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Madeleine: Two of Tapas Nine 'to change story... IF they can remain anonymous'

HOMEPAGE NEWS REPORTS INDEX NEWS NOVEMBER 2007
Original Source: THIS IS LONDON: 07 NOVEMBER 2007
07.11.07
 
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."

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