Rogatory Interview Jane Tanner

  Info on Mon 08 Mar 2010, 4:42 pm

L E I C E S T E R S H I R E C O N S T A B U L A R Y
Form MG15(T)
RECORD OF TAPE RECORDED INTERVIEW Police Exhibit No

Person Interviewed: Jane TANNER Number of Pages 12

Place of Interview: Force Headquarters, Enderby Signature of Interviewing
Date of Interview: 08.04.08 Officer producing exhibit
Time Commenced: 1000 hours
Time Concluded: 1018 hours Duration of Interview: 18 minutes
Interviewing Officer(s) DC 4078 FERGUSON Tape Reference nos: SVF/102
Other Persons Present None

00.04 4078 "Right, okay here we are, just a few formalities at the start of the interview for the
purposes of people listening to it afterwards. I’m DC 4078 Sophie FERGUSON. I
work in the Major Crime Unit of Leicestershire Police and you know why you’re
here today.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "You’re here at the request of the Portuguese. Can you just give us your full name
please?”
00.34 Reply "It’s Jane Michelle TANNER.”
4078 "And your date of birth Jane?”
Reply "Sixteenth of the fourth, seventy one.”
4078 "Right, is your address xxxxx Sxxxxx Pxxx Lxxxx?”
Reply "Yes it is, yeah.”
4078 "Exeter?”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "And your telephone number?”
Reply "Err its 0xxxxxxxxxx.”

4078 "Do you know your mobile number?”
Reply "Yes. 0xxxxxxxxxxx.”
00.57 4078 "And that mobile number, is that the mobile number you had with you in Portugal
last year?”

Reply "Yes it was, yeah.”
4078 "Right, just to confirm that up for me. So you’re here at the request of the Portuguese
and they’re monitoring this interview along with DC MESSIAH who’s just been in to
sort out this equipment for us.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "And you’ve been given a letter from us outlining the objectives of this interview but
if at any time you want to stop and ask a question that’s fine.”
Reply "Okay.”
4078 "It’s just a chat really.”
Reply "Yeah.”
01.20 4078 "Obviously I’m going to try and licit as much information out of you as we can.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "And likewise I know you’re going to try and remember as much as you can.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "We’ve already discussed the fact that you wanted to refresh your memory, well you
might want to refresh your memory.”
Reply "Mm.”
4078 "By looking at the statement that you gave previously.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "That’s fine but we’ve agreed before the interview that you’re going to do as much as
you can prior to doing that.”

Reply "Yeah, yeah.”
4078 "And then when you get to the stage that you feel you want to do that just say so.”
Reply "Yeah, that’s fine yeah.”
4078 "Alright, or if you need the loo or a drink, or…”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "You just want to stop for five minutes that’s fine.”
Reply "Yeah.”
01.50 4078 "Your time and co-operation is obviously appreciated but I just want to ask you to be
patient with me because no doubt we’ll be covering things that you’ve gone over time
and time again.”
Reply "That’s absolutely fine, no problem.”
4078 "With the Police and on your own.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "I’m going to ask you to concentrate as much as you can and try to recall what you
heard, saw and did around the time of the third of May two thousand and seven.
Please let me know if you need to take a break and I intend to ask you fairly open
questions and then more specific questions if necessary.”
Reply "Yeah that’s fine.”
02.17 4078 "Okay. So before we go on to talking about your holiday in Praia Da Luz can you just
give me a bit of background information about how you came to be going on holiday
with that group?”
Reply "Yeah err well we’re very good friends with David and Fiona, and Matt and Rachael,
err and it was really down to Fiona that decided that, first of all decided to go on
holiday. We’d been on holiday with those two couples before and we’d just moved
down to Exeter so we foresaw it as a good chance to keep in touch with friends,
friends in Leicester really. Err so David and Fiona came up with the idea of going to

Portugal on a Mark Warner holiday err I think most of us had been on a Mark Warner
holiday before so err that was just sort of a nice idea to go and then we just thought
Portugal, I think we’ve been to ones in Greece before so we thought Portugal would
be somewhere, somewhere different for a holiday.”
4078 "Mm.”
03.14 Reply "Err I think we ummed and ahhed for a while whether we were going to go because
we had just moved and we were buying a house and everything but we just thought it
was a really nice way of keeping in touch you know with friends here and for the
children to see each other because I think especially as we were conscious of we’d
dragged our kids down to Exeter for our sort of new life down there and they haven’t
got many friends down there, they haven’t got that much child contact, you know
because they’ll be still meeting people so as much for us it was like we still, well
especially for Exxxxx, my older daughter, as a way of her you know having a bit more
child contact. She wasn’t at school then or anything, so.”
4078 "You’ve got Exxxxx and Exx haven’t you?”
Reply "Yes, yeah.”
4078 "And how old are they?”
Reply "Exxxxx’s four and Exx’s two.”
03.52 4078 "And would they have been the same ages last May?”
Reply "Err no Exxxxx’s, Exxxxx was three and Exx was, she’s September so one, she would have
been one, one in May.”
4078 "Okay.”
Reply "Err so yeah so David, so we said we decided oh yeah we’ll go and it’ll be nice to see
everybody, and we know Kate and Gerry, we’d sort of socialised with them but not
as well probably as the other, as the other two couples.”
4078 "Mm.”
Reply "Err but they’d been on holiday with David and Fiona before and so, and they’ve got

children the same age as well, you know obviously Madeleine’s the same age as Exxxxx,
so a bit of a nice group.”

 

 

 

4078 "So you knew them all but you hadn’t all been on holiday as a group before?”
Reply "No, we’ve been with Matt and Rachael and David and Fiona. And David and Fiona
had been with Kate and Gerry but we hadn’t been, not the eight, or the nine of us
including Fi’s mum, we hadn’t been on holiday before.”
4078 "Okay.”
04.46 Reply "We were actually supposed to go on holiday when Kate and Gerry and David and
Fiona went on holiday together, we were supposed to be going, but then after we’d
booked the holiday I realised I was going to be giving birth around the time of the
holiday so we couldn’t go anymore.”
4078 "Right.”
Reply "So, but we had planned before.”
4078 "How well, I know you say you’ve been away with them all before and it was the
first time you’ve been away with Kate and Gerry, how well did the group of you
know each other would you say? And were you very comfortable with each other?”
Reply "Yeah very, very comfortable. I say Russell err had lived, well he was a student with
both Matt and Dave and err and then with Dave and Fiona when they were living
together, so, and I mean I’ve known Russell for twelve, I think it’s twelve years now
so you know sort of when Russell was living with David and Fiona I was obviously
there a lot as well so yes we know those, we’ve known them very well. Obviously we
know Rachael as well, Matt’s partner, but again, as I say we’ve been on holiday, we
socialise a lot so yeah we’re very good friends. Kate and Gerry again we’d socialise
with them, I didn’t know them as well as the others but I mean it was a very
comfortable group, so.”
05.51 4078 "Okay. And what’s your line of work? Because a lot of the people involved in this
group are medical aren’t they?”

Reply "Mm.”
4078 "Are you?”
Reply "No, no. Err sort of more of a marketing role. When I was in Leicester I was a
marketing manager for a scientific supplies company and then when we first moved
to Exeter I didn’t work for the first year, which was another reason for going on a
Mark Warner holiday because that was like my week holiday in a way.”
4078 "Yeah.”
06.20 Reply "Err but now I’m working at the University in Exeter, sort of website, a web
marketing role. Just two days a week.”
4078 "Ah so you’re good with technical equipment?”
Reply "Well no…”
4078 "You didn’t speak up did you.”
Reply "I’m not that’s the thing.”
4078 "Okay so how long have you known the MCCANN family?”
Reply "I think, I’ve been trying to work out the first time I actually did first meet them but it
was around about the time that Exxxxx and Madeleine were born because Russell was
working with Gerry at the Royal and I can remember, I honestly can’t remember the
first time I actually met them exactly but it was around that time and we met them, I
think it was at Dave and Fi’s house, because Fi knew Kate well at that point because
they were both doing anaesthetics together at that stage.”
4078 "Right.”
07.05 Reply "So Fi had spoken about Kate a lot and she was due around the same time as me err
so yeah we sort of we got together around that time, so it’ll be two thousand and
three.”
4078 "And how often would the group of you get together roughly?”
Reply "Err, well as I say with Kate and Gerry we probably saw them two or three times a

year but Dave and Fi we probably saw every week, if not more often because we just
lived down the road, and Matt and Rachael they moved away, they were in London.
Well they were in Leicester for a while and then they moved to London so again,
less, less often.”
4078 "Okay. Who did you travel to Portugal with?”
Reply "Err Matt and Rachael. Because I went from Gatwick.”
4078 "Did they, did they come and stay with you over night or did you just meet them at
Gatwick?”
Reply "Err no we went and stayed because we’d moved to Exeter at that point so we went
and stayed with them the night before and then it was an early morning flight.”
4078 "Of course they’re London aren’t they?”
Reply "Yeah they’re London yeah, so we went and stayed with them the night before and
then we all got a taxi, no, well we were going to get a taxi to the airport but the taxi
didn’t turn up so we did have to drive in the end to the airport.”
08.12 4078 "Okay. Right, do you feel there’s anything more to ask about the relationship
between the group that we haven’t already covered?”
Reply "Err, no I think just the thing I’d like is the fact I think for something to come on to
later, is probably with Kate and Gerry I didn’t know them as well as I knew the rest
of the group and I just would like yeah, the rest I’d see a lot whereas Kate and Gerry
were more, we’d see them every now and again.”
4078 "Yeah.”
Reply "So, but I would like to stress that because I think that’s very relevant when it comes
to things later on really.”
4078 "Okay. Well don’t let’s forget that.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "We can come on to that part.”

Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "Err I think I’ve read somewhere that, was it Exxxxx had a foot operation?”
Reply "Yes, the week before. It didn’t go…”
4078 "You got your timing’s wrong.”
Reply "Err yeah the week before we went she was in hospital because she had, well she had
a small abscess on her foot which sort of got some bug in it that caused her to have
very high temperatures so they had to do a very minor operation just to take the puss
out to, you know, to do that, and I think she came out of hospital on the wed, I think
it was the Wednesday, and we sort of asked a lot of medical advice as to whether we
should go or not and we very, so close that we didn’t go but then in the end we
thought well if we go there’s probably more distractions for her there with the friends
being there than being stuck at home with us and I say the Doctor said there was no
problem in going as long as we kept her out the pool for the first bit so yeah, err so
we were this close to, well I say it was almost like we weren’t going to go and then
we suddenly at the end of the day said…”
4078 "What if.”
09.52 Reply "Yeah, okay we will go.”
4078 "That’s my stomach started to rumble, that’s rather typical of me at this time of the
morning I’m afraid. So by the time you went on holiday, Exxxxx was fit and well?”
Reply "She was fine apart from err her foot, she couldn’t wear her shoe so we bought her
some mike stuff slippers so she was wearing slippers just to keep it covered, but yeah
compared to how poorly she was the actual abscess on her foot was tiny, it was sort
of a toxic shock type bug so it made her poorly than the actual cut on her foot so to
speak.”
4078 "Okay. Right let’s move on then to the actual going on holiday.”
Reply "Mm.”
4078 "And you say you stayed with Matt and Rachael.”

Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "Can you remember who you flew with? And not as in Matt and Rachael, but the
airline?”
10.38 Reply "XL Airways was it? I really can’t remember. I think it was XL, err yeah I think it
was XL Airways but I can’t remember to be honest.”
4078 "Well tell me what you can remember about the journey.”
Reply "Err I say it was quite, because we’d booked a taxi, a big taxi so that we could all get
in with car seats obviously for the kids, to take us from Matthew’s but that didn’t turn
up or I think they just sent one with no car seats so in the end we had to, we all drove
so we all ended up having to drive to the airport. Err and then, I mean I can’t really
remember anything different about it, obviously we went into the airport, I think we
went through fairly, fairly quickly because I think we were actually probably a bit
late because of the taxi, the taxi incident. Err and then I mean I really can’t, the kids
were excited so they were, Exxxxx was running around especially err but no I mean I
don’t remember anything, we were towards the back, we sat towards the back of the
plane in terms of where we sat on the plane, we would have been towards the back of
the plane. I don’t think we spoke to anybody, I think we were sitting behind Matt and
Rachael so we sort of spoke to them you know they were like looking back and G***e
was looking back over the seats but I can’t remember talking to anybody else
specifically, specifically on the plane.”
11.59 4078 "So would G***e be about the same, similar age to Exx?”
Reply "She’s, yeah, she’s four days older than Exx, yeah.”
4078 "Okay. What time of day was it when you arrived in Portugal?”
Reply "It was about lunch time, I think it was about eleven, ten, eleven, ten, eleven o’
clock.”
4078 "And what happened when you got there?”
Reply "Err we were met by the Mark Warner people and then sent to, sent to different, you

know to the bus to be taken to the, to the resort.”
4078 "Okay, and how long was the transfer?”
Reply "I think it was about an hour, yeah round about an hour, forty five minutes, an hour.”
4078 "I know, because I’ve read you’ve been to Portugal a couple of times before then.”
Reply "Yeah.”
4078 "Have you ever been to Praia Da Luz before?”
12.42 Reply "No, no I’ve visited, I haven’t stayed in Lagos but I’ve visited Lagos but no I’ve
never been to, I’ve never been that way, it’s been more South where (inaudible).”
4078 "Right, am I pronouncing it right, Praia Da, how do you say it?”
Reply "Yeah Praia Da Luz.”
4078 "I’m just copying what I’ve seen on the news.”
Reply "Right (inaudible).”
4078 "(Inaudible) beginning of interviews. And err consequently, I didn’t say at the
beginning of the interview, it’s the eighth of April.”
Reply "Oh right.”
4078 "And we started the interview about ten o’ clock. I should remember that at the
beginning really, not had my coffee. Right so you’ve arrived at the resort.”
Reply "Mm.”
13.17 4078 "And what was the procedure when you arrived there?”
Reply "Err I think they dropped us outside the door to the Ocean Club bar, the door to
actually the Tapas restaurant so on the road there. I think the bus dropped us off there
and took all our luggage out and I think somebody showed us to the room. We’d been
given, on the bus, we’d been given a pack with you know where our room was, a
little map, etcetera. I can’t remember who, I can’t remember if somebody showed us,
I presumed somebody showed us to the room but I can’t remember who that was or
what, but yeah they sort of dropped us because it’s a bit of a, it’s different, the places

they have are sort of dotted around the village so they did a drop off at the top of the
road then they did a drop off for us and then they probably did another one after us.”
4078 "Okay.”
14.07 Reply "There was err, just on this point, err when we actually were driving there, there was
two of the nannies sat behind us on the bus, that’s the only people I can remember on
the bus and one of those was Charlotte PENNINGTON and one of them was another
nanny that was starting that, err that week, but they were actually sat behind us on the
bus because I can remember hearing them when they were talking.”
4078 "Right. Did you speak to them or did you just…”
Reply "No I didn’t, well not, I don’t think so no. I think it was just they were just talking
and you could tell that, I just knew they were both starting that day.”
4078 "Okay. The rest of the group did they arrive before you or after you?”
Reply "Afterwards.”
4078 "Okay, so you’ve established which apartment you’re staying in.”
Reply "Mm.”
4078 "Err which apartment was that by the way?”
Reply "Err, five D.”
4078 "Okay.”
Reply "Does that sound right? I think it was five D. Yeah it was definitely D, I think it was
five. Yeah, no it was five D.”
15.02 4078 "And where was that, I’ve got a plan actually, I’ll show you the plan, if you just
confirm in your own mind... Actually this one doesn’t show it. This particular picture
just obviously shows Kate and Gerry’s apartment.”
Reply "Ah right yeah.”
15.56 ALARM SOUNDED, ALL PERSONS EXITED THE INTERVIEW ROOM.

The interview ceased at 1018 hours when the tape recorder was switched off.
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