Maddie cops ask for more cash as £12m hunt ends
DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann say they have ‘outstanding work’ left on their £12m inquiry and may apply for more Home Office funding.
Sources said officers want to ‘tie up loose ends’ in the investigation before it is officially wound up in a few months.
In April, then-Home Secretary Theresa May granted the inquiry team £95,000 to keep the investigation going, with the cash expected to last until October. Yesterday Scotland Yard said it would talk to the Home Office about future funding. A spokesman said: ‘Whilst there remains outstanding work on this case, the Metropolitan Police will remain in dialogue with the Home Office regarding the continuation of funding.’
The Met investigation, codenamed Operation Grange, was expected to be closed after Scotland Yard boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said in May that his investigators had one remaining line of inquiry to pursue – and unless any new evidence came to light the probe would finish.
This came seven months after the investigation team was scaled back from 30 officers to just four.
Madeleine vanished at the age of three while on holiday with her parents in Portugal in 2007 and, despite a high-profile international hunt, no trace has ever been found. Hopes were high when the UK investigation into the little girl’s disappearance was launched in 2011, with Scotland Yard detectives later highlighting a sex offender who had targeted British families with young children staying in villas in the same area where Madeleine was last seen.
Police also took seriously a theory that Madeleine was abducted by burglars. Detectives have taken 1,338 statements, investigated more than 60 ‘persons of interest’ and interviewed suspects.
But police have faced criticism. In 2014 alone, detectives made 67 trips to Portugal, spending £16,000 on flights. A spokesman for Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Glasgow-born Gerry McCann, declined to comment on the latest development.