Members of the Tapas Seven have found themselves at the centre of another harrowing twist in the Madeleine McCann case

Julia Banim Audience Writer

15:02, 12 Oct 2025

.Madeleine McCann. (Image: PA)

On the night of May 3, 2007, while on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, Kate and Gerry McCann were dining with friends at the Ocean Club resort’s tapas restaurant.

Throughout the evening, the group of nine adults would intermittently return to check on their children, who were sleeping in their hotel rooms approximately 55 metres away. As they enjoyed their conversation in the alfresco eatery, just as they had done for the previous three nights, they were oblivious to the dreadful events unfolding across the pool.

At 10pm, Kate went to check on her and Gerry’s three young children, two year old twins Sean and Amelie, and three year old Madeleine. To her dismay, Madeleine, whom she’d read a bedtime story to just hours earlier, was missing, and the window was wide open.

In the subsequent days, the disappearance of Leicester-born Madeleine would ignite a public frenzy not witnessed since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. However, for Kate and Gerry’s friends, known as The Tapas Seven, the reality behind the headlines was a vastly different experience.

Now, members of the group find themselves at the heart of another distressing development in the still unsolved case, as the trial of alleged Madeleine impersonator Julia Wandelt continues, reports the Mirror.

.The McCanns had been dining with friends on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance(Image: PA)

Polish national Wandelt and Karen Spragg from Cardiff, are facing accusations of stalking the McCann family, with unsettling claims surfacing from Leicester Crown Court this week. The jury was told how the duo allegedly lay in wait outside the McCann family residence and startled Kate upon her return home, demanding a DNA test and unsuccessfully attempting to block her entry, before pounding on the door.

Wandelt is charged with sending a letter, making calls, leaving voicemails and sending WhatsApp messages to Kate and Gerry, as well as sending Instagram messages to Amelie and Sean, claiming to be the missing girl Madeleine. It’s been alleged that Wandelt “rang over 60 times in a day” to Kate.

In addition to allegedly harassing the McCann family, it’s also been claimed that Wandelt made contact with David Payne, one of the friends present with Kate and Gerry when Madeleine disappeared. Both Wandelt and Spragg deny the charges.

Here, the Mirror examines the so-called Tapaz Seven, and their current whereabouts.

.Jane Tanner. (Image: PA)

Jane Tanner – married to Russell O’Brien

Jane provided what was initially thought to be vital evidence through her witness statement, known as the Tanner Sighting. The mother of two claimed to have seen a man carrying a child away from the McCann’s flat at 9.15pm, 45 minutes before Kate raised the alarm.

According to marketing executive Jane, who had been 36 at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, she walked past Gerry McCann having a conversation with another holidaymaker as he returned to the restaurant following his 9.05pm check on the children.

Yet neither man could remember spotting Jane.

Jane claimed the youngster she had witnessed was dressed in floral patterned pyjama bottoms, and was being cradled by a white, dark-haired man who did not look like a tourist.

Though initially viewed as a critical clue, this account was subsequently dismissed after a British man stepped forward to confirm the sighting was actually him carrying his daughter back from the night creche.

In 2007, Jane became the first of the Tapas Seven to break her silence in an interview with BBC’s Panorama, expressing her “absolute horror” at the possibility that she might have rescued Madeleine.

Risking potential prosecution under Portuguese privacy laws, Jane revealed: “I have not spoken before because the Portuguese police told us not to talk about the case at all. From Day One we have done everything we can to help them with the investigation.

“I’m talking now because I’m being called a liar and a fantasist. I know what I saw. I think it’s important that people know what I saw because I believe Madeleine was abducted.

“If people are not taking that seriously, there could be people out there that see her somewhere, could have evidence to give and think ‘I’m not going to give that because she wasn’t abducted’. And that is the scariest thing out of this – that people wouldn’t come forward because they think we’re lying, which is rubbish.”

Meanwhile, a friend of Jane’s said: “It’s true to say she is haunted by that thought and goes over and over it every day. She thinks to herself, ‘If only I had stopped him’ and ‘If only I had seen his face’.”

.Maddie McCann. (Image: METROPOLITAN POLICE/AFP via Gett)

Dr Russell O’Brien – married to Jane Tanner

Between 9.30pm and 10.15pm, fellow medic Russell stepped away from the group to look after daughter Evie, who had been sick.

He and Jane had taken it in turns to wolf down their dinner quickly, ensuring they could be there for their unwell child.

It was when Russell came back to the table to eat his steak that Kate ran in screaming to Gerry that Madeleine had vanished.

Along with Fiona Payne and Rachael Oldfield, Russell told police officers that he had spotted British-Portuguese property consultant Robert Murat at the holiday apartment complex on the night of the disappearance.

Murat was made the investigation’s first arguido after police heard he had been asking lots questions about the case, but this arguido status was lifted the following year after detectives found nothing connecting Murat to the investigation. As revealed by The Sun in 2008, Russell shared with officers a disconcerting conversation the group had just before Maddie disappeared.

He recalled: “We then had a conversation about the ludicrous pressure on parents that they can’t take photos of their children.

“The other aspect of the conversation, which is doubly haunting, was that we said, ‘You’re far more likely to get clobbered by your uncle or your neighbour than some random stranger’. Since this happened ten or 11 hours before Madeleine was abducted, it seemed a very uncomfortable coincidence.”

Russell also had to defend himself following reports in Portuguese newspapers that suggested he went missing for an hour and a half at the same time that Madeleine vanished. Although he was not directly named, the paper provided identifying details that indicated who exactly was being referred to, as previously reported by The New Statesman.

In response, he and Jane released the following statement: “These reports in the Portuguese press are completely untrue and extremely hurtful. We have spoken to the police today, and have been assured that our status as witnesses has not changed.

“We would like to request that the privacy of our family and our police testimony are respected by the media. We just hope that the police’s considerable efforts to find Madeleine are successful.”

This assertion was backed by Portuguese police chief inspector Olegario Sousa, who said: “Do you think that if we had the name of the person who committed this crime, we would be waiting to arrest them?”.

.The group had been staying at the Ocean Club hotel complex(Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)

Dr Matthew Oldfield – married to Rachael Oldfield

Consultant endocrinologist Matthew, who had worked alongside Gerry at the same hospital in Leicester, said that he’d checked on the McCann children at 9.30pm, but clarified that he did not actually see Madeleine given that he was standing outside the children’s bedroom door, and would have had to have looked around the door to see her bed.

He told Portuguese police that he left the holiday apartment after spotting the twins asleep in their cots, satisfied that all was quiet.

After returning to the table, Matthew confirmed that all the children were sleeping.

Mere moments later, Gerry went to check on them himself.

According to a witness statement given by Matthew, in the presence of inspector Patricia D. , “there was nothing unusual and he knows of nothing special happening”.

The statement went on to note that Matthew attested “that the tourist complex was quiet and that nothing unusual happened there. That during the day the children were under the supervision of the respective mini-club staff.

“That Madeleine is the daughter of both Gerry and Kate. That he doesn’t know if Madeleine was suffering from any illness or if she was taking medication. That Madeleine is very lively, obedient, communicative and extrovert. Madeleine’s parents are both very friendly, communicative, happy and sensible.

“That the couple have an excellent relationship with their children, not making any difference in the treatment of each. That the three children were very much wanted by the couple, all three being the result of, ‘In Vitro’, fertilisation. The interviewee thinks that it is a kidnapping with the intention to demand a ransom from the parents, because these are people who are very comfortable financially.”

.Rachael Oldfield. (Image: PA)

Rachael Oldfield – married to Matthew Oldfield

Recruitment consultant Rachael was the person who told Jane Tanner that Madeleine had vanished, and subsequently informed police she’d seen Robert Murat outside apartment 5A.

In August 2007, Rachael hit back at reports published in Portuguese tabloid Diario de Noticias, which alleged that officers had intercepted emails and calls between the McCanns and their friends in recent weeks which “prove” that Madeleine had been killed inside the apartment. Rachael, a mother of one, has labelled the allegations as “very hurtful and rather ludicrous”, expressing her exasperation on behalf of the group amidst rampant speculation.

Rachael declared: “I think there are some leaks coming from the police but a lot of what I have read recently has been completely untrue. Whether a journalist has had a bit of information and made the rest up, or the police are feeding some truth or untruths, I just don’t know.”

She went on to say: “They are throwing mud at us and we are not able to defend ourselves. It does not help to find Madeleine. We just have to hope the investigation progresses to a point where something concrete comes out of it.”

.Dr. David Payne. (Image: PA)

Dr David Payne – married to Dr Fiona Payne

Apart from her parents, Leicester University scientist David was the last person to see Madeleine alive. Around 6:30pm, while Gerry was playing tennis, he checked in on her, Kate and her twin siblings, later describing them as “a family who’d had such a fantastic time”.

He recalled that the three young children were dressed in their pyjamas and “looked immaculate… just like angels, they all looked so happy and well looked after and content”.

In 2008, David told British police that Kate had initially informed the group, “she’s gone” after making her horrifying discovery. According to David’s account, Kate later said, “they’ve taken her, they’ve taken her”.

David has since been mentioned in this latest trial as having been contacted by alleged stalker Wandelt.

.Fiona Payne. (Image: PA)

Dr Fiona Payne – married to Dr David Payne

Dr Fiona Payne, who is married to Dr David Payne, and a mother of two, reportedly spotted Murat. She and her husband had brought their own high-spec baby monitor from home and set it up at the restaurant so they could listen for any sounds if their children stirred.

Fiona later recounted to British police about the “hysterical” state Kate was in when she returned to the table. She remembered: “[Kate] was hysterical, it upsets me very much to even think about how she was,” Fiona said in a 2008 police interview.

“She was so terrified, absolutely inconsolable, she was rampaging round… the room, she’s up and down, pacing, kicking walls, just on, for most part, just imagining where or what might be happening to Madeleine and angry at herself and then for having left her, not being there and just, she was shouting a lot, I can’t, ‘We’ve, we’ve let her down Gerry, we’ve let her down, we weren’t there for her’.

It’s understood that Fiona has been a particular source of support for the McCanns. In May 2023, Fiona spoke movingly at a vigil held to honour the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, reciting Emily Dickinson’s classic poem, Hope is the Thing With Feathers, before embracing Kate.

The Mail Online reports that Kate, has previously praised her loyal friend Fiona, sharing: “She has remained such a wonderful support. Her support is very important to me.”

.Dianne suspected that Sean and Amelie had been drugged. (Image: PA)

Dianne Webster – mother of Fiona Payne and grandmother of Lily and Scarlet

Grandmother Dianne informed British police that she believed twins Sean and Amelie had been sedated, and was astonished that they remained asleep whilst the night unfolded into chaos. During a 2008 police interview, Dianne said Gerry had been “absolutely distraught” when everyone reached the apartment. She recalled: “I’ve never heard a man make the noises he made, and Kate, Kate was just… you just can’t put into words how they were. I remember I went through into the room where… Madeleine was sleeping and she said ‘she’s been taken’ because she said that the shutters and that had been open, the window open.

“The twins were still asleep in the cot and I, with all the noise going on I don’t know how they slept through it which makes me think there was, they must have been drugged with something.”

In October 2007, London’s Evening Standard reported that hair samples from Sean and Amelie revealed no evidence of sedatives, confirming the McCanns’ assertion that they had not given their three children sleeping tablets on the night of Madeleine’s disappearance. A source told the publication: “It would be logical for tests to be carried out on the twins to show they have never been given sedatives.

It would be right to say those tests show no evidence of sedatives in their systems. “It backs up Kate and Gerry’s claims they have never sedated the children and explains why they are so certain they can prove the allegation is just another police smear.”

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