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A
planned reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann vanished has been hampered
by extravagant demands by the McCanns' friends, police are said to have claimed
yesterday.
Portuguese officers have asked
Kate and Gerry McCann and the so-called
Tapas Seven to
return to the Algarve resort of
Praia da Luz for a re-enactment of the events of May 3 last year.
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Friends of Kate
and Gerry McCann (clockwise from top left): Fiona Payne, Jane
Tanner, Russell O'Brien and Rachael Oldfield |
The couple are considering the request, but police allegedly said their friends
demanded private jet travel and five-star hotel accommodation.
A
source is said to have told the Portuguese tabloid newspaper 24 Horas: 'The
demands they make to return are impossible to entertain.
'One of the couples demanded a private jet to travel with their children to the
Algarve. Another demanded they be put up in a five-star hotel.
'The demands they all made demonstrate a clear strategy by lawyers. The only
thing missing from the list was a request that we send them to the Moon on
skates.'
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Key witness: Jane
Tanner, one of the Tapas Seven, said she saw a man carrying away a
child near the McCanns' holiday flat |
The McCanns, their seven friends, their spokesman
Clarence
Mitchell, his predecessor and two other holiday friends were all
asked to return for the reconstruction, the newspaper reported.
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Madeleine: Missing
for almost a year |
The Tapas Seven are university friends Matthew Oldfield, Russell O'Brien, David
and Fiona Payne, plus Mr Oldfield's wife Rachael, Mr O'Brien's partner Jane
Tanner and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.
All have been re-interviewed by British police this week - at the request of
their Portuguese counterparts - about their accounts of the night of May 3.
Portuguese police
were said to be suspicious about a series of alleged contradictions and
inconsistencies in their witness statements.
Senior police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao confirmed that some of the witnesses
- who also included a man who played tennis against Mr McCann and TV producer
Jeremy Wilkins,
who saw Mr McCann on the might of May 3 - had imposed certain conditions on
their return to Portugal.
But he told 24 Horas: 'The reconstruction is important but it's not crucial to
the investigations.' |
