Big police hunt ‘cost thousands’
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POLICE probing the abduction of a boy have arrested their key witness on suspicion of making up the story.
Police launched a large-scale investigation and made a public appeal after claims that a boy had been bundled into a black van.
Now the man who tipped them off is being questioned after allegedly “fabricating” the story.
The huge hunt was launched on Thursday with hours of CCTV footage reviewed and officers receiving over 100 calls.
Investigators also carried out house-to-house inquiries, talked to commuters and checked similar vehicles to the van, at a cost of thousands of pounds. Yesterday police announced a 26-year-old man was arrested because there was not “any evidence to corroborate” his child abduction claim.
The boy was said to have been taken into a Volkswagen Transporter. A bike was found at the scene and was thought to belong to the abducted child.
Det Supt Chris Edwards had said he was “completely satisfied” with the witness’s credibility.
But later Det Supt Pete Fulton said he had been “re-interviewed at length about the account” and that “no further information has come to light to corroborate the report”.
He said police had spent “a significant amount of time” on the investigation in Redhill, Surrey.
DS Fulton added: “When information such as this is received we treat it extremely seriously.”