Surname: CARPENTER
First name. STEPHEN
Profession: Maintenance Technician
Date of Statement: 21/04/2008- Number of pages : 1
I am the person referred to above and I live at the address provided to the police.
I confirm that I was questioned by DC 4078 Ferguson from Leicestershire police on 21st April 2008.
The questioning began at 10.30 and finished at 11.10 on the same day. The questioning was filmed on DVD and on cassette. This statement was made by me and is truthful according to my understanding.
DCF: Charlotte is your wife and at the time of the events you had known her for nine years and I****** is your daughter aged three and a half and F***** is obviously your other child aged five months. During the holiday you met the following persons, Gerry and Kate McCann, saw their children, Madeleine and the twins, but don't know their names. J*** C***** whom I met whilst playing tennis, I also met Dan and Georgia who were tennis instructors of the Mark Warner holiday resort (inaudible) I had met Dan on previous Mark Warner holidays at the (inaudible) resort. . I met the following persons when I participated in the searches for Madeleine during the day after her disappearance, Raj and Neil, Mark Warner tourists, John Hill, manager of the MW resort, we also used three babysitters, Pauline, Emma and Leanne. Emma and Leanne would look after our children in the evenings, they were all British and employees of MW. A man with three children whom I met in the Tapas Bar and who I referred to as the "Tapas Guy" and a Portuguese man in a garage whom I will refer to as the "laundry man".
SC: Okay.
DCF:Okay. That was just to set the scene..
SC: Yes.
DCF: Neil and Raj, two MW tourists that I saw in the Tapas Bar who were looking for Madeleine with me, doesn't make much sense, I think it was perhaps explaining who they are and where I met them. I will now describe the resort and to help me with this description I will base myself upon an aerial photograph from the Sun Newspaper dated the 16th May, which we do not have here today, but which is not important. The resort is a closed holiday complex with apartments and some villas. This takes us to the next question which is, how did you appear on the scene. "My wife booked the holidays in the MW resort in Praia da Luz, from Saturday 28th April to Saturday 5th May, at Going Places in Welwyn Garden City." You go on to describe your previous holidays and that you chose this one because you were told that the "baby sitter" service was available. You arrived at the resort on Saturday morning, pardon on Saturday at approximately two in the afternoon and were accompanied to your apartment, FP02 Ocean Club.
At about 4.15 on the same day you went to a crèche meeting where you wee told who the crèche workers who would look after your children were and that your children would be in different groups given the difference in age. I**** was in the group for children between three and four years old, her crèche worker was Emma and it was only after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann that I realised that she was in the same group as I****. That night C****, F****, I**** and I went to the Millenium Restaurant, we did not see any of the other MW tourists there and I remember that I did not see any of the other people I mentioned in my statement there. On Sunday the 29th April C**** and I participated in a coffee morning of the MW tennis group where I met Gerry, Kate, J****, C****, R****, A***, G***, A***'s sister and A***, there were other tourists there whose names now escape me. In total there were approximately some sixteen people at this coffee morning and tennis was one of the activities that the man, or that both subscribed to during the week. I am summarising a bit, because.....
SC: Okay, that's fine..
DCF: I first played tennis with Kate and G***n, there was another lady whose name I can't remember and afterwards I played with Kate and G**** against Gerry and naturally after the game I spoke to Gerry and Kate as well as to the other people present. I think that this is just a setting of the scene.
SC: Yes, OK.
DCF: In this way I got to know Gerry and Kate and spoke with them as I did with other people.
SC: Yes.
.
DCF: And during my stay I would greet them when I met them. Later we pass to your activities during the week, do you remember if there was anything relevant in their activities during this week'
SC: Humm, anything relevant, not really....hummmm... it was normal, possibly after having left and now knowing where Murat was in relation to us, because i don't know whether they showed you the proximity between us.
DCF: No.
SC: Let me show you some things about that, humm....let's see, because...hummm, our apartment was not near to there.
DCF: Mmm mmm.
SC: Here was the club where Gerry was, behind Murat's garden and here we were probably the people closest to Murat.
DCF: Thats true, I see.
SC: The bushes were all around here, we were far away from the rest, it was all open, and this is why I think (inaudible) you know, this is the idea that, humm...I think of when i mentioned in the interrogation that there was a laundry outlet where other things were kept.
DCF: Mmm, yes.
SC: But humm, nothing strange that someone wouldn't do during their holidays, the only thing is thinking about our proximity to Murat's property.
DCF: Yes, I understand, much of this is in the....
SC: Background.
DCF: Yes. When I went to the Tapas Bar and was seen there, talking on the Thurday 3rd May we analysed this in more detail because it was obviously more relevant. "The second time I entered the Tapas Bar was on Thursday 3rd May" which ended up being the day that Madeleine disappeared.
.
SC: Ah ha.
DCF: We arrived at about seven because we had the children with us and I saw a man sitting at the table next to us with three children.
SC: Yes
.
DCF: He was going to take a plane the next day to Switzerland, given that the children's mother lived there, I had never seen him before that night, but he ended up joining us for a coffee, he was a MW tourist. Another couple whose names I do not remember, sat at the table opposite us. A man was sitting on the esplanade having a drink whilst waiting for a take away, I spoke to them briefly, I hadn't realised that the Tapas bar had a take away service. At that time i didn't know their names. At approximately half past eight, Gerry and Kate and their group of approximately ten people were already seated at their table, which was so close to ours that it was possible to converse with them, we spoke of tennis amongst other things, I vaguely remember that Gerry and Kate and other people from the group would leave the table in intervals (inaudible), I think it was to check on the children , but I do not remember with what frequency or how many times the people left the table to check on the children. We did not talk about the system for checking the children or the fact that they had left them alone in the apartment, it was only later upon hearing the news that I realised that they had left the children alone in the apartment and that they were regularly checking to see if they were all right. Between approximately a quarter past nine and half past nine we left the Tapas bar to go home, we walked across the MW reception area, crossed the road and a semi circular path to return to the apartment, were we put the children to bed and a short while later did the same ourselves. I do not remember seeing or hearing anyone during our return to the apartment. When I crossed the road outside the MW reception I remember there were cars parked, I remember taking some time to see if I could cross the road because there were cars parked to my left and I was carrying I****. They were about six metres away from me and i calculate that some (inaudible) metres from the back of Gerry's apartment, I do not remember anything about these cars, it was normal for cars to be parked there and in the morning they were no longer there. My wife mentioned on the following day that she vaguely remembered someone calling "Madeleine, Madeleine", this was after we had crossed the road from the MW reception and before entering our apartment. She does not remember where the sound came from or whether it was in an urgent tone, not paying any more attention to it and only remembered the following day when we heard about Madeleine's disappearance". OK, before going on the next part, do you remember at what time you left'
SC: Humm... vaguely, I think it was what was put in the statement, the same, the leaving the restaurant, the way back to the apartment, looking to my left to check that the way was clear and I didn't see anything....My wife vaguely remembers hearing "Madeleine, Madeleine" and that was all until the following morning when I saw the television.
DCF: Yes, and where you state that it was on GMTV.
SC:: Yes..
DCF: I think that it was reported that it was a three year old child and probably thought who could it be and knew that Kate and Gerry were from Leicestershire and assumed that it was one of their children seeing that they had small children'
SC: Ah.
