External Activity Report
Date: 2007/05/08
Responsible Officers: Pedro Varanda, Renato Carvalho and Rui Goncalves
Description and result of activity
In the follow-up of the investigation on this date at about 17.00, the presence of a white coloured vehicle was noted, a Ford Escort van with the number plate S677 YWP, in a car park near Av Gentil Martins, quite close to the OC Garden, where the disappearance of Madeleine McCann took place on 3rd May.
At that time, it was noted that the image of what had occurred in previous days, was that an individual had been seen inside the vehicle, in the driver’s seat, in such circumstances that would indicate that the individual was carrying out a kind of vigilance of the apartment where the McCann family was staying when the girl disappeared.
As a result, in response to the fact reported in one of the witness statements – by Derek Flack, who reported the presence of an individual at the site where the abovementioned vehicle was parked, on a date immediately before or coinciding with the occurrence currently being investigated, as well as the fact that the British authorities reported the presence of an individual of British origin, who was the owner of a vehicle with these characteristics – indicating that this should be investigated by the responsible authorities with the aim of finding out whether this was an act of vigilance by the individual in question.
In the follow-up to this event, the present inquiry began at 17.10 at a site in the immediate surroundings of Praia da Luz, called Cama da Vaca.
Within the sphere of establishing an act of vigilance by the individual, inquiries were made at the site in order to proceed to his identification, for which a residence was visited at the location mentioned in the previous paragraph, called Casa Prado da Primavera ‘ Lot 3 ‘ Cama da Vaca ‘ Vila da Luz.
At that time, it was established that the individual in question was Barrington Godfrey Norton, identified by residence card no.******.
As a consequence, when asked to clarify the places where he had been present, he made himself available in a voluntary manner to accompany the police officers identified above to the PJ office in Portimao for formal questioning.
Signed.
