did the children’s bedroom window at 5A have netting? If so, another obstacle for any intruder - again two sets of curtains – that's troublesome!

Gerry's little dig that their children will read the horrible material on the internet which is written about them. It cannot be denied there is some nasty material out there. But more than this, they should be worried that the children read the police files, watch the interviews given by their parents, the ducking and diving, the money making which could easily be described as “scams”. But who knows, before that happens perhaps the culprits, those responsible for the crimes committed against Madeleine, will be behind bars.


   1485 “But you said that Kate told you about Madeleine waking up?”

   Reply “Yeah”.

   1485 “And you couldn’t remember, you didn’t, you weren’t sure whether it was the night before?”

   Reply “Yeah”.

   1485 “Or, you know, the night before that?”

   Reply “Yeah”.

   1485 “What were the circumstances regarding her telling you that?”

   Reply “She did, she brought it up and that she, I mean, this is awful in retrospect as well, she asked what my opinion was on, erm, tut, on whether they were okay leaving the, the doors unlocked, because she was saying ‘Is it better that if Madeleine wakes up she can get out and find us or’, erm, ‘or locking it and, you know, finding that we’re not there and the door’s locked if she woke up’, because Madeleine had woken up, what I thought was the night before. Erm, tut, and it was in that context really, just asking, you know, what I thought. So it was obviously something that was on her mind a bit, huh”.
   01.15.57

   1485 “So she asked you what your thoughts were regarding locking?”

   Reply “Yeah”.

   1485 “Did she say whether she had locked or?”

   Reply “No, that was the point, I think they said they’d left it, well she’d said she’d left it unlocked”.

   1485 “Left the patio?”

   Reply “And she felt a bit nervous about it but Gerry, Gerry had sort of said ‘Oh it will be fine’, you know. But she was obviously, because it wasn’t something she was quite easy with, that’s the way it came across, you know, but, but Gerry said, you know, ‘It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine’.

   Fiona Payne statement to the Leicestershire police, April 2008

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14374p75-mccann-interview-and-videotranscripts#459369

https://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2012/03/mccanns-stockholm-interview.html