Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Jane Tanner :TRANSCRIPT - BBC Panorama

JANE TANNER

Friend of the McCanns

I think the starters were about to arrive so I thought oh, I'll go and do a check in sort of 20 minutes or so before last check. So I thought I'll go and do a check before the food arrives. So I just walked out of the restaurant, up the hill, I passed Gerry who was talking to one of his tennis friends at the time. And then after I'd past Gerry, at the top of the road I just saw somebody walking across the top of the road I just saw somebody walking across the top of the road so I was a reasonable distance away from them, and that person was carrying a child.

BILTON: You say "a person." Male or female?
 
JANE: Oh a male, a male.
 
BILTON: And just describe that individual to us.
 
JANE: He was about probably 5'8 tall, he was taller than me but not 6' and so between those two. He was wearing quite a lot of clothes and that's one thing in hindsight again I think was quite odd because tourists when they're abroad, Brits abroad would always have cropped trousers or shorts or something, and he had a sort of a big heavy jacket and trousers on, and hair.. the one thing that I remember a lot is the hair. He did seem to have quite a lot of dark, reasonably-long-to-the-neck hair.
 
BILTON: Describe exactly what he's carrying, what you can see.
 
JANE: Well I could see.. I could tell it was a child, and I could see the feet and... feet and the bottom of the pyjamas, and I just thought that child's not got any shoes on because you could see the feet, and it was quite a cold night in Portugal in May it's not actually that warm, and I'd got a big jumper on, and I can remember thinking oh that parent is not a particularly good parent, they've not wrapped them up.
 
BILTON: And could you tell if it was a boy or a girl?
 
JANE: Only because the pyjamas had a pinky aspect to them so you presume a girl. It was actually quite cold.
 
BILTON: From your sketch he appears to be carrying the child in a sort of unusual way.
 
JANE: Yeah, he was carrying sort of across the body like that. I suppose in hindsight you'd probably think somebody would carry them more against the shoulder.
 
BILTON: And I have to ask you this. Are you absolutely sure of what you saw? It was a long time ago and it was only for a brief period?
 
JANE: Brief period but at the time I knew what I'd seen. I gave that information to the police and because of the pyjamas I'm absolutely convinced that is what I saw.
 
BILTON: According to the McCann timeline, at about 9.30 Matt Oldfield is the next to check on the children.
 
Remember Gerry McCann says he had closed the bedroom door, but Matt Oldfield says he finds it open.
 
He doesn't go in the room, he sees the twins but can't see Madeleine's bed.
 
Because there's no noise he assumes everything is okay.
 
At about 10 it's Kate McCann's turn to check on the children.
 
The bedroom door is still open.
 
As she closes it she feels a draft and knows something is wrong.
 
A shutter on the side of the apartment they couldn't see from the tapas bar is open.
 
Madeleine is missing.
 
Kate McCann says she searches the flat three times before raising the alarm. Jane Tanner says that by this time she is already back in her apartment.
 
JANE: I went out to the front door of our apartment and then I saw Rachael came and said: "Oh Madeleine's gone!" So that was the first that I heard about it. And then I saw Kate and Fiona running around shouting 'Madeleine' and Kate said to me: "Jane, Madeleine's gone! Madeleine's gone!" and that was the first that I heard.
 
BILTON: What time was it about?
 
JANE: I'm not sure, it'd be ten'ish, around ten'ish.
 
BILTON: And now all of a sudden what you've seen...
 
JANE: Yeah, as soon as Rachael said to me: "Madeleine's gone" this person sort of came into my head. I hadn't given it a second thought up to that point but then this person sort of... I suddenly thought oh, well that person was a bit odd. Suddenly Madeleine is not there and I've seen somebody that made me think oh, that maybe was a bit odd. It just seems too much of a coincidence.
 
BILTON: The McCaans say they asked Matt Oldfield to call the police at 10.15 from the Ocean Club front desk. When the police don't appear, they say someone from the group goes back to the front desk to see what's happening. The police say the first call they received was about 10.40. In the chaos it's clear there is some confusion about the exactly times.

Remember Portugal and Britain are on the same time. 


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/7106086.stm