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Witness statement of Sílvia Maria Correia Ramos Batista

Date: 2007/07/26


She also realised that from the very first moment on,
both Gerry and the rest of the group members
insisted in stating that Madeleine had been abducted,
all of them using the word “abducted” [original in English]
instead of missing, and they all showed great interest in informing the
press about the situation.









Kate/Gerry ring a friend, Jill Renwick, at 07:00am
  Jill Renwick, a family friend, told GMTV at 7:45am, on the morning of 04 May, that the distraught parents were certain that Madeline had been abducted.



Summary


Kate/Gerry ring a friend, Jill Renwick, at 07:00am
  Jill Renwick, a family friend, told GMTV at 7:45am,
on the morning of 04 May, that the distraught parents
were certain that Madeline had been abducted.

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Russell O'Brien
 Erm, I think Gerry, it was actually Rachael, where it says ‘I’m not sure who informed the Authorities or media about Madeleine’s disappearance’,

 ‘David also’, ‘David was also keen to make use of the media and I think he may have conducted’, conducted, ‘may have sent an email but I’m not sure’, I think he was looking to do it but I don’t think, erm, I don’t think that actually happened”.



 Summary


Rachael informed the  media/Authorites


‘David was also keen to make use of the media and I think he may have conducted’,
conducted, ‘may have sent an email but I’m not sure’,

I think he was looking to do it but I don’t think, erm, I don’t think that actually happened”.

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fpGerry kicked in to his sort of you know, action mode, which er he was ringing people, who do we need to ring, the British Embassy, I think he was trying to get hold of the British Embassy and just get somebody erm who was English speaking,

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Rachael  Mampilly Oldfield


ROM (re mother) I mean she rang me in the morning, I remember that, cos she’d heard it on the radio, she heard it on the eight o’clock news I think so and rang”.

ROM “I used to, yeah Kath and I used to work together and erm her husband James is a BBC Political Correspondent”.


RM “The contact between yourself and, and Kath”.
Reply    “Mmm”.
1578    “Was all on the fourth, starting at one forty two in the morning”.
Reply    “Okay”.
1578    “Where you called her number”.
Reply    “Mmm”.
1578    “She called you back at 1.58a

RM  “For about, well nearly seven minutes and she called you back again two twenty two am”.
Reply    “Right, I mean I called her initially to, cos I didn’t have their home number, I just had Kath’s mobile, so to try and get hold of James and then she said


so to try and get hold of James and then she said yeah, he, he wasn’t at home cos of the Elections,


ROM so she called me back and I think I remember then giving her details of where we were and you know how old Madeleine was and that sort of thing and then I think she passed that on again to, to James,


RM on her last phone call she might have rung me back and said somebody from News 24 would call me, erm or, or that James would call me or something


rm  cos I did speak to James on the night as well I think, erm but I spoke I think a few times to some, to somebody from the BBC News 24, erm so those conversations”.

 “There’s a total of nine contacts between yourself and Katherine’s mobile one way or the other”.
Reply    “Oh right”.
1578    “Between one forty two am on the fourth”.
Reply    “Mmm”.
1578    “And twelve thirty nine pm on the fourth”.
Reply    “Right


“Right, well that would have just been between me and Kath and just probably her just finding out what was happening”.
  “Just giving”.
  “And if anyone had contacted us and I think”.
   “The last one, two, three, four, five, the last ( 6 txt msgs)

ROM that was timed at two thirty three twenty eight, two thirty three twenty eight seconds”.
Reply    “Yeah”.
1578    “On the fourth of the fifth”.


rm  erm unless it was like you know the Consulate or something but otherwise (inaudible), erm XXX no, I mean I’ve got Bill HENDERSON’s number who was the, was either Consulate or the Ambassador,

rm   so it could either have been the, you know like the British Embassy in Portugal, or it would be somebody from the BBC, otherwise I think”.


Summary

Rachael's mother heard it on radio at 8.00am

“I used to, yeah Kath and I used to work together and erm
her husband James is a BBC Political Correspondent”.


1.42am Kath
1.58am  Kath returned  call 7 mins RM trying to get hold of James but he wasn't home because of the elections

2.22am Kath called agan
 she called me back and I think I remember then giving her details of where we were and you know how old Madeleine was and that sort of thing and then I think she passed that on again to, to James,


on her last phone call she might have rung me back and said somebody from News 24 would call me, erm or, or that James would call me or something

 cos I did speak to James on the night as well I think,

erm but I spoke I think a few times to some, to somebody from the BBC News 24, erm so those conversations”.

erm unless it was like you know the Consulate or something but otherwise (inaudible), erm XXX no, I mean I’ve got Bill HENDERSON’s number who was the, was either Consulate or the Ambassador,

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Matthew Oldfield

 I think a lot of people informed the media straight, erm, sort of fairly quickly, because we know James LANDALE who does BBC News Twenty-Four, erm, sort of personally, and his wife, and we did ring them. I mean, you know,


mo I think we were asked not, you know, people suggesting that it wouldn't be a good idea to the Press, but, and they may be right, but, as a group, we thought that you need some exposure on this because if you need to get it out there.


mo And I think we rang up James or his wife, Kath LANDALE, and asked, you know, how we, how you could do that and they gave us a number.

I think then there was phone contact between Rachael and the desk, saying, you know, do you want to go forward with this, because we, we mentioned it but didn't sort of authorise anybody to sort of to go, because we hadn't spoken to the Police yet,


mo we didn't know what they wanted to do, erm, and how they'd feel about it, so we held it back, but I think there were people within the group and it sort of got out pretty quickly".