Two of the holiday friends that dined with Madeleine McCann's parents the night
she disappeared have told police they want to change their stories, it was
sensationally claimed today.
Lawyers acting for the pair are said to have contacted detectives leading the
probe and said their clients are willing to be reinterviewed
so they can give fresh details.
Respected Spanish daily El Mundo reported the two
members of the so-called Tapas Nine have asked for their names to be kept
secret to avoid pressure from the McCanns.
It comes only days after it was reported that four more of the so-called Tapas
Nine are about to be declared suspects by Portuguese police.
Dr Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Matthew Oldfield and Dr David
Payne are said to have contacted lawyers amid fears detectives may implicate
them in the case of the missing four-year-old.
Portuguese police chief Alipio Ribeiro insisted in an
interview last month he was confident of solving the Madeleine mystery - and
said every investigation has a key moment that clarifies everything.
An investigation insider said last night: "All the evidence collected so
far points to Madeleine being dead.
"There's practically no evidence pointing towards a kidnap."
El Mundo described the offer of a fresh statement by
the mystery Tapas Two as "recent".
It reported: "Lawyers of two of the friends of the McCanns that dined with
them on the night of May 3 in the tapas restaurant have contacted police
recently and said their clients are willing to be re-questioned so they can
'correct' details of their original statements.
"These two members of the group have asked for their identities to be kept
secret because they fear that as a result of the 'clarifications' they intend
making about what happened the night Madeleine disappeared, they may be
pressured by people linked to the McCann family."
One member of the so-called "Tapas Nine" Ms Tanner today dismissed
claims that she and her partner Dr O'Brien were about to change their story as
"absolute rubbish".
The couple were with Gerry and Kate McCann in Portugal on the night Maddy
disappeared. Ms Tanner provided police with an artist's impression of a man she
says she saw carrying a child on the night the childvanished.
Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, said today that the friends had all
been contacted following the El Mundo report and
insisted it was "totally untrueî.
But he said that the couple's friends had said they were happy to be reinterviewed by police if it resolved any apparent
inconsistencies and hastened the McCanns being cleared.
He said: "Contrary to a report in the Spanish press today, and after
consultation amongst Gerry and Kate McCann's friends, I can deny that any
approach has been made by their lawyers asking to amend or change the witness
statement of any of them.
"This report is simply untrue. "Kate and Gerry's friends, who were
with them on May 3, have consistently told the truth and remain happy, indeed
they are keen, to be re-interviewed by the police to clarify any
inconsistencies in the statements that the police may think they have
identified.
"The friends believe that if such interviews or re-interviews take place
it can only lead to Gerry and Kate being eliminated from the inquiry
swiftly."
The McCanns and their friends have always denied any involvement in Madeleine's
disappearance.
Last week they issued a statement denying they had a "pact of
silence" or that they were covering up a secret.
Dr Payne, a 41-year-old cardiovascular researcher from Leicester,
was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine at the Ocean
Club resort on May 3. Gerry asked him to check on his wife and children while he having a tennis lesson at about 6.30pm.
Attention has also focussed on Jane Tanner's claim she saw a man carrying a
girl from the McCanns' ground floor apartment at about 9.15pm - when another
witness says he was outside the flat at the same time but did not see her or
the mystery man.
Mr Oldfield, 37, from south London, has said he entered the McCanns' apartment
to check on the children about 30 minutes before Madeleine was reported missing
by her mum.
He told police that although he had seen the McCanns' two-year-old twins Sean
and Amelie, their sister's bed was out of his
sight-line.
Dr O'Brien, 36, from Exeter,
was away from the group for up to 45 minutes between 9.30pm until 10.15pm while
he tended to his own child who was being sick in his apartment.
He told police he had changed her bedlinen, but staff
at the Ocean Club were said to have denied any change of sheets was requested.
The McCanns and their friends have always denied any involvement in Madeleine's
disappearance - and insist she was kidnapped.
They are barred by strict Portuguese secrecy laws from speaking about the
events of May 3 but last week issued a statement denying they had a "pact
of silence" or that they were covering up a secret.
Portuguese police are preparing to send a three-man team led by chief
investigator Paulo Rebelo to the UK to reinterview
the Tapas Nine.
British detectives will ask questions put to them by their Portuguese
counterparts.
Rebelo has led a massive review of the Madeleine case since taking over from
disgraced former chief investigator Goncalo Amaral five weeks ago.
Alipio Ribeiro, national director of the Portugal's
Policia Judiciaria which is leading the probe, said recently: "I am
convinced that sooner or later we are going to have a result.
"I cannot say when. But I am optimistic.
"Many similar cases have lasted longer and were resolved in the end.
"I can't guarantee it but I think this will also happen in our case. We
have an idea of what happened.
"We've done a massive job analysing and discounting hundreds of leads and
pieces of evidence.
"In every investigation there is a key moment, a click that clarifies
everything and helps you to reach the end. We just haven't reached that key
moment yet." |
