Madeleine McCann: Police to question Kate and Gerry's friends

Oct 22 2007 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

THE friends who dined with Gerry and Kate McCann on the evening of their daughter’s disappearance will soon be re-interviewed, the chief of Portuguese police said last night.

Officers in the Madeleine McCann investigation will travel to the UK with a public prosecutor “in days”, Policia Judiciaria national director Alipio Ribeiro said.

It is reported the interviews will be conducted using questions written by the Portuguese detectives.

Mr McCann and his Liverpool-born wife insist that Madeleine, 4, was abducted while they ate at a nearby Tapas bar with friends Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Jane Tanner and her partner, Russell O’Brien, David and Fiona Payne, and Mrs Payne’s mother, Dianne Webster.

The news comes as the UK’s former top police officer said the McCanns were victims of a “witch-hunt” and there is no evidence to suggest they murdered their daughter.

Former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens’s comments came as it was reported that Gerry McCann, 39, is preparing to resume work as a consultant cardiologist in Leicester.

Mr McCann is reported to have held discussions with his employers at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, about returning to work.

He hopes to return before Christmas.