[Niamh.]

This from Pat Browns book, all this from statements made from Gerry McCann, Kate McCann and one the friends Jane Tanner :

Spoiler:

On subsequent analysis of the main statements, and taking into account the McCann’s very
early insistence that Jane Tanner’s sighting was of the abductor with Madeleine, that could
no longer be sustained. This fact had been recognised by Gerry McCann as early as 1:00am
on 4th May. [1]
The McCanns themselves clearly both accept that the “Window of Opportunity” for an
abduction was small. During one interview Kate McCann said - in a high pitched and
emotional voice - “Yyyeeah, yeah you’re right. It was a very small window of opportunity
but they saw it and then *click*!!!!!! Here Kate makes a clicking sound with her tongue
and a simultaneous downward chopping motion with her right hand. [2]
On 10th May 2007 Gerry McCann made a statement in which he confirmed this, although at
that time he seemed equivocal about the Jane Tanner sighting.
The passage bears repeating in full, for the avoidance of doubt.
“The deponent had had the wrong idea that MATHEW had seen the bedroom shutters closed
when he was there at 21H30, and therefore he thought the disappearance would have taken
place between 21h30 and 22h00, but presently he is fully convinced that the abduction took
place during the period of time between his check at 21h05 and MATHEW's visit at 21H30. It
was not until about 01h00 on 4 May 2007 that he learned through RUSSEL that his partner,
JANE, at around 21h10, saw a man crossing the top of the road with a child in his arms, that
may or may not have been his daughter MADELEINE. [3]
Quite how small was that window and the consequences that follow are examined here.
From their Police statements we learn the following :-
• The McCanns left the apartment to go for dinner around 8:30pm [4]
• Gerry McCann left the Tapas restaurant at 9:04 pm, walked back and re-entered the
apartment. He did a physical check on the children. He saw all three. [5]
Observation 1 : From the absence of any further comment in any of his statements it
must be assumed that the front door, the patio door, the garden gate and the security
gate, and the windows and shutters and curtains in the children’s bedroom, were all in
order.
Observation 2 : It takes one minute to walk at a normal speed from the Tapas bar to
the small gate at the bottom of the outside stairs. It would take around a further 20
seconds to open the gate, climb the stairs, open the patio doors quietly, enter the
apartment and reach the children’s bedroom. [6 ]
• He remained in the apartment for a little time, two or three minutes [7] recording that he
stood in the children’s room “and thought to himself, She’s so beautiful.” and took the
opportunity to use the bathroom. He then left the apartment through the patio doors, and went
down the outside stairs, through the gate and out onto the street. There he met Jeremy
(referred to throughout as Jez ) Wilkins. The two men spoke for a short time, estimated at
between 3 and 4, or 3 to 5 minutes. [8] [9 ] or “only a few minutes” [10]
• Jane Tanner left the Tapas bar at between 9:05 and 9:10 pm. Significantly she times her
own departure at five minutes after Gerry’s [11] She walked past the men whilst they were
talking. She reports seeing the two men [12] although the men state they did not see her.
[13]
• Immediately after passing the two men Jane Tanner states that she saw a man carrying a
child along the road across the top of the street, from left to right. The child was being carried
flat, across the forearms, and Jane Tanner saw its feet, which were towards her. She then
continued to her own apartment. [14]
• Gerry McCann then returned to the dining table in the Tapas bar. This time is given as
between 9:10 and 9:15 pm [15]
Working purely from the statements of Gerry McCann, Jeremy Wilkins, and Jane Tanner,
and adding the time as we proceed we can estimate the following -
Gerry McCann left the Tapas bar 9:05 pm
Arrived at gate at bottom of stairs 9:06
Climbed stairs, entered apartment and went to bedroom 9:06.30s
Looked at children and had “proud father” moment 9:07
Used toilet 9:08
Left apartment, closing doors, went down stairs, met Jez Wilkins 9:09
Talked to Jez Wilkins 9:09 - 9:13 pm
Jane Tanner left Tapas bar 9:10 pm
JT arrived bottom of stairs, saw and passed the two men 9:11
JT saw abductor carrying child across top of road 9:11.05s
There is therefore, on their own timings, just two minutes and five seconds for the intruder
to get in, seize Madeleine, get out again, and make his way round to the top of the road. To
walk from the front door or window of the apartment to the left behind the low wall, then
across the car park, then right to the corner of the street takes around 45 seconds. and a
further 5 seconds to cross the street. [16]
He has therefore around one minute and twenty seconds to enter, commit the crime, and
exit. This is an important point for the understanding of what happened.
Let it be stated once again.
If the man seen by Jane Tanner was the “abductor’ and was carrying Madeleine,
as the McCanns insist, he had available to him the time from Gerry McCann’s leaving the
apartment to the sighting by Jane Tanner. And no more.
In this time the intruder has to
• Enter the apartment
• Sedate all three children - in the dark
• Select Madeleine as the victim - in the dark
• Open the shutters and window - if he used the front door to enter
• Pick Madeleine out of her bed - in the dark
• Turn her round so that her head is now to his left, rather than to his right,
which is the way he would have approached her in the bed.
• Exit the apartment, either through the opened window and shutters, or
through the front door, which he must then close silently behind him.
• Walk to the left along the path in front of the apartment, walk straight ahead
across the car park, and then walk to the right along the road, and cross the
street in front of Jane Tanner, the father of the very child he had just abducted, and
another man who has his own child in a buggy.
Taking into account the travelling time, he has around one minute and twenty seconds in
which to achieve the first seven items on the list.
Clearly he could not enter through the patio door within this time frame, since Gerry was
standing either at the bottom of the steps, or on the other side of the road, depending whether
we follow the statement of Gerry McCann, Jez Wilson, [17] [18] or Jane Tanner. (During the
televised “documentary reconstruction” Gerry McCann’s version took precedence, and
viewers were treated to the sight of Jane Tanner being reduced to tears as her detailed
recollection was publicly destroyed.) [19]
For our purposes this important contradiction is, for the moment, irrelevant.
As Kate has observed, “What may be important is that all three of them were there.” [20]
It is indeed a very important point, as it fixes forever Jane Tanner’s sighting relative to Gerry
McCann’s leaving the apartment, in a way which cannot be altered by debate or legal
argument.
It could only be altered by admission of error, but Jane Tanner has several times then and
since publicly insisted that she was telling the truth. [21] [22]
Possible scenarios.
One scenario is therefore that immediately on Gerry McCann’s leaving the apartment, the
intruder entered though the front door by means unknown, or, having forced up the shutters,
propped or jammed them in a high position, forced open the window, and climbed in. This is
not supported by examination of the operation of the shutters, or the locking mechanism of
the windows. No implement to support the shutters was found, and no forensic traces were
seen on the window sill, or on the windows.
A second scenario has more recently been put forward to the effect that the intruder may have
already been in the apartment as Gerry McCann entered. This would allow him a few more
seconds or fractions of a minute in which to complete his crime. And in fact we find that this
was raised as a possibility by Dr Gerry McCann himself some time later. [23]
But the apartment is largely open-plan, there are only three doors, to the bedrooms and the
bathroom, and this theory leads to some vague stories being suggested about where the
intruder might have been secreted. None is persuasive. “Behind the door”, or “in the
cupboard,” have been offered. Examination of the photos of the bedroom, and indeed of the
entire apartment may lead a researcher to question this. [24]
Gerry McCann recounts seeing all the children, and having the “proud father” moment, and of
looking down at Madeleine. In none of his three statements does he report the smell of
anaesthetic gas or the presence of any other anaesthetic paraphernalia, and we conclude
that this procedure must therefore have been performed after he left.
Kate was initially sure that the children had been sedated.