Processos Vol III

Pages 689 - 690

Witness Statement

Jorge Miguel Trindade Cintra

Date: 2007.05.08

Occupation: Waiter

Place of Work: Millenium Restaurant

Comes to the process as a witness. He has worked as a waiter at the OC since April of this year. His normal working hours are from 16H00 to 24H00, with days off on Thursdays and Fridays.

He does not often enter the resort complex, since his main duties lie in the Millenium Restaurant.

Questioned, he states that he became aware of the British girl, Madeleine’s disappearance on Friday, the 4th of May, via his girlfriend.

When questioned, the witness states that he does not believe he saw or spoke to the missing girl or to her family before her disappearance;
He became aware of these people following images on television in the days following the disappearance.

Questioned, the witness states that on the days with preceded the disappearance of the girl, no one spoke to him strangely regarding the guests, or the children accompanying them, the resort or the functioning of the resort.

He also states that he heard no conversation of this sort among other people.
Regarding the presence of people or persons who may have appeared strange in the resort, the last days, the witness states that he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

With regard to the vehicles which could have circulated or parked next to the resort, he states that he did not notice anything at all that drew his attention.
Questioned, the witness states that from the disappearance of the child Madeleine and until today, he is not aware of any commentary that would help clarify the motive for the disappearance, and that he has no information which could help with clarification.
Nothing more was said

Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol III

Pages 714-715

Witness Statement

Alayn Hernandez Fundora

Date: 2007.05.08

Occupation: Barman

Place of Work: OC

Comes to the process as a witness.

Has been resident in Portugal for four years and is fluent in Portuguese (Cuban nationality).

He works in the restaurant area, as a barman in the Plantation Bar, near to the adult swimming pool. This space as well as the bar belong to the OC.

The pool in question is the only place in the resort that does not admit children under 12 and in order to access these installations, one has to pass through a door that is always closed and which is only opened by employees upon the request of users (knocking on the door or ringing the bell).

He says that he has exercised these functions since April 2007. His normal working hours are from 10.00 to 18.00 without interruption for lunch, every day except Fridays and Mondays which are his days off. In the exercise of his functions he remains inside the pool installations having direct contact with the guests and users

Before seeing them in the press, he had never seen the McCann family before because they did not visit the leisure area when he was working.


On the day of the events he went home at 18.00 where he remained with his family.


He knew about the events on the following day at 13.00 from the press. He has nothing to add.


Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol III

Pages 691 – 693

Witness Statement

John Sholto Young

Date: 2007-05-08

Occupation: Waiter, Millenium Restaurant

Place of Work: OC

As he is British and as he does not dominate the Portuguese language, the present statements are taken in the presence of Robert James Queriol Eveleigh Murat, translator to the inquiry.
He has been in Portugal for two years from this (above) date, and that he has worked in Portugal since this time, primarily in the Algarve region.

He explains that last year, in 2006, he worked from April to October in the resort known as “The Ocean Club”, situated in Luz, Lagos (Algarve), where he worked as a waiter. In 2007, he signed a new contract with this same establishment, and began working on April 1, executing the same functions of waiter.
But he clarifies that his work was carried out in the “Millenium” restaurant that is open from 08H00 to 24H00, without interruption, even though it has no lunch menu.

He clarifies that his regular work hours are from 07H30 to15H30. He chose these hours so as to be able to explore the region.
He adds that this past Thursday, the 3rd of May, as was routine, he left work at the normal time (around 16H00), and went home to his place in Almadena.

For this reason, only on the following day, Friday, 4th of May, did he learn of the facts when he reached work. His colleague Paula told him what had happened and for this reason, he did not take part in the searches and had no direct knowledge of the facts.

Questioned about the child Madeleine and her parents, he states that only after hearing about the missing girl did he became aware of the people in question.

After seeing their [the McCann’s] picture, he immediately remembered that he had seen them having breakfast in the restaurant where he works, but that he does not remember any situation in particular involving this family, nor does he remember hearing or noticing any strange situation involving their presence.

He states that according to what he has said regarding the presence, or lack thereof, of anything abnormal, he notes that guests in the resort possess a member card (one per adult). The children, he does not believe, carried any such identification outside the resort, but that they were always accompanied by their parents.

Even though he does not frequent the resort at night, he does remember that, in the past year during this time, he did see people who were not guests frequenting the resort buildings, or simply passing through the village.

As for this year, and this week, he can make no reference to anything of this sort.

Questioned, the witness states that he is not aware of any type of situation which he believes to be suspicious, directly, or indirectly, related to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Regarding his work area, he only remembers that the Kitchen Chef from the Tapas, a German individual named Peter, left his employment about a week before the disappearance. He adds that this person’s behaviour was that of a perfectly normal person. He further adds that this person’s build is as follows: thin, Caucasian, height of about 1,77m with full, light brown/grey hair.

And nothing more was said.

Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol III

Pages 721-722

Witness Statement

Miguel Salcedos Coelho


Date: 2007.05.08

Occupation: Chef

Place of Work: Tapas restaurant, OC

Comes to the process as a witness. He has worked at the OC for about two years, during the first year he was worked in the Millenium restaurant and this year he is a chef in the Tapas restaurant.

He arrived in Portugal in February of this year and his working hours are 14.30 to 23.00 without interruption.

He normally works inside the kitchen, however, as the barbecues are done outside he goes to the grills and observes the tables and the guests.

In spite of having seen Madeleine’s parents several times knowing that they were part of a group of nine guests, he never talked to them or had any kind of relation with them.

He knows some Portuguese people from Lagos but nobody ever asked him anything about the functioning of the resort

On 3rd May he arrived for work as usual and did not see anyone suspicious


On that night everything was normal as on other days and he did not see anyone or any situation out of the ordinary in the restaurant.

When questioned, he says that he did not notice when the guests left, at about 22.00 his cousin told him what had happened, seeing as the witness had been inside the fridge (cold store).

When questioned he said that he did not see anything unusual.


Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol III

Pages 697 – 699

Witness Statement

Sandra Maria Dos Santos Lourenco Murtinheira

Date: 2007-05-08

Occupation: Cleaner

Place of Work: OC

Comes to the process as a witness. She works in the ‘Luz Ocean Club’ (TOC) for a second time.

She was first contracted in 2006 and began work in April and finished in October. This year, 2007, she was contracted in March and will end in October or November.

Her functions include cleaning the pool areas of the TOC between 0900H—and 19H00, with the exceptions of Sundays and Mondays, which are her days off.

Regarding the facts in question, the witness states that she became aware of the disappearance the day after it had occurred.

When she got to work, she noticed the presence of the GNR and immediately thought that something had happened. She initially thought that there had been another break-in, given that in 2006, she heard of break-ins to the resort apartments.
Outside the reception, which allows access to the pool and the ‘Tapas’, she encountered a colleague who told her that a child had gone missing.

At the time, she does not remember speaking any more about it. Later however, she again heard talk of the disappearance as the news media began to appear at the resort.

The witness, in exercising her functions, began working in the pool areas in the LOC. Because she is asked, the witness states that she does not know which apartment the child’s parents occupied. She also has no idea who the parents were and could only associate these guests when she saw them on television.

Regarding the missing child, the witness believes that she may have seen her walking with one of the nannies. However, there are many families with children, and it is normal to see the children with their nannies carrying out their activities.

As already stated, as part of her functions, she often goes into the resort. She normally walks this route.

Questioned, the witness states that she is unaware of any strange behaviour or movements on behalf of the guests, or other individuals, in the LOC or immediate surroundings.

The zone is normally very quiet, even in the summer when there is more movement.

Questioned, states that she is not aware of any situation regarding crimes, or sexual assaults in the LOC.

She has no elements related to the facts that could help clarify the facts.

And nothing more was said…

Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol XV


Pages 4114 – 4115

Witness Statement

Bernardino Abreu Pereira da Silva (previously identified on p 372)

He confirms the integrity of his statement on page 372.


When asked, he says he no longer works for the MW OC for health reasons, he made the decision to resign.

When questioned about having made a telephone call on 3rd May at 21.00.11 having activated antennas in P da L, when his working day finished at 20.30, he says that on this day, as well as on others, he was delayed because he had to carry out the transport, even though it was late, of some tourists. At this time he was driving the minibus belonging to the establishment. H e also says, that on this day, as well as the transport already referred to, he was late because of the fact that some tourists did not have the key to their apartment.

With regard to the number that he dialled on that day at that time, he says it was the number 966****** corresponding to his wife’s number, which was confirmed in this file.


He has nothing else to add.


Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol II


Pages 360 – 362

Witness Statement

Custodia María dos Reis Espada

Date: 2007 – 05 –07

Occupation: Cleaner

Place of Work: OC

Comes to the process as a witness. She has worked at the OC as a cleaner since the beginning of 2005. She works from 10.00 to 18.00 every day except for Sundays, her day off. On Tuesdays she works until 13.30. She has lunch between 13.30 and 14.30 or from 14.00 to 15.00 depending on her volume of work.

When questioned, she says that she does the general cleaning of the apartments that are allocated to her and that she works alone.

She says that for the past two years she has been in charge of cleaning the apartments near to the main reception of the resort, specifically the European, Coconut and Baccanear blocks.

When questioned, she says that her daily routine and that of her colleagues is the following: at 10.00 she goes to the laundry next to the Tapas Bar, where one of her superiors (Mariana, Bernadette or Francisca) gives her the keys corresponding to the apartments she has to clean.

After the morning shift she returns to the laundry where she and her colleagues have lunch.

After lunch she returns to the area she was working in.

At about 18.00 when she finishes work she returns to the laundry where she hands back the keys to her superior. She says that the keys are kept in special safes and that the superiors check they are complete.

The cleaners retain the keys during lunchtime.
As far as she knows there may be another copy of the keys at the reception.

The area where she works is far from the place of the events and she does not recall having seen the McCann family. She does not recall having seen them in the apartments where she works.

She did not see anything suspicious in the days before the disappearance.

At the time of the disappearance she was at home with her partner and children.

She heard of the events upon arriving at work on 4th May.

Her superior already had photocopies of the girl’s photograph and told them to search the areas where they worked. They were always accompanied by a GNR when they searched.

Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol III


Pages 532 – 534


Witness Statement

Mario Domingos Moreira

Date: 2007-05-08

Occupation: Handyman

Place of Work: OC


He has worked at the OC for about 20 years and currently works in the Maintenance Department, he carries out repairs inside the apartments.

He works from 09.00 to 18.00 with a break for lunch at 13.00. He has Sundays and Mondays off.

When asked about the events being investigated he says that he only saw the girl’s mother once. This happened during the exercise of his functions, and after instruction from his superiors he went to apartment 5 A.

His services had been requested because the shutters in the bedroom at the back of the apartment, facing the Tapas restaurant were damaged and with the aim of providing the mother with instructions regarding the operation of the washing machine. When asked, he said that the damage to the blinds was centred on the pull-handle, limiting their opening. He says that this kind of damage is quite frequent, given the fact of the need for some initial force to raise the shutter, sometimes associated with a lack of knowledge of the mechanism on the part of some of the tourists, who keep applying force, contrary to what is required, and which results in the violent destruction of the respective handles.

When questioned, he says that he never works alone, he is always part of a team of two. The other individual is his colleague, Luis Ferro, who accompanied him in the execution of the repairs mentioned above.

When asked, he says that he did not notice anything strange in the previous days, either in the apartments he entered or in the surrounding areas that could be connected to the disappearance.

He was at home at the time of the events.


Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol V


Pages 1289 – 1290

Witness Statement

Silvia María Correio Ramos Batista

Date: 2007 – 05 – 15

She is responsible for maintenance of the OC resort in P da L. Because of her profession she knows many people from the English community who are resident in P da L.

She knows the Murat family, had done for about 30 years. Mainly Mr Murat and his wife, Jenny. Mr Murat was linked to a civil construction business and the development of tourist resorts, in Salema as far as she knows. Mr Murat died some years ago.

The Murats live in a house near to the OC, called Casa Liliana. When asked she says she does not remember whether the Murats have a son.

When asked, she says that on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, 3rd May, she was called by her boss at about 22.30. As she lives in Lagos, she arrived shortly afterwards at the resort. There were about 60 people close to apartment 5 A, helping to look for the girl.

She remembers, but is not absolutely certain, given the time that has passed, that from the start, there was an individual helping to look for Madeleine, about 1.70 tall, with sort, light brown hair, with thin framed, brown glasses, who was also helping to search.

She does not remember at what time she saw him. She does not remember how he was dressed. She does not remember whom he was with or know if he arrived on foot or by car.

The same individual, she knew later to be the son of the Murat’s, Robert Murat.

Robert speaks fluent English and Portuguese. He helped the GNR in Lagos, and later the PJ to translate the witness statements of some English individuals.

In principal, she thinks it should be possible to confirm whether Murat was there on the date that Madeleine disappeared as well as other details, with Paul and June from the Duke of Holland bar and Mr Byron from the property administration company JNB in P da L.

She clarifies that on Saturday (05-05-2007) or Sunday (06-05-2007) or even Monday (07-05-2007) she spoke to Robert for the first time, during breaks between interviews, where he was acting as translator.

She describes him as a pleasant and easy going individual. He was quite open and extrovert in the conversations with her, he never spoke of anything personal.


Reads, ratifies, signs.

Processos Vol XI
Pages 2941-2944

Witness Statement

Ricardo Alexandre da Luz Oliveira

Date: 2007.09.07

Having already given a statement to this process, he confirms what is already on record, a copy of which is made available for this investigation

That he comes to the process as a witness and with the hope that he may help in the localisation of the child Madeleine Beth McCann, missing since the 3rd May, 2007, Praia da Luz, Lagos.

Questioned if he was the person who called the reception to tell them that a child had gone missing, he states that he cannot definitively remember if he did or not. He admits that he could have been the one to call.

Clarifies that on that night when he took the dinner orders, the entire group was seated. He remembers that there were nine adults—four men and five women. He did not notice any strange behaviour on their part.

Asked to describe the positions in which the group sat, he states that he can only recall that of the taller man (Russell), as he saw him leave the table, and the older woman, who remained seated after the rest of the group had left the table. Russell, he notes, was seated looking toward the front of the apartments and the older woman occupied a seat that was more or less facing away from the apartments. He is not able to describe the group’s clothing that night.

He states that on that night, after having received the orders, he went into the bar. Immediately, he put two white wine and two red wine bottles, along with a bottle of water, on the table. He cannot be sure that he served more wine that night. The appetiser/starters were served by one of his colleagues. After 25 to 30 minutes, it was the witness who served the main dishes. He remembers that at this moment, the taller male, whom he now knows to be Russell, had left the table. He did not know where he had gone. The witness was asked to keep Russell’s meal warm. After a certain amount of time (he is not able to be exact), he was asked to serve Russell, who had returned to the table. He remembers that the rest of the group had practically finished their main courses. Asked if he remembers having seen all the elements of the group at this time, he cannot remember exactly. He also cannot state the length of time Russell was away from the table. The witness states that he had already served all the clients of the bar and for this reason, believes that Russell was away for some time.

He served Russell and shortly thereafter, he was alerted to strange movements in the restaurant perimeters. He refers to the movements of two men from said group—David Payne and Matthew, who appeared to be searching the gardens the areas near the bar. The witness went to the esplanade zone and saw that the table that had previously been occupied by nine adults was now occupied only by the older woman, called Dianne Webster. It was also at this time that he saw that Russell’s food was only half eaten and that the others had all finished their dinner.
David Payne and Matthew were nervously searching the area.

The witness went to them, he does not remember which one, and asked what was happening. One of them responded to the witness in English stating “GIRL IS MISSING”—that a child had gone missing. After a few moments, around 5 or 10 minutes, he heard screaming from the apartment zone and saw a woman on the balcony of 5 A. He did not understand what she was saying. As it was night, and given the distance from the Tapas bar to the apartment, he was not able to determine if there was someone else next to the woman on the balcony. At that moment his colleague, Joe, met up with him and asked the witness to call the police, and that a child has gone missing and could not be found. Immediately afterwards, Joe left toward the street. He does not know who gave this information to Joe but the witness (or his colleague who believes the witness did so) called the reception asking them to inform the police.

Questioned, he affirms that the group would normally consist of nine people (including Madeleine’s parents), and would normally dine around 20H30 and 20H40. They would not all arrive at once and before they all arrived, some would have c ocktails. On the day of the disappearance, all were seated at the table between 20H35 and 20H45. He remembers them arriving as usual. Had they arrived late, this would have been noted by the staff. He does not remember if they were served c ocktails. When they were all together, the group sat at the table, he took their orders, including the starters. As already mentioned, on this occasion, he would immediately take two white and two red bottles of wine and one bottle of water to the table. Their main courses would normally be ready 25 to 30 minutes after their order—a time they used to consume the starters. After starters, the group would normally spend about 15 minutes finishing the main course. Generally, during dinner, he would serve four bottles of wine (two white and two red), which the group completely consumed. On that day, he did not serve any more wine. It was also normal for certain members of the group to order dessert. After this, they would normally stay at the table until after 23H00 but would always leave before 00H00, the time when the bar closed. One or more of them, on another night, asked for an after-dinner drink. He remembers this clearly because they asked for Amareto and the bar did not stock it.

The witness served almond bitters to all. He remembers that this happened on Wednesday. He does not remember if they had more after-dinner drinks. He does remember that on Wednesday, certain elements of the group got up, with their after-dinner drinks, and headed to the bar and stayed there until about 00H00/00H10. This was the only night where the group elements were in the bar after closing. He also remembers that they would normally be the last clients to leave. Wednesday was the last night they were at the bar after dinner.

When questioned, he states that his colleague Joe is of British nationality and that he left at the end of August to go and live with his parents in England.

And nothing more was said.

Reads, ratifies, signs.