Friends of the parents of Madeleine McCann who were on holiday with the family when she disappeared are expected tomorrow to accept libel damages of £375,000.

The so-called Tapas 7 were dining with Kate and Gerry McCann at a restaurant at the time Madeleine was reported missing from her holiday apartment in May last year.

An admission of libel from Express Newspapers - publishers of the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday - is due to be read before Mr Justice Eady at the High Court tomorrow morning.

The money is expected to be donated to the Find Madeleine Fund which is paying for a private investigation into the hunt for the missing girl.

Express Newspapers has previously paid £550,000 damages to Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire. The group and other newspapers also paid more than £600,000 to former official suspect Robert Murat and two other people.

Madeleine disappeared at the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, just days before her fourth birthday.

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