5. Dr Matthew Oldfield claimed he and his wife arrived at the Tapas bar at 8.55pm, but then went back to the Paynes’ apartment to chase them up as they were late. Dr Russell O’Brien confirmed that: “Matt, around 9pm, got up and said ‘I’ll go and drag them out’.” The Paynes flatly contradicted this.
Verdict - False. The witness and rogatory statements of all concerned are consistent with each other.
Source - Police Files.
Yet again, we have several independent statements wrapped up as a single "fact". It is therefore unclear exactly which part(s), the MMRG are claiming the Paynes "flatly contradicted".
*Note that the earliest statements are not transcripts of interviews, but rather paraphrased accounts of what was said in response to police questions. We do not know precisely what these questions were.
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The interviewee says that the day yesterday was identical to the previous ones and that, as on all other nights, at around 8.45pm, he and his wife left their daughter asleep in the apartment and went to the "Tapas" restaurant. That the couple Kate and Gerry, Madeleine's parents were already at the restaurant. That they had arrived at the restaurant five minutes before them. The rest of the adults arrived at the restaurant around five minutes after the interviewee and his wife. That the last to arrive at the restaurant was the couple David and Fiona. That the latter arrived at the restaurant at around 21h00. That around 21h05, the interviewee went to the area of the apartments. |
NB - The time of 19:45 is almost certainly an error of typing or transcription since it is at odds with all other accounts and statements.
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The deponent said he stayed in his apartment until 19h45 at which time, together with his wife, he went to the Tapas restaurant where Gerald and Kate were already and, from what was said afterwards, Jane. Later, about 20h50, Russell arrived. The deponent added that David, Fiona and Dianne were still not present – and as he could see their apartment lights burning – he resolved to go to them, clarifying that he did not reach that apartment as those people were already on their way to the restaurant. He clarifies [further] that he met them near the living quarters, at the corner next to the main door of the McCann apartment. Benefiting from meeting them next to the residences, he adds that, on his own initiative, he made a "listening check" at the bedroom window of Madeleine McCann and the twins at 21h05. |
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"so I told Rach, you know, I'll have whatever it was, I think it was, erm, probably sardines because, you know, they were pretty good, erm, so I put my order in for her to order if the waiter came back and went to try and sort of chivvy them along. But as I was leaving the Tapas area, you know, and their light going off and knowing that they were coming down and on their way, and on my way up, about at that top corner before you turn left to get round the back, as you go up the top of the hill, we sort of passed on the way down and they were on their way to the restaurant, but it seemed a bit silly not to go ahead and just sort of check on G****, even though we'd only been down there about fifteen minutes",
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His partner, Jane, went to have dinner at the "TAPAS" restaurant at around 20h30 and he went there at around 20h45. When he arrived at the restaurant, nearly all the adults were present, without children, with the exception of David, Fiona and Diane. They arrived more or less 5 minutes later.
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Meanwhile, his companion Jane went to dinner in the restaurant - the Tapas - around 20h35/20h40 with the deponent going around 20h45. As the menu was always the same, the group already knew what plates made up the menu, for this reason the deponent told his wife what he wanted, and that she place the order, while he tried to put E**e down. • When he arrived at the restaurant, all the adults were there, without the children. David and Fiona were missing and Dianne Webster. They arrived more or less 10 minutes after. |
Quote:
And I can distinctly remember, from the position I was sitting, I was looking towards the apartment block and, erm, you, you could see the lights on in their, in their rooms, inside, and occasionally see people walking about. So there were lots of jokes about the fact that they were still, still not there and probably if we didn’t get a move on they weren’t going to serve us. So Matt, erm, around nine o’clock, give or take a few minutes, but around that sort of time, he got up and said ‘I’ll go and drag them out’ and I believe also had a listen outside of all of the rooms as well. In any case, as he was walking back, he actually met them on the way down. |
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Concerning yesterday evening, he states that he, his wife and his mother-in-law arrived at the restaurant at around 8.55pm. According to what he remembers, when they arrived, all the members of the group were present, apart from the children, who were in bed. |
Quote:
1485 "The intercom and all the rest of it. I'm just gonna move on to when you actually got to the Tapas, you said that you passed Matt on the way down." Reply "Mm." 1485 "Whereabouts did you pass him?" 1485 "Can you mark, just..." 1485 "Yeah." just..." 1485 "Actually into the complex?" there." 1485 "Okay." |
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Afterwards, she returned to the apartment and got ready. She left around 20H45, accompanied by David and her mother, in order to meet the rest of the group in the Tapas restaurant. |
Confirms her previous statement but appears only to have been asked about Robert Murat in this interview.
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1485 “Yeah. So you got ready then between eight and ten to nine?” |
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Concerning the day yesterday, she went to the beach with the children, her son-in-law and her daughter. They arrived there at around 3.45pm and left at around 6.15pm to go to the tennis courts where she stayed until 7pm. The informant then went to the apartment with the small children and ten minutes later, her son-in-law, David, joined them. With her son-in-law's help, they bathed the children. They left the apartment at around 8.45 and accompanied by her son-in-law and her daughter, they went to join the rest of the group at the "TAPAS" restaurant. |
In this second statement she does not recall meeting anyone en-route to the restaurant. She later changed her statement on this point (see below).
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Prompted to report the events that had unfolded in period between 19H00 and 22H40 of that day, the deponent states that around 19:00 she had gone together with the Payne couple and their children to the apartment in order to prepare them for bed. Then, as usual, the adults prepared themselves for dinner. In this matter, she recalled that they had been late with these preparations because they only managed to get to Restaurant around 21.00. Asked, she adds that she went to the restaurant in the company of her daughter and son-in-law. |
Quote:
PC: "And getting ready for the, going for a meal." DW: "Well we were very late that night." PC: "And Fiona had gone for a run." DW: "Yeah." PC: "And then the, you arrived a little late. What can you remember of the evening then?" PC: "Right." DW: "Well Matt obviously wasn't because we we'd just passed him but of course I don't remember this at the time, and I think in my original statement I thought maybe Gerry wasn't there, but maybe he was, I don't know." DW: "I can't be sure because it's not something that I think I need to remember, at the time, its not something you need to remember." |
Although she did not recall this in her earliest statements, she did recall that Dr Oldfield was not in the restaurant when she arrived and she made a point to clarify her recollection at her rogatory interview.
Other than Dianne Webster's initial failure to recall bumping into Dr Matthew Oldfield en-route to the restaurant, all statements are consistent. Dianne Webster later corrected her statement.