'Tapas Seven demanded private jet and 5-star hotels to return to Portugal for Maddie reconstruction,' Portuguese police claim

Portuguese officers have asked Kate and Gerry McCann and the so-called Tapas Seven to return to the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz for a re-enactment of the events of May 3 last year.

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The couple are considering the request, but police allegedly said their friends demanded private jet travel and five-star hotel accommodation.

A source is said to have told the Portuguese tabloid newspaper 24 Horas: 'The demands they make to return are impossible to entertain.

'One of the couples demanded a private jet to travel with their children to the Algarve. Another demanded they be put up in a five-star hotel.

'The demands they all made demonstrate a clear strategy by lawyers. The only thing missing from the list was a request that we send them to the Moon on skates.'

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The McCanns, their seven friends, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell, his predecessor and two other holiday friends were all asked to return for the reconstruction, the newspaper reported.

The Tapas Seven are university friends Matthew Oldfield, Russell O'Brien, David and Fiona Payne, plus Mr Oldfield's wife Rachael, Mr O'Brien's partner Jane Tanner and Mrs Payne's mother Dianne Webster.

All have been re-interviewed by British police this week - at the request of their Portuguese counterparts - about their accounts of the night of May 3.

Portuguese police were said to be suspicious about a series of alleged contradictions and inconsistencies in their witness statements.

Senior police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao confirmed that some of the witnesses - who also included a man who played tennis against Mr McCann and TV producer Jeremy Wilkins, who saw Mr McCann on the might of May 3 - had imposed certain conditions on their return to Portugal.

But he told 24 Horas: 'The reconstruction is important but it's not crucial to the investigations.'