Madeleine McCann: Express re-introduces the Tapas 7

So. The Met had not spoken with the McCanns’ friends yet, then. News is that it might. Just as the Met might talks with, well, anyone.

With much of the analysis over, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood wants to put his team of three detective chief inspectors, five detective sergeants and 19 detective constables to good use. They are being supported by six civilian staff and three officers from the specialist murder review group, bringing the total number on the team to 37.

Go on:

By April the cost of the inquiry will be £1.9million but it is thought that figure could double with the “investigative review” going into next year. After nine months of information gathering, officers are checking statements from key witnesses. They include the Tapas Seven, so called because they were eating at a tapas bar with Kate and Gerry at the time Madeleine disappeared.

In some cases the Yard officers have asked for documents to be retranslated from ­Portuguese to English so that they are absolutely sure of what was said and meant.

After the speculation that the Met might interview members of the So-called Tapas 7, we get:

One theory they are examining is that if someone abducted Madeleine they could have had a copy of the key for the holiday apartment at the Ocean Club in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz. 

Well, maybe. There are other theories. But this, apparently, is the only one worth mentioning.

The Sunday Express has learned that the Tapas Seven “fully expect” to be asked to go over the statements they made to Portuguese officers shortly after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007.

The paper spoke with all of them? No word on if they did. The seven are being treated as group. So they all speak with one voice?

A Yard spokesman declined to say who would be interviewed and when. “We are not going into that level of details,” he said. “We are not at the stage of speaking to individuals yet. We are laying the groundwork.”

So, the non-story is in the paper. And it’s repeated virtually, word for word in the Mail: “Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood has three detective chief inspectors, five detective sergeants and 19 detective constables who are being supported by six civilian staff and three officers from the specialist murder review group…”

Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007. The Express is still reporting speculation on its front page…

Image: Members of ‘Tapas Seven’ (left to right) Jane Tanner, Dianne Webster, David Payne, Fiona Payne, an unnamed lawyer representing the group, Rachael Oldfield and Dr Matthew Oldfield outside the High Court in London after accepting 375,000 libel damages from Express Newspapers.  Picture date: Thursday, October 16, 2008. The friends known as the Tapas Seven who were on holiday with Kate and Gerry McCann when daughter Madeleine vanished have accepted 375,000 libel damages from Express Newspapers. The damages – which will be donated to the Find Madeleine Fund – relate to articles in the Daily Express, the Sunday Express and the Daily Star between July and December last year. Solicitor Keith Mathieson, for Express Newspapers, apologised to Jane Tanner, Dr O’Brien, Fiona Payne, David Payne, Matthew Oldfield, Rachael Oldfield and Dianne Webster, and accepted that the allegations were wholly untrue.