 |
Original Source: MAIL: SATURDAY 15 DECEMBER 2007
|
By
REBECCA CAMBER
Last updated at 00:23am on 15th December 2007 |
|
|
|
Gerry McCann was "relaxed" about leaving his children alone in their
holiday apartment the night Madeleine disappeared, a key witness said
yesterday.
Bridget O'Donnell, who became friends with the couple while staying at the same
complex, broke her silence to declare that although Kate and Gerry McCann made
a "disastrous decision" in leaving Madeleine alone, they are innocent
of any crime.
The mother of two also told of the Portuguese detectives' incompetence, saying
that they did not even know what Madeleine looked like the day after she
disappeared.
She described seeing Robert Murat - who became the first suspect in the case -
sweating, "breathless" and "a little excited" at the Ocean
Club in Praia da Luz where the fouryearold
went missing.
Yesterday, for the first time, Miss O'Donnell described a crucial encounter
when her partner, TV producer Jeremy Wilkins, spoke to Gerry McCann during the
hour when Madeleine vanished.
The cardiologist was on his way back to the resort's tapas restaurant at 8.30pm
after checking on his three children when he bumped into Mr Wilkins, who was
taking his baby son out in a buggy to try to get him to sleep before spending
the evening in the family's accommodation.
"The two men stopped to have a chat," she wrote in The Guardian.
"They talked about daughters, fathers, families.
"Gerry was relaxed and friendly.
"They discussed their baby-sitting dilemmas at the resort and Gerry said
that he and Kate would have stayed in too if they had not been on holiday in a
group."
Her account goes against the Portuguese police theory that Mr McCann was
somehow involved in his daughter's death and had left her body in the apartment
at that time.
The chance meeting on the night Madeleine vanished has been subject to endless
speculation and is critical in confirming the timing of the McCanns' movements.
Miss O'Donnell, who worked as a producer on BBC1's Crimewatch,
said she "admired" the McCanns for being comfortable enough to leave
their children alone in their apartment as they ate at a tapas restaurant
nearby.
"I admired them, in a way, for not being paranoid parents, but I decided
that our apartment was too far off even to contemplate it," she said.
Her comments will be a welcome boost for the McCanns who have suffered a
growing backlash in recent days from the mayor of Praia da
Luz, where posters have been removed of the missing girl.
Miss O'Donnell was staying with her partner, her three-year- old daughter and
nine-month- old baby son in their apartment a block away from the
McCanns".
She said: "Privately I was glad we didn't get their apartment.
"It was on a corner by the road and people could see in. They were
exposed."
She described the dilemma parents faced when arranging childcare at the resort.
Although the Ocean Club had a 'sit-in' babysitting service, she said it was
expensive, highly in demand and parents had to book well in advance.
Alternatively, children could be taken to the kiddie club which also ran a
babysitting service.
But Miss O'Donnell said that when she left her children there, the sitter
called to say one was crying.
The couple had to leave their meal unfinished to collect their two children and
return to their apartment.
On May 3, the night Madeleine disappeared, Miss
O'Donnell said they decided to stay in with their children.
She said: "We ate, drank wine, watched a DVD then went to bed.
"On the ground floor, a completely catastrophic event was taking place.
"On the fourth floor of the next block, we were completely
oblivious."
At 1am they were woken with the news by a friend of the McCanns helping with
the search .
The next day the couple spoke to police who were being aided by Robert Murat
acting as a translator.
"The translator had a squint and sweated slightly," said Miss
O'Donnell.
"He was breathless, perhaps a little excited."
Miss O'Donnell blasted the police investigation, saying that officers did not
have a notebook and only wrote their details on a scrap of paper.
An officer also failed to recognise a photocopied picture of Madeleine
distributed by the McCanns' search party, which he mistook for a picture of
Miss O'Donnell's daughter.
Describing Kate McCann as "calm, still, quietly beautiful" and Gerry
as "confident, proud, silly, strong", she said the couple were
physically transformed when their daughter went missing.
"The physical transformation of these two human beings was sickening . . .
Kate's back and shoulders, her hands, her mouth had reshaped themselves into
the angular manifestation of a silent scream,' she said.
"Gerry was upright, his lips now drawn into a thin, impenetrable
line."
Though they were not part of the McCanns' group of friends - whom they
nicknamed "the Doctors" - Mr Wilkins had previously played tennis
with Mr McCann.
Miss O'Donnell said: "Throughout all this I have believed that Gerry and
Kate McCann are innocent.
"There were no drug-fuelled 'swingers' on our holiday - there was a bunch
of ordinary parents worrying about sleep patterns.
"None of us imagined we were being watched. One group made a disastrous
decision; Madeleine was vulnerable and was chosen.
"But in the face of such desperate audacity, it could have been any one of
us."
Three days after Madeleine's disappearance, the couple left the resort.
British police later took a statement from Mr Wilkins, but she said Portuguese
police never bothered.
Miss O'Donnell added: "My heart goes out to them, Kate and Gerry, the
couple we remember from our Portuguese holiday.
"They had a beautiful daughter Madeleine, who played and danced with ours
at the kiddie club. That's who we remember."
|
|
 |
|
