Madeleine reconstruction scrapped after 'suspicious' McCanns refuse to return to Portugal to take part

A planned reconstruction of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann involving her parents and their friends has been scrapped over suspicions about the motives of Portuguese police.

Kate and Gerry McCann and the so-called Tapas Seven - the friends they were dining with in the resort's tapas restaurant when Madeleine vanished - had been due to fly to the Algarve tomorrow.

The plan was to re-enact their movements leading up to the discovery that the three-year-old was missing. But a family friend revealed yesterday how some of them had pulled out after growing uneasy about the decision to stage the replay more than a year on.

The friend said the McCanns, both doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, believe it would have done 'absolutely nothing' to help find their daughter not least because police had refused requests to televise it.

The couple and the Tapas Seven - friends Matthew and Rachael Oldfield, David and Fiona Payne, Russell O'Brien, his partner Jane Tanner and Dianne Webster, Mrs Payne's mother - were due to take part in the reconstruction at the Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz.

Their decision to pull out will further damage relations between the police and the McCanns, who were made official suspects in the case in September.

Madeleine disappeared from the bedroom of the family's holiday apartment on May 3 last year. Her parents deny any wrongdoing.

Kate and Gerry McCann: Maddie's parents had been due to the fly out to the Algarve

A friend of the couple said: 'It was a case of all nine of them take part or it doesn't happen at all from the police's point of view, so the whole thing is off.

'The whole group have had grave reservations about the value of it. They want to help the police but keep asking themselves "Why now, more than one year on? What on earth is it going to achieve?"

'They also question why it was not to be televised and why police just want the nine and not other holidaymakers and staff to take part.'

Mrs McCann, 40, her 39-year-old husband and their friends had originally been asked to return to Portugal two weeks ago. But the date was extended because the couple had been undecided about the trip.