The McCanns – Scandal At Chaplins

The Madeleine McCann story has many rumours circulating around it. One is the Scandal At Chaplins.

In brief, the McCanns allegedly had a late night at Chaplins on Tuesday, 1^st May, and this is far too far away for half-hour checks or baby monitors.

This rumour was/is still doing the rounds in Luz (5 months ago). I first heard about it from then someone who had recently heard about it, in the stories emerging when Scotland Yard was coming to dig up Luz in June 2014.

The Chaplins story surfaced early on, not later than 24 July 2007 in a user comment section of the Daily Express. It seems this user comment got deleted fairly rapidly and the whole thread was removed later when there was a McCann-story clean sweep.

The person who retained the comment for posterity did a bit of digging and added that Tuesday night was quiz night at Chaplins, and that after dining had ceased it acted more as a bar, with a happy hour when all drinks were half-price for an hour from 11:30pm to 00:30am the next morning.

Tuesday night 1^st May was also the night of the crying incident, according to Pamela Fenn, who lived in the apartment directly above 5A. She gave a statement to the PJ that she heard a child crying in 5A from 10.30pm to 11.45pm. She also stated that from the sound it was by a child older than the twins, and that the crying stopped after she heard the patio door being opened by the parents when they returned.

The user comment in the Express mentioned Mrs Fenn (though it misspells her name) and the tale of crying from 10.30pm to 11:45pm.

Chaplins was (and still is) a restaurant just south of the church. As the crow flies, the distance is 350m to 5A, but a straight line route is not possible and in early May it was made longer because of major engineering works on two roads. 350m definitely rules out a baby monitor.

The minimum walking distance is 500m. At standard walking pace that is 5 minutes there, and 5 minutes back, so unless a proper rota, involving at least all 8 parents, was in place, the idea of half-hour checks is fanciful.

The media did not investigate this scandal and report on it. Instead the user comment got removed in a fairly timely manner.

So what is the evidence?

I believe that Pamela Fenn has since passed away and I am mindful of the various allegations made against conveniently dead people in the McCann case.

The mccannjpfiles has her statement on file. It was made on 20 Aug 2007, which is 3½ months later than Madeleine’s disappearance. However, the user comment in the Express was closer to the incident, being dated 24 Jul 2007, around 2½ months out, and the story could have been circulating earlier.

Mrs Fenn states that she did not see the parents return, but that she heard the patio doors open. Perhaps she meant she heard the parents as they went in the patio doors, but I find it hard to believe she could hear the patio doors open, particularly over the crying coming from 5A.

The PJ files have single reference to Chaplins, and it is not connected to this rumour. By sheer coincidence, Aoife Smith, of Smith sighting fame, said in her statement that Chaplins was one of several restaurants the Smiths frequented while in Luz. None of the Smith statements mention being in (or not being in) Chaplins on 1^st May. None mentions seeing the McCanns or other members of the Tapas group before the news broke.  {EDIT  I misspelled Aoife’s name in the original.  It has now been corrected.}

A rumour that Mrs Fenn complained to the Ocean Club and an employee of the Club somehow managed to track the McCanns to Chaplins is not supported by the files. Mrs Fenn made no mention of informing the Ocean Club. Not a single employee refers to a crying incident or of tracking the McCanns to Chaplins. Phone records show contact could not have been made by phone.

No-one in Chaplins that night has given a statement. That is, the waiters, the other diners, the quiz master, those participating in the quiz and those participating in the happy hour are all silent on what would be a major revelation.

You can check through all relevant statements for yourself. I have checked on barmen at the Tapas Bar, waiters at the Tapas Restaurant and chefs/kitchen staff in the Tapas Restaurant. None mentions the Tapas 9 being absent on the evening of 1^st May. Three mention the group being present on 1st May, although as no-one was asked specifically about the 1st May, and the evidence is weak, of the form “they dined at the Tapas Restaurant everyevening from Sunday on”.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/TAPAS_BOOKING.htm has the booking forms for the holiday period. On 1^st May at total of 28 people had reservations at the Tapas Restaurant. All of these are noted as Mark Warner clients. This implies they were entitled to a 3 course meal, plus certain ‘free’ drinks. The meals and drinks had been factored into the booking price, so ‘free’ is not quite correct. One of the waiter statements said the allowance was around one bottle of wine per person.

The booking form notes 1 Sangria (presumably a bottle or jug) as a quiz show prize, plus 6 bottles of white wine and 10 of red, was the total consumption for everyone on a Mark Warner trip (the 28 people, not just the Tapas 9).

It would be surprising to find the 4 people booked in at 8pm were not there when the McCann group arrived around 8:30. I would also be surprised if the 7 individuals booked in at 7:30 had departed within an hour.

Nejoua Chekaya gave two statements, each of which says much the same. She ran a quiz in the Tapas area that night, she was invited by Gerry McCann to join the table, and she discussed banalities with them from around 9:30pm to 9:50pm.

If the McCann group was heading for another quiz starting at 10pm in Chaplins they were cutting it fine.

Gerry’s phone records do not provide evidence one way or other. Kate’s suggest that she was back in 5A as she made or received 6 texts or calls in around 15 minutes from 10:16pm to 10:27pm, after a gap with no activity during the dinner period. I cannot see why she would go to Chaplins for a quiz and then be active on her phone.

This phone timing, of course, edges right up to when Mrs Fenn says the crying started, which does not fit if Kate and Gerry were already back.

The crying episode fits much better with the night of 2^nd May when the Tapas group stayed out later for an after dinner drink. If so, Mrs Fenn was 1 night off when she gave her statement some 3½ months after the event.

If you search on Madeleine McCann and Chaplins, you will get plenty of hits. Most of these originate from before the PJ files were released and are chock full of errors resulting from media reports. Nejouya Chekaya was not the quiz mistress at Chaplins, she was an aerobics instructor in the Ocean Club who ran the quiz in the Tapas area. Blood was not found in the children’s bedroom, or outside the front of the apartment (the car park side). Blood and brain matter was not found on the steps from the patio to the garden gate. The list of errors runs on and on.

Since the media scrupulously avoided the Chaplins story and no hard evidence exists to support any of the variations, I’m writing this tale off as a scandalous rumour.