EXCLUSIVE: Tourist met rude man carrying child in blanket on night Madeleine vanished
AN IRISH holidaymaker has spoken publicly for the first time of his disturbing encounter with a man carrying a child
wrapped in a blanket on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared. Now investigators hired by Madeleine's parents hope Martin Smith and his family can provide a crucial breakthrough.
Speaking from his
home in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Mr Smith recalled the sighting, which is
strikingly similar to one by
a friend of the McCanns,
Jane Tanner. In hindsight, the retired Mr Smith said, the mans rude
behaviour should have aroused
his suspicions. He explained: "The one thing we noted afterwards was that he gave us no greeting. "My wife Mary remembered afterwards that she asked him, 'Oh, is she asleep?' But he never acknowledged her one way or
another. "He just put his head down and averted his eyes. This is very unusual in a tourist town at such a quiet time of the year."
Il est sûr que c'était la manière idéale de se faire remarquer. Il devait donc avoir une raison forte pour se taire. Un accent ?
Their description
of the barefoot child and the man, who wore beige trousers, echoes that
of Miss Tanner, who said she
saw a man carrying a
sleeping child away from the McCanns apartment about 9.15pm. Though the Smith
family believe they met an almost identical man closer to 10pm, the
coincidence prompted them to contact
police after they
returned to Ireland. Mr Smith said: "Luz is such a small place and so
quiet, we felt a duty to tell police
and let them decide if
it was important."
Last night, McCann
family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said detectives from the Spanish
agency Metodo 3 now hoped to speak
to the family. "Metodo 3
is being very methodical, working through a number of people they think
might be able to help them,
and this family will be
on their list."
On the night of the disappearance, Mr Smith was dining with his wife in the Dolphin restaurant in Praia Da Luz, where
they are frequent visitors. The couple were with their daughter Aoife, their son Peter and his wife Sile, as well as four grandchildren Tadhg, Cole,
Aisling and Eimear. All nine met the man holding a child but their recollection differs slightly from Miss Tanner's. "In the image she
gave, the man was holding the child forward in his arms. The man we saw
had put the child over his
shoulders. But Luz was
very, very quiet at that time of the year and the likelihood of two
young children being carried around
like this is very small. "Also, our timings are a bit different. She saw the man at 9.15pm. We say 9.45or 9.50pm and
the sighting was only a five-minute walk from where the child was staying.
Aoife dit juste après 22h.
"I dont know if this information will help the McCanns. We kept interested in whats going on but we tried to avoid the limelight." The father of six yesterday said the Irish family would do anything they could to help the McCanns find their missing daughter. "We have not been contacted by the private detective hired by the McCanns, and have had no contact with the investigating police since May 26 last year. "But anything we can do to help try to solve it, we will." Recalling the event she witnessed, Mr Smith said it was some time before the family realised they could be star witnesses.
"I dont know if this information will help the McCanns. We kept interested in whats going on but we tried to avoid the limelight." The father of six yesterday said the Irish family would do anything they could to help the McCanns find their missing daughter. "We have not been contacted by the private detective hired by the McCanns, and have had no contact with the investigating police since May 26 last year. "But anything we can do to help try to solve it, we will." Recalling the event she witnessed, Mr Smith said it was some time before the family realised they could be star witnesses.
We were out the night it happened. My son and his family were leaving on the Friday and we were going for a family meal. We went home about 9.50pm and we heard nothing at all about Madeleine McCann until the next day. I was taking my son Peter to the airport and on my way back, I heard that a kidnapping had happened in the village of Luz. We were looking at all the commotion on Sky News and we really felt quite helpless. "We had two grandchildren with us at the time, aged four and five, and it had a terrible effect on them. They all wanted to sleep in the same room as us until we went home on the Wednesday. We were home two weeks when my son rang up and asked was he dreaming or did we meet a man carrying a child the night Madeleine was taken. We all remembered that we had the same recollection. I felt we should report it to the police. I rang the Portuguese police and they took a statement from me on the phone. Then they asked me to make a statement to gardai, which I did in Drogheda two weeks after the disappearance. Two days later, Leicestershire police got on to us and said they wanted to speak to all nine of us. But we felt there was no point dragging grand children and the whole lot out to Portugal so just my eldest son, Peter, and youngest daughter, Aoife, and I flew to Luz to make a statement. The police were fairly busy and the station was pretty typical. They didnt seem to be the most efficient police you ever came across but they are probably no different to police anywhere else. We were interviewed separately and told them what we saw, and showed them on the map where we met the man and child. We spent the whole day there from 10.30am to 7pm with an interpreter. That day, May 26 last year, was the last time we had any contact with the investigation. I remember clearly because it was my wedding anniversary. I told them we went for dinner at the Dolphin Restaurant and then went on to have just one drink in Kelly's bar, just 50 yards away. We would normally have stayed out longer but my son and his family were going home the next day. As we made our way back to our apartment in Estrella da Luz, we met a guy with a child that appeared to be asleep. It looked like a blonde child, and I thought she might be four years old, as she was the same size as my grandchild who was with us. It was around 9.55pm and it was getting dark and he was looking downward so I couldnt tell you exactly what he looked like. None of us was 100 per cent sure what he was wearing but we all told police he was wearing beige trousers and a darker top. We all put him in his early 40s. I didnt think he was Portuguese.
Insisting he knew chief
suspect Robert Murat visually
for years, Mr Smith told
police the person he saw carrying a child could not be him.
"I told police it was definitely not him because the man wasn't as big as Murat. I think I would have definitely recognised
him."
Sky News - 04 January 2008
(Same article later republished with new headline: 'Missing Madeleine McCann: Irish Witness 'Clears' Murat', 12:00pm UK, Monday April 07, 2008 )
(Same article later republished with new headline: 'Missing Madeleine McCann: Irish Witness 'Clears' Murat', 12:00pm UK, Monday April 07, 2008 )
An Irish tourist who saw someone carrying a child in a blanket on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared insists
that the mystery man was not Robert Murat. Martin Smith, from Drogheda in Co Louth, was on holiday in Praia Da Luz with his family when they bumped into the man
just before 10pm on May 3 last year. The Smith family's suspicions were aroused because the man made no response when they asked if the barefoot child was
asleep. "He just put his head down and averted his eyes, which is very unusual in a tourist town at such a quiet time of the
year," said Mr Smith.
Initially the Smith family thought nothing more of the encounter - and even the next day when the story broke they still
didn't make the connection.
We were home two weeks when my son rang me up and asked was he dreaming or did we meet a man carrying a child the night Madeleine was taken. We all remembered the same recollection, and I felt we should report it to the police. We've all been beating ourselves up that we should have made the link sooner, if only we'd remembered the next day. But the Portuguese police said you see these things on holiday all the time.
The Smiths did contact the Portuguese police once they had returned to Ireland, but say they have had no contact with
the officers investigating the case since May last year.
I rang the Portuguese police and they took a statement from me on the phone. They asked me to make a statement to the Gardai, which I did, and two days later Leicestershire police got on to us. My eldest son, Peter, my youngest daughter, Aoife, and I then flew to Luz to make a statement. They didn't seem to be the most efficient police you ever came across - and that was the last time we had any contact with the investigation. I don't know if this information will help the McCanns, but anything we can do to help try to solve it, we will. We were looking at all the commotion on Sky News and we really felt quite helpless. We had two grandchildren with us at the time and it had a terrible effect on them - they all wanted to sleep in the same room as us.
But Mr Smith is certain that the man he and his family saw that night was not Robert Murat, who is still officially an
"arguido" in the Madeleine McCann investigation. "I told police it was definitely not him because the man wasn't as big as Murat - I think I would have recognised him
because I'd met him several times previously.
He was wearing beige trousers and a darker top. We all put him in his early 40s and I didn't think he was Portuguese." Mr Smith's sighting is similar to the one reported by Jane Tanner, a friend of the McCann family. A spokesman for the McCanns said detectives from the Spanish agency hired to investigate the case are now hoping to speak
to the Smiths.
Retired Mr Smith, 58, does not wish to appear on camera in order to protect his family from media intrusion.
Local family's anguish over 'Maddy'sighting Drogheda Independent - January 09 2008
Madeleine (4) vanished on May 3rd last
while her family were on holiday in the Portuguese resort of Praia Da
Luz.
The Drogheda family, who first spoke to
the Drogheda Indpendent last August, say despite current media
reports that they will be contacted by the detective agency hired by
parents Gerry and Kate McCann to find the missing toddler, no one has
been in contact with them. 'We are willing to talk to anyone but our
information is vague. It cuts us up that we can't be of more help but
what we saw is not going to crack the case,' Peter Smith told the
Drogheda Independent.
The Drogheda family, Peter, his wife
Sheila and their two children Tadgh (13) and Cole (6), along with
grandparents Martin and Mary Smith, were holidaying in the same
resort at the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Returning from a night out the family
saw a sleeping child in the arms of a man, on the night the toddler
was taken from her parents apartment.
It was our last night. We left the restaurant early because my wife, who was expecting our third child at the time was feeling unwell. On the way back to our apartment we saw a man walking down towards the beach with a child in his arms. It's a common enough sight in a holiday resort and we didn't think much of it. In fact it was only after we were home two weeks that I remembered seeing him. At the time my attention was focused on looking after my wife. When I mentioned it, it jogged my father's memory and he too remembered seeing the same man.
The family made a statement to the
Gardaí who then contacted the Portuguese police. 'About three to
four weeks after Madeleine disappeared we travelled back to Portugal
and gave a description of the man in a statement to the police
there,' said Peter. Since then the family have heard
nothing, from either the Portuguese police or the detectives agency
Metodo 3, hired by her family to find Madeleine. 'We knew that what
we had seen was so vague that we couldn't identify the guy. However
we are willing to help in any way that we can if we are contacted,'
the Drogheda man stressed.
