Crucially, the Metropolitan Police has now ruled out a sighting of a man once considered a key suspect and previously seen near the McCanns’ apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, 45 minutes earlier.
Jane Tanner, a friend of Kate and Gerry, previously told officers she saw a dark-haired man carrying away a child wearing pink floral pyjamas at 9.15pm on May 3, 2007.
One of the so-called ‘Tapas Seven’, Miss Tanner had been dining with the McCanns in a nearby restaurant when their daughter went missing.
But detectives have now traced the mystery man, an innocent holidaymaker picking up his two-year-old daughter from a night crèche at the same Ocean Club complex.
The revelation has shifted detectives’ focus on to a later sighting at 10pm when an Irish family reported seeing a man walking towards the beach carrying a blonde girl in pyjamas who appeared to be in an uncomfortable position with her head slumped against him.
Martin Smith, who was holidaying with his wife Mary, daughter Aoife and son Peter, said he saw the man 500 yards from the McCanns’ apartment between 9.55pm and 10pm – just minutes before Kate McCann walked into the apartment at around 10pm.
Yesterday DCI Andy Redwood said the sighting was crucial.
‘A new understanding of events on the evening Madeleine disappeared has resulted in a renewed focus of the investigation,’ he said. ‘This could be the man that took Madeleine.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2459722/Madeleine-McCann-10pm-sighting-suggests-mother-Kate-...
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MARTIN_SMITH.htm
Madeleine McCann: Key witness accuses Portuguese police of not taking his vital prime suspect evidence seriously
16 Oct 2013 07:59
Retired businessman Martin Smith provided details for an e-fit of the prime suspect after spotting the mystery man close to where Maddie vanished
Mr Smith, a former Unilever executive, made a statement along with his wife Mary, daughter Aoife and son Peter soon after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.
He helped compile e-fits a year later – but the images were not released at the time and were only made public for the first time earlier this week.
Speaking from his home in Drogheda, Co Louth, Mr Smith said that the Portuguese police did not seem to think his sighting was significant.
He added: “It looked as if they put 90% credence on the Jane Tanner sighting, maybe that wrong-footed them and they didn’t take our sighting as seriously. I was surprised it took six years to rule out the other sighting.”
He said he has met with Scotland Yard detectives twice over the past 18 months to help them with the new probe. He added: “We‘d all love to see the police get to the bottom of what happened.”
“We think about Madeleine a lot and we would love to see a conclusion to this case.
Mr Smith was with his wife, daughter, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren on the night that the three year old vanished.
The family described the man they saw as white, with short brown hair and of average build and height, aged between 20 and 40.
Commenting on the Crimewatch documentary which was broadcast on Monday night he added: “The only new thing in the investigation is the elimination of Jane Tanner’s sighting.
“Apart from that from our point of view everything else remains the same in relation to what we said to the police and the media at the time. We have nothing more to add.”
At least two callers who responded to the TV appeal gave the same name for the two e-fits provided by the Smiths.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-key-witness-accuses-2433328#ixzz2hsnmCVYL
If they are focusing on Martin Smith's sighting and his point of view hasn't changed he still is quite sure that the man they sighted carrying a child was Gerry .
