A former Warehouse checkout operator who believes she spoke to missing British girl Madeleine Mccann described her as very shy and afraid.
As 3 News reported last night, security camera footage from December 2007 has been released by the Portugese court which shows the girl, accompanied by an adult man, shopping in the Warehouse store in south Dunedin – seven months after she went missing.
Taryn Dryfhout spoke to the girl when the pair, with a woman and another young boy, came to the checkout.
“I was stricken by the wee girl who looked just like Madeleine McCann,” she told TVNZ’s ONE News.
Ms Dryfhout says she spoke to the blonde-haired woman and the girl, who both had English accents.
“She told me her name was Hayley and was quite apprehensive,” she said.
She says there is no doubt in her mind it was Madeleine.
“She sort of stammered over her words when she was trying to think of her name."
Madeleine vanished from her room at the Praia da Luz resort while on vacation with her family in Portugal, on May 3, 20707 - days before her fourth birthday.
Ms Dryfhout says the man and the woman were “a little bit suspicious”.
“I spoke to the woman only… she seemed like she would rather I wasn’t speaking to her.”
She says it appeared the woman would rather she wasn’t speaking to her and was “just in a hurry to get out”.
Ms Dryfhout informed her manager and the police shortly after the encounter. After security footage was handed over to police she never heard anything more.
Dunedin police confirmed to 3 News yesterday that they did take the woman’s sighting seriously, and the proper authorities in Portugal were alerted.
In a statement released last night Dunedin police confirmed that they worked closely with the retailer to start an inquiry and obtained security footage of the child. However they say they were “unable to obtain any further information or ongoing lines of inquiry."
The file was passed on to Interpol in Wellington who sent it to the Portuguese police.
The sighting is reportedly among hundreds of leads from around the world the Portuguese police had categorised as "not relevant'.
Despite being considered important, information was also discarded from Europe, the United States and North Africa. None of the files were passed on to private investigators working for Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate.
It was the legal action by the McCann’s against disgraced detective Goncalo Amaral that brought about disclosure of the secret files. They had wanted to stop him airing the slur that they had been involved in their daughter's disappearance.
The leads were all received and archived after Algarve police closed the case in July 2008.
In August last year, private investigators began searching for a woman described by a witness as a “Victoria Beckham lookalike” who spoke with an Australian or New Zealand accent. She was reportedly seen by two British men in Barcelona, three days after Madeleine went missing.
Police today approached Ms Dryfhout again, questioning her about the day she believes she saw Madeleine and any details she can remember – things she says she should have been asked at the time.
“They asked me things like, ‘how had the family paid for their purchase?’ They wanted quite detailed descriptions of the people.”
She says it did not occur to her to go to the media over the sighting, but often thinks about the sighting and if things would have been different – had she handled it differently.
A family spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, says the McCanns are incensed, with Mrs McCann describing the revelation as both "heartbreaking" and "shocking".
“Kate and Gerry have made it clear that they were shocked to see the lack of follow up work done by Portuguese police since the investigation was shelved.”
As previously reported by 3 News, Madeleine’s parents formed their relationship together in New Zealand. Gerry McCann worked in the Hawkes Bay and played soccer for the Napier City Rovers in 1996.
Ms Dryfhout said she made attempt to contact the family through a website, but her attempts to contact Madeleine’s parents directly were unsuccessful.
Kate McCann told Oprah Winfrey last year that Madeleine’s bedroom is being kept ready in anticipation for her safe return.
Dunedin police say the file remains open.
3 News
source: newshub archive
