McCanns say hotel meeting of 'Tapas 9' was mere get-together

Published Date: 11 December 2007

By TIM WALSH

THE parents of Madeleine McCann have met the seven friends with whom they dined on the day their daughter disappeared, their spokesman said yesterday.

Held at a Leicestershire hotel at the end of last month, it was the first face-to-face meeting of the group, dubbed the Tapas Nine, since the McCanns' returned to Britain.

Advisers for the McCanns were present, Clarence Mitchell said, but the former Foreign Office spokesman denied the private meeting was held for the friends to compare their accounts of 3 May, the day the four-year-old disappeared.

He said: "It was uneventful as far as we are concerned and it's not significant. It is the first time the nine have sat down face to face. It was just a get-together to discuss where they are at.

"Clearly, some might face further questioning at some stage. It was not to change stories or compare notes. It was a get-together of friends who find themselves at the centre of a story."

The McCanns were dining with the seven friends at a tapas restaurant in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz when Madeleine went missing from their holiday apartment.

The party included the McCanns, Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Fiona and David Payne, and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.

Mr Mitchell added: "The meeting was as much a show of support for Gerry and Kate. This was in no way to get their stories straight.

"This is the age of e-mail and phone. They could have done that a long time ago."

The nine had become friends through professional connections.

Gerry McCann is a consultant cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, Dr O'Brien a consultant in acute medicine in Exeter, Dr Oldfield an endocrinologist at Kingston Hospital and David Payne a senior research fellow in cardiovascular sciences at Leicester University.

All emphatically deny any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.