New ‘critical line of inquiry’ in police hunt for Madeleine
POLICE searching for Madeleine McCann are investigating a new “person of significance”, it emerged yesterday.
News of the unnamed suspect came to light days after it was revealed that police are to get another £154,000 to fund four officers for six months.
It is now understood that officers involved in Operation Grange – Scotland Yard’s six-year £11.2million search for Madeleine – are pursuing a “critical line of inquiry”.
A source close to the search said officers are hopeful that the new approach could finally help them get to the bottom of the mystery.
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are understood to have been informed of the development, though police declined to comment on the investigation. The source said of the individual being investigated: “It is as much to rule the person out of the inquiry as anything else.” Officers have so far investigated 60 persons of interest and 560 lines of enquiry.
The team, led by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall, insisted there was “still important work to do and focused lines of investigation”.
A spokesman added: “The inquiry has not reached a conclusion. We are continuing with determination.”
Operation Grange has reportedly conducted no formal interviews with the McCanns or the seven friends they dined with on the night their daughter disappeared.
It is understood that police have been relying on Portuguese transcripts of key interviews with UK witnesses.
But former Met detective chief inspector Colin Sutton suggested this might now change.
“I would conduct fresh interviews with all the key British witnesses,” he said. “We’re talking about interviews given by the McCanns and friends through an interpreter, written down in Portuguese and then translated back into English, so officers from Grange can read them.
“The room for error would be enormous.”
Madeleine, three, vanished in Portugal in 2007, while she was on holiday with her family.
It was just last week that the Home Office announced that four detectives on the case have been given six months to find new leads or the probe could be shelved.
Following the announcement, Mr and Mrs McCann, who had feared that the search could be axed, said they were “extremely thankful to the Home Office and Scotland Yard ”.
Experts said the announcement could suggest there was a development that had not been disclosed.