What really happened? Part 2 - Russell

by Paddingtom 20.08.24 7:00

…....continued

We have established previously that the alarm was raised at 9.30.p.m and the Tapas8 left the restaurant immediately, initially leaving Dianne behind, but she would soon follow.

However, by the time the police had become involved, the friends told them that the alarm was raised at 10.00.pm.. Russell helpfully wrote out a couple of timelines for them to follow which covered their activities during the evening culminating in a 10.00.pm alert.

They told the police that other than Russell and Gerry being missing for an extended period, the only other people to leave had briefly checked their children were ok and immediately returned to the restaurant.

Restaurant staff confirm Russells absence for a period of about 15 minutes and upon his return they re-heated his food prior to the alarm being raised at 9.30.pm.

So, what was Russell doing? Lets have a look.

Russell made several police statements and explained that his child Evie (not the MM lookalike one)was ill on the night in question and himself and his wife had shuffled backwards and forwards to look after her. She had also been ill on the previous Monday or Tuesday but that he had had his food delivered to him in the room on that occasion so he could stay with her:

4/5/7
- Matthew Oldfield returned to the restaurant, having told Jane Tanner that the deponent stayed behind with Evie O'Brien because she was crying.
- The truth is that after the crying, the deponent had to change all the sheets and his daughter's clothing as she had vomited.
- His companion came to change places with him 15 minutes after and told him to go finish dinner.

10/4/2008
Monday or Tuesday I stayed in the flat with Evie as she wasn’t well Jane brought my meals over to me

and then started to clean up Evie and change her, Matt came into my apartment and asked if I needed any help. It was getting darker by this time. I said to go back and tell Jane that Evie was unwell.

either the Monday or Tuesday, I stayed in the flat with Evie, she wasn’t well and Jane brought her over’,

(Russell is asked to check his statement and make any changes) I have highlighted significant items.

‘I went straight to five ‘D’, I could hear at the door Evie was murmuring’, well ‘at the window’ rather than ‘the door’, I think”.
1578    “Sorry, where is that'”
Reply    “Well the door is there and Evie’s in the bedroom next to it, so I would have thought we’d have heard it from, you know”.
1578    “’I could hear at the’'”
Reply    “’Hear at the window Evie was murmuring’”.
1578    “So we will substitute ‘door’ for ‘window’'”
Reply    “’Window’, yeah. I think it’s the opposite way round really, ‘I went to the toilet to urinate’, and I knew, I knew, because Evie was awake, I was staying anyway , so ‘I went to the toilet to urinate and then checked on Evie and she had been sick’, so I think I actually went”.
1578    “Okay, I will swap those'”
Reply    “Just round, yeah. I had a pee first because I was a little desperate. Erm, ‘I started to clean her up and change her. Matt came into my apartment and asked if I needed any help. I said ‘No, go back and tell Jane that Evie was unwell’’”.
1578    “So if we include in there ‘Matt came into my apartment’'”
Reply    “Oh yeah, yeah, ‘He asked if I needed any help’. Erm, at that point, erm, the external light was, was, was fairly low, it looked pretty dark, well I can picture Matt in the doorway and it was fairly dark”.
1578    “So your choice of words ‘pretty dark’ ‘fairly dark’'”
Reply    “’Fairly dark’. Erm, the only other thing I can remember that we mentioned, I’m just going to see if it’s coming in the next, no, it’s not in here and I think it, I mean, we did mention it on Tuesday but it hasn’t been put here. That, you know, given the amount of stick that, that I’ve had with the Portuguese Press for not requesting any fresh sheets for Evie, erm, I think I’d actually like to point out that the, that this wasn’t some third world, erm, apartment and it did actually have a washing machine. And, erm, you know, we’ve been, you know, they don’t know where it’s come from, but, erm, I don’t know whether it is a question that the PJ have particularly done, but, you know, every time I translated to the PJ, erm, the Portuguese Press article, it says that we never requested any, erm, we never requested any further sheets and if they were sick all over them then how could this be true. But it’s quite sort of staggering that eight months later then the fact that there was a washing machine in the building isn’t in there, so I would be very keen for that to be put in please”.
1578    “Okay. So at the end of paragraph'”
Reply    “So ‘I told him to go back and tell Jane that Evie was unwell’, erm, I’d obviously cleaned her up and changed her. Erm, I think maybe what I would do is I’d say ‘Matt came into my apartment and asked if I needed any help, I said ‘No, go back and tell Jane that Evie was unwell’’ and then, because I don’t think that I would have had time then, it was then I started, ‘I got her out, I gave her a quick wash in the bath, changed her, got the sheet off the cot’, erm, and at least, whether I started the washing machine then, but at least ‘I put them in the washing machine and then sat down with Evie’. But I want it in there that there was a bloody washing machine in the apartment”.
1578    “’Gave Evie a quick bath’'”
Reply    “Yeah”.
1578    “’Changed her’'”
Reply    “’Changed her’ and, erm, and MARK WARNER do stretch to cleaning facilities on their holidays, so”.
1578    “’And placed bed linen’'”
Reply    “Excuse to sound so cynical, but. ‘And placed’, well I don’t think, I don’t think I necessarily put the, I got the dirty linen and her clothes off and at least I think, you know, there was a few bits of sick and I probably gave them a rinse off in the bath and then just shoved them in the washing machine, whether I started it then or did it later I’ve no idea. But, you know, since we’ve been”.
1578    “’And placed clothing’”.
Reply    “Suspicion has been put on us because, erm, we didn’t request any further sheets. I think I’d rather have it in there that, erm”.
1578    “’Into the washing machine’”.
Reply    “That even as a man I can use a washing machine, staggering though that may sound. Anyway, enough of that. I think, erm, say ‘Jane came back, we were in the flat together for a number of minutes’, it might be worth adding, so ‘Jane came back having eaten her meal at approximately twenty-one forty’ or something like that”.
Got to my flat five ‘D’, erm, and as we, you know, got sort of quite close I could hear Evie murmuring, so she was, she was obviously awake. So I went into five ‘D’, erm, I actually went to the toilet first. Erm, and then Matt broke off at this point and he went over to his flat five ‘B’. And I was just, just in the process really, after having a wee, of checking, erm, of checking Evie and had, you know, had established that she’d, erm, that she’d been, that she’d actually been sick in the cot. Erm, I, you know, Matt returned, so this was only really a matter of a couple of minutes or so later, and, you know, he asked if everything was alright and I said, you know, ‘Well Evie’s obviously awake and I think she’s been sick’.
So he offered to help and stay if I needed it and I said ‘No, you go back, just let Jane know that Evie’s awake and she’s been sick and’, you know, ‘and whether she’d come back after she’s finished her dinner’.
Erm, within the flat, erm, you know, I got Evie out and she had some sick on her, on her, on her clothes and on her face, so I actually turned on the sort of shower taps and I got her out of her, erm, out of her kind of nightie that she was in, gave her a quick wash, erm, and then, at some stage, either then or later on, I also stripped the, stripped the cot, I think I must have done it at the time because I think that actually had more sick on it than anything and I just rinsed that off in the bath. And then they went into the, erm, fully functioning, easily to operate by men, washing machine, that, erm, that MARK WARNER had, had, erm, provided, that was in the flat anyway.
On that visit it was clear listening at the window that Evie had woken up, erm and so as I’ve already, already gone over, I went into the flat, had a wee, Matt came back after checking 5B, he discovered you know that I’d found Evie, that had been awake and she’d vomited, asked if I wanted any help, I said no, he returned via Gerry and Kate, Gerry’s flat, I stayed there err got Evie out, out of her, out of her sort of soiled clothes erm gave her a quick wash and the clothes down, changed her into something else,

1. Russell is obviously very distressed as he doesnt seem to know the difference between a window and a door. His daughter was supposedly ill and he heard her murmuring through one or the other.

2.He is very sensitive about the comments he has received from the Portugese press who are suggesting that his daughter was not ill because he did not ask for replacement sheets, despite the fact that he is capable of operating the on-site washing machine. However, he doesnt operate it. He goes to great lengths to tell us that he put the soiled bedding in the washing machine (at some point) but he doesnt turn it on! He also doesnt take into account, that having got your wife to turn the washing machine on for you, it would still take awhile to wash and then would need drying before being reused.
And all this at the beginning of the evening. She had the entire night to get through with no bedding because he says he had put it in the washing machine but had not turned it on.

3. The two timelines written by Russell to help the police have a rather curious entry. The first timeline has a 9.30 entry for Russell and “Poorly daughter”. The second has a 9.20pm and 9.30pm entry with Ella crossed out.(The MM lookalike one). He seems to be confused as to which daughter was actually ill.

4. It is of interest that with the new 10.00p.m. timeline, Russell is required to visit his children 5 minutes after the return of his wife who reports they are well, only for Russell to find one is ill (hes not sure which one) 5 mins later, necessitating her second visit to allow him to return to the restaurant to have his steak re-heated.

5. When the timeline is extended to 10.00pm, Russell's activities are moved 30 minutes forward to fill the gap. How can you move the time your child is ill?

It is my opinion that whatever Russell was doing, he was not looking after his sick child – whichever one it was because neither were sick.

Not convinced? Thankfully you do not have to take my word for it. Lets ask Gerry:

5^th October 2007
…..on that night (Thursday) none of the adults nor children were ill. Asked, he relates that the daughter of RUSSELL and of FIONA would have been ill on Tuesday.

….....to be continued

by pinkgladioli 20.08.24 11:12

I see he didn’t divulge his choice of soap powder I wonder if he was a Daz man!
Just looking at the University of Exeter Medical School where he is listed in the Academic staff section and despite all his other work colleagues being listed with an email address it seems DR O’s doesn’t have one

by **Silentscope** 21.08.24 9:50

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I will put this information up again from another past thread.

Source: 10pm in Praia da Luz - Facebook

by **PeterMac** 23.08.24 8:18

Paddington
Not convinced? Thankfully you do not have to take my word for it. Lets ask Gerry:

5th October 2007
…..on that night (Thursday) none of the adults nor children were ill. Asked, he relates that the daughter of RUSSELL and of FIONA would have been ill on Tuesday.

* * * *
Which fits exactly with Bernt Stellander's theory that they are all essentially telling the truth, but about the wrong day.
Here Gerry CONFIRMS that all this was on a different day. The night BEFORE the accident

by Paddingtom 23.08.24 9:25

Respect to you Petermac for interpreting it that way. I personally think GM was, for once, telling the truth. IMO.

by Shash T 23.08.24 23:10

Does Gerry mean two children were sick on the Tuesday?
As in, Russell and JANE'S daughter
And Fiona and DAVID's daughter?

by Shash T 23.08.24 23:18

I have always thought Russell changing sheets without asking for fresh ones didn't make sense, even if he washed them they would need drying and that all takes time. Usually a sick child just wants to sleep and sometimes they are sick more than once leading to quick bath and clean sheets again. If he had said there was a supply of sheets in the apartment, that would have made much more sense. In my opinion.

by Paddingtom 24.08.24 6:40

Hi Shash T. yes, I think he meant 2 children were ill on Tuesday.

As for the supply of sheets in the cupboard, its genuis!!! God forbid they ever get themselves in this sort of mess again, I will recommend you as their adviser. Its priceless...