Witness Statement Rachel Mamphilly 15.5.2007

Processos Vol V Pages 1292 – 1297

Witness Statement

Rachel Mampilly

Date: 2007-05-15

She confirms the integrity of her previous statements.

When asked, she said this was the first time she had been in Portugal. She travelled with her husband Matthew, her daughter G***e, aged 19 months. In addition to these, the group was made up of the McCann family (with three children the eldest being Madeleine) the Payne family (two children), Dianne Webster, Fiona Payne’s mother and O’Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, who also have two children.

The group was composed of nine adults and eight children.

They arrived in Portugal on Saturday 28th April, arriving at the OC in the middle of the afternoon. They flew from Gatwick to Faro. The Payne,McCann families and Diane Webster arrived an hour later by a separate flight (East Midlands – Faro).

On that evening they all went for dinner at the Millenium restaurant.

On the morning of the 29th, Sunday, they all went to play tennis except for Matthew because he was ill (vomiting and diarrhoea) and ROB. The children went to the Club. They all lunched in David and Fiona’s apartment. The McCanns lunched in their apartment and then went to meet the others. In the afternoonthe children slept (except the McCann children) and afterwards they went to the recreation area. At 17.00 the children went for dinner. Immediately afterwards, the witness, her husband and daughter went to walk on the beach. She thinks that the McCanns remained at the recreation area near to the pool and tennis courts, as did the others. At about 20.30 whenthe children has been bathed and were asleep, they all went for dinner at the Tapas Restaurant, near to the pool.

The only beach they members of the group went to was the beach in P da L.

On the 29th, 30th, April, 1st, 2nd and 3rd May they always dined at the Tapas restaurant.

On Monday they were told that there was no room for all of them in the restaurant, but they obtained a special favour from a waiter and all dined together. In order to obtain this favour they said that the children were asleep and that they could not move anywhere else. For this reason, from this day onwards they would reserve a space in the restaurant (for the adults) for the following day.

That on the five consecutive nights they dines at the Tapas restaurant they always followed the same ritual.

They would always begin dinner at 8.30, after the children were asleep. If one of them hadn’t fallen asleep, one member of the couple would stay until the child had fallen asleep and as soon as that happened, would go and join the others.

This happened to ROB on Tuesday evening and he did not manage to have dinner, his partner Jane Tanner brought him his dinner in his room.

On Wednesday evening the witness did not go for dinner because she was feeling ill and spent the day in the apartment.

On Thursday evening, for the same reason, ROB went to dinner ten minutes late.

The ritual during dinner was always the same. The Payne family used a walkie talkie to check whether their children woke up. For this reason they never left the table and were calm. This couple when they left, would always lock the windows and doors, in spite of their apartment being on the first floor.

The witness and her husband who were staying on the ground floor (5B) in a space of 20 - 30 minutes would leave the restaurant and go to the apartment, entering by the front door and checking on G***e. They always locked the door and closed the windows.

The ROB and JT couple did exactly the same as the witness. They locked the door and closed the windows.

The McCanns who were staying in 5ª on the ground floor left the patio doors closed but not locked so that every 30 minutes during dinner, one of them would check to see howthe children were.

Each couple checked on their own children.

She never noticed anything strange during dinner or when checking on the children.

On 3rd May, the day of Madeleine’s disappearance they all (except for the McCanns who stayed in their apartment) has breakfast atthe Millenium at 08.00.

Afterwards the witness took G***e to the Club. Madeleine and the twins also went to the Club that morning, as well as the other children in the group.

Matthew and ROB went to the beach. The Payne couple were also at the beach. The witness, after leaving G***e at the club went to the apartment to get ready for tennis. Also present at the tennis courts between 9.10 and 10.10 were Kate McCann, Dianne Webster and Jane Tanner. The witness’s tennis session was at 11 with Matthew after he returned from the beach. Gerry’s tennis session was at 10.00.

After tennis, as usual they went to pick up the children and all had lunch in David and Fiona’s apartment apart from the McCann family.

After lunch the children went to sleep. She was not with the McCanns that afternoon until dinner time. She does not know what they did or where they were during that time.

They spent most of the time on the beach that afternoon. They saw Kate running on the beach but she did not stop and they did not speak.

All the children, except the McCann children dined at a beach restaurant at 17.30. After the children’s dinner, the men went to play tennis and the women and children watched, once again except for the McCann family (Gerry was playing tennis but she did not see Kate or the children).

Afterwards they went to bathe the children and put them to bed.

When they arrived at the restaurant at 20.45 the McCann couple was already there.

They were talking to a couple they knew from tennis, whose name she cannot remember. Jane was also there but she was not talking to them. The Payne family and Dianne arrived just after 21.00.Matthew bumped into them as he had gone to the apartment, but he did not enter, he just listened outside to see if there was any noise. He did the same at the Tanner and McCann apartments.

The window shutters of the McCann’s apartments were closed. The patio door that they used to enter the apartment also had its shutter closed. In order to enter they had to raise the shutter.

At about 21.00 they were all seated at the restaurant. At 21.05 Gerry went to check on his children and returned minutes later. Jane also went to heck on her children before returning.


Gerry said that he was chatting to a tennis friend called Jez about the tennis tournament that would take place the following day.

When Jane returned they began to eat dinner.

At about 21.30 Matthew and Russell went to check on their children at the same time. They offered to check on the McCann children. After checking his children Matthew went to see the McCann children. In order to do so he entered via the patio doors. According to what her husband told her the bedroom door was ajar. He did not enter the room and therefore cannot say whether Madeleine was in the room or not. All he could confirm was that nobody was crying and the twins were there. Russell was not with him as he had stayed in his apartment because one of his children was crying.


Matthew returned to the table and said that all was calm, except for Russell’s daughter, which is why ROB stayed with her.

In the meantime they began dinner (at that time they would be eating their starters) and after eating Jane went to Russell to see if he wanted to have dinner. It was about 21.45.

While Russell was having dinner, Kate went to see the children. Minutes later at about 22.00 she returned to the restaurant in complete panic, saying that Madeleine had disappeared.

During that day and evening the witness had not seen anything strange.

She just says that at about 21.15 when Gerry was talking to Jez, Jane saw a man carrying a child in pyjamas, bare foot crossing road between blocks 5 and 6.

According to Jane she did not see the face of the man carrying the child.

She could only tell what she saw.

When asked what the relation between the group was she says that all the men and Fiona are doctors and a friendship had built up between them because at one stage or another, they had worked together. In spite of not living in the same town they would meet up.

Fiona and David Payne are the closest to the McCann family.

It is the second time that they have been on holiday with these friends. In September 2006, they went for a week to the island of Zakynthos in Greece. However, neither the McCann family nor Diane Webster went.

When asked she says that all the couples have been together for various years (between 8 and 12 years). They all have stable relationships. She does not know whether any female or male members of the group have had any other relationships between them, other than the current.

She does not have any knowledge of whether any members has a parallel relationship with any other members of the group.

When asked, she says that there is no friction or conflict between those that make up the group as they are in total harmony as regards the kind of holidays they take, they all have good jobs and identical levels of living as well as having the children in common, whom they all have to look after and they try as hard as possible to do everything together.

She says that in terms of harmony and friendship the group is very close.

When asked about the characteristics of the other couples, she says that they are all persons of normal considered behaviour, and has nothing to point out.

She says that the first time she saw the suspect Robert Murat was on the night of 3rd May shortly after they had discovered Madeleine was missing. She saw him for the first time at about 23.30 in the covered area between apartments 5B and D. She thought it very strange as he seemed to be there watching, trying to be the next person to talk to the couples from the group.

That immediately, when the police arrived, he introduced himself to elements of the group, namely Russell, accompanied by the GNR, translating all the initial contacts between the group and the police.

When asked, she says that she does not know whether he entered the McCanns apartment with the police.

As regards the other people searching for the girl outside the apartment he tried to contact them directly, saying that he had a daughter of the same age as Madeleine, offering to translate whatever was necessary.

She thought this individual’s behaviour was very strange, given the intensity of his presence. In addition, all the people they contacted that night belonged to the MW resort and he stayed there, in the middle of them, without anyone knowing where he had come from. Because of her profession (personnel recruitment, interviews) she thinks she knows a bit about human behaviour, thinking it rather strange that he introduced himself in such an insistent manner.

She saw that this individual was with the police in the area for some minutes before she lost sight of him. She does not know whether he managed to enter the McCann’s apartment.

She thinks that after this night she only saw him again on Sunday, 6th May in the morning, in the P da L church during mass.

She saw him again on 11th May when he was translating some statements at the PJ in Portimao. She thinks he spoke again and wanted to draw close to her companions with great intensity, wanting to talk about his life, saying that he was carrying out work in a house in the UK, that he had a daughter of the same age as Madeleine, that she was phoning him a lot to ask how he was (which she though strange given the girl’s young age), always showing a familiarity that was out of the ordinary.

She always had the impression that this individual had strange behaviour and that he wanted to impose his presence, trying to take part in everything that was related to Madeleine’s disappearance.

She did not see him again, except for yesterday, when he was shown on various television channels as a suspect in the abduction of Madeleine. She then felt her suspicions about this individual would be confirmed, feeling bad for not having expressed them earlier to others and to the police.

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