Cops’ team in Maddie case down to just four
ONLY a small team of UK police officers continues to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine Mccann on a part-time basis, the Met Police has said.
Ahead of Madeleine’s 21st birthday today, the force revealed that the team probing her disappearance in 2007 has been stripped back by about 90 per cent to just three police officers and a civilian member of staff, who work on the case now and then.
Though the police operation has been dramatically scaled back, a private investigator hired by the Mccann family has revealed that he plans to open fresh inquiries in Portugal, where the youngster went missing.
Julian Peribañez was part of the Metodo 3 firm hired by the Mccanns to look at leads not being considered by police in Portugal.
He said: “The kind of person that knows what happened lurks in the underground of every city or town.”
Madeleine vanished aged three from her room in an apartment at the resort of Praia da Luz, on the night of May 3.
The investigation was begun by Portuguese police but in May 2011, the Met announced that, at the request of then-home Secretary Theresa May, it had started its own inquiry, Operation Grange, to run alongside, due to concerns over the overseas probe. In July 2013 the status of the Met’s inquiries changed to a full investigation.
By 2015, there were 29 officers working on the case.the force revealed details of the current investigation team after it was awarded a further £192,000 funding by the Home Office, taking the total cost since 2011 to £13.2million.
DCI Mark Cranwell, Operation Grange SIO, said: “We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May, 2007 in Praia da Luz.”
A Met Police spokesman added: “The number of staff on the investigation team always remains under review and is flexed according to new information coming in, or new lines of inquiry.”
A spokesman for Madeleine’s parents said: “Gerry and Kate do not comment on the investigation since it is an active police investigation.”
In 2020, the focus of the probe shifted to Christian Brueckner, a German drifter who was identified as a potential suspect.
He has twice been convicted of sex crimes against young girls and when named was in jail after being convicted of raping a 72-year-old woman in 2005, in the area Madeleine went missing.
In 2017, he allegedly confessed to kidnapping Madeleine while sitting in a German bar watching coverage of the 10th anniversary of her disappearance.
In June 2020, German police said that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible. He has denied being involved.