No Hidden Agenda At McCann's 'Tapas Nine' Meeting

There was no 'secret meeting' between the parents of Madeleine McCann and the seven friends who dined with them on the night of their daughter’s disappearance.

They did not conduct such a meeting, aiming to "get their stories straight".

The group, known as the 'Tapas Nine', simply discussed events at Praia da Luz and what will happen next in the investigations.

Kate and Gerry McCann were only reunited with the friends two weeks ago for the first time since Madeleine was reported missing at a Portuguese holiday resort on May 3.

The meeting comes just weeks before the McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, and their friends are expected to be interviewed by police over apparent inconsistencies in their witness statements.

Clarence Mitchell, their spokesman, roundly denied that the meeting was held for the friends to compare their accounts of events at the Ocean Club resort.

"It is the first time the nine have sat down face to face. It was really just a get-together to discuss where they are at," he said.

The couple's advisers were present at the meeting, in a hotel in Rothley.

Meanwhile, Portuguese detectives and a public prosecutor are reported to be finalising a series of formal letters asking for some of the McCann group to be re-interviewed in Britain.

One of the friends has reported seeing a man carrying a small child away from the McCanns' apartment at about the time Madeleine is believed to have been abducted, six days before her fourth birthday.

Three of the friends have given statements claiming to have seen Robert Murat, the only other official suspect, outside the apartment, though he said that he spent the evening at home with his mother.

Meanwhile, a former Portuguese police chief said that the McCanns should have been arrested as soon as their daughter disappeared for abandoning their children.

Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, who left the PolÍcia Judiciária this year to head the Portuguese Association for Missing Children, told the 24 Horas newspaper: "When the parents told police that they went to dinner and left the children at home alone, they confessed," he said.

(BMcC/JM)