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Sarah Elizabeth
Williamson
Occupation: Childcare Worker
Place of Work: OC
Time/Date: 17H30 2007/05/06
British Citizen from
Lancaster
Interpreter: Filipa Maria da
Conceicao Silva
She comes to the process as
a witness. She is helped by
an interpreter as she does
not speak Portuguese. She
has been in Portugal since
28th April when she began
work at the OC where she is
a childcare worker, her
contract was signed in
London. The witness
clarifies that during the
period between 29th April
and 4th May she carried out
her functions with a group
of children staying at the
resort aged between 2 and 3
years old called the
Toddlers 2 group.
The witness says that
Toddlers 2 is subdivided
into three sub groups and
each of these is under the
responsibility of a child
care worker, she is
responsible for one of the
sub groups.
With relation to the facts
being investigated she says
that she had various
contacts with the girl
Madeleine McCann, but says
these were formal contacts
and very brief, her twin
siblings were part of the
group she worked with last
week. But she says that it
was her colleague Shinead
who looked after the twins
during the current week.
When asked she says that
Madeleine belonged to the
Mini Club group and
clarifies that this group
was for children aged
between 3 and 5 years old.
When questioned, she says
that the crèche was
supervised by her colleague
Lindsay and that the Mini
Club is supervised by Amy
who also coordinates the
nannies, whose names are
Cat and Emma, they are
employees at the service of
the group between 29th April
and 4th May.
When questioned, the witness
says that Madeleine was
accompanied by her parents,
who were using an apartment
at the resort.
On 3rd May at about 22.30
after having left the
apartment where she was
living, near to the resort,
together with two of her
colleagues, Leanne and
Kirsty, she met her
colleague Amy. She was
informed by Amy that
Madeleine had disappeared
and that she was trying to
look for her. For this
reason, the witness together
with her colleagues joined
in the search.
In the search carried out
with her colleagues from the
OC other individuals
(tourists, locals, property
owners) also participated.
Later, she cannot say
exactly at what time but
thinks it was about midnight
she noticed officers from
the public authorities
(police) at the scene taking
the appropriate measures for
this kind of situation.
When asked, she says that
the searches undertaken by
OC employees finished at
around 04.00 on 4th May with
negative results.
When asked, she says that
she did not have direct
contact with Madeleine as
she was responsible for the
twins' group during that
week, and she has no
knowledge of the girl's or
the parents' habits and no
strange situation about the
girl in question was
reported to her during the
time she was working in
Portugal.
She says that the twins were
generally left at the creche
at 09.00 and that the
parents dropped them off
before leaving Madeleine in
her classroom. Then between
12.00 and 12.30 the parents
would pick up the twins
until 15.00. Between 17.00
and 17.30 the parents would
collect the twins from the
creche.
When the parents picked up
the twins at lunch time, all
the children were together
in the same place so they
picked up Madeleine as well.
When asked, she says she
knows of nothing suspicious.
No more is said.
Reads, ratifies, signs.