‘Tapas Seven’ to be re-interviewed in review of Madeleine McCann abduction

By
Emily Allen

Last updated at 12:40 PM on 5th February 2012


Missing: Madeleine McCann vanished from the holiday apartment she was staying in almost five years ago

Missing: Madeleine McCann vanished from the holiday apartment she was staying in almost five years ago

Scotland Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are set to interview the so-called Tapas Seven.

The group are friends of Kate and Gerry McCann who dined with them at a tapas restaurant on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance five years ago and are central witnesses in the case.

The team of detectives has been analysing every scrap of evidence that was gathered when the little girl first went missing and interviewing key witnesses again.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood has three detective chief inspectors, five detective sergeants and 19 detective constables who are being supported by six civilian staff and three officers from the specialist murder review group.

By April they will have managed to rack up a bill of nearly £2m after Prime Minister David Cameron called in the force to review the case last May.

So far they have made at least four trips to Portugal and Spain to gather evidence, including a file of leads from private investigators.

Now, after nine months, they are set to check the statements of the McCann’s friends, the Sunday Express said.

A key witness is believed to be Jane Tanner, the partner of Russell O’Brien, who claims she saw a man carrying a child resembling Madeleine shortly after 9pm.

Members of the 'Tapas Seven' (left to right) Jane Tanner, David Payne, Fiona Payne, Dianne Webster, Rachael Oldfield and Dr Matthew Oldfield

Members of the ‘Tapas Seven’ (left to right) Jane Tanner, David Payne, Fiona Payne, Dianne Webster, Rachael Oldfield and Dr Matthew Oldfield

Snatching: The apartment Madeleine McCann was snatched from in Praia de Luz, Portugal, in May 2007, while her parents were at dinner nearby - and coming back regularly to check on their children

Snatching: The apartment Madeleine McCann was snatched from in Praia de Luz, Portugal, in May 2007

Another friend, Matthew Oldfield,
will also be quizzed again. He went to the apartment to check on
Madeleine and her siblings Sean and Amelie, now seven, but did not open
the door far enough to see Madeleine.

Other members of the group include Rachael, David and Fiona Payne and her mother Dianna Webster, the newspaper said.

Scotland Yard said it was ‘laying the groundwork’ before speaking to individuals but would not say who exactly they were interviewing.

Madeleine disappeared from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in Portugal on May 3 2007.

She vanished days before her fourth birthday as her parents dined with friends in a tapas bar just a short distance away.

Since then the case has become one of the most infamous crime mysteries in modern history with hundreds of ‘sightings’ of Madeleine worldwide.

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