Who are the Tapas 7 and the Tapas 9

[John]

The nickname for the group comes from the tapas restaurant where all nine adults were dining when Madeleine McCann is claimed to have gone missing from her family's holiday apartment nearby.

In fact the Tapas 9 dined there every night.

Their friendship goes back a long way. Four of the group - Matthew Oldfield, Russell O'Brien, David Payne and Fiona Payne - studied medicine together at Leicester University in the early 1990s - the Paynes becoming a couple.

Doctors Kate and Gerry McCann moved to Leicestershire in 2000, and quickly became part of the medical social circle.

The Tapas 7 is the group of friends less Kate and Gerry McCann.

If Kate and Gerry McCann are included then they are known as the Tapas 9.

The Tapas 7 received a £375,000 libel payout from Express Newspapers after untrue allegations about their conduct appeared in three publications.




The Tapas 7 minus Dr Russell O'Brien.

[John]

JANE TANNER




Jane Tanner provided the most crucial evidence by claiming that she saw a man carry a child from the McCann's apartment at 9.15pm which was just after Gerry McCann had checked it and some 45 minutes before Kate raised the alarm.