McCanns: We’ll never give up
SUN EXCLUSIVE: £750k in Maddie fund
EXCLUSIVE by ANTONELLA LAZZERI
published
10 hours ago
THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann yesterday vowed to carry on the search for her when the police hunt is over.
Kate and Gerry McCann have already ringfenced the rest of the cash in the Find Madeleine Fund, around £750,000, to pay for a team of private investigators — believed to be former police officers.
It will be the FOURTH team of investigators employed by the McCanns, from Rothley, Leics.
Yesterday The Sun told how the police hunt for Madeleine, who vanished aged three from Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007, is being scaled down from 29 cops to four.
The Met’s Operation Grange could be shelved as early as the New Year amid complaints from MPs over its £11million cost.
But a source close to the McCanns said yesterday: “They are very much of the mind, ‘We will never give up’ and they won’t. They have spearheaded the hunt for Madeleine themselves before and will do so again if they have to.”
The family’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “Should the need arise for a private investigation to be resumed, they have made sure they have enough money left in Madeleine’s fund.”
8 years of false leads, spiralling police costs and heartache
TWENTY-five cops who have spent more than four years searching for Madeleine McCann were yesterday preparing to clear their desks at Belgravia police station.
A staff of four officers will stay on the case for now — with the inquiry expected to be wound down completely in the New Year.
So how did it come to this eight years after Madeleine vanished?
No one could fail to sympathise with Kate and Gerry McCann’s plight and their endless courage in trying to find their daughter.
But last night serious questions were being asked about the wisdom of the ultimately futile investigation.
How could an inquiry that to date has cost more than £11million seemingly achieve so little?
The British taskforce, which at its height was 37-strong, has yet to make a single arrest, despite 560 lines of inquiry and 60 suspects.
It also became mired in a spending controversy with some cops staying in the £200-a-night five-star Hotel Dona Filipa during visits to Portugal. Last year there were 67 flights to the country by cops costing £16,000, with overtime on top.
So what were all these officers actually doing?
Lengthy process . . . £11m has been spent on 4-year-long hunt
Lengthy process . . . £11m has been spent on 4-year-long hunt Chris Eades
A former Met Police officer who knew two Detective Chief Inspectors working on Operation Grange, said the mood among the squad is “muted”. He told The Sun last night: “Everyone wanted to do their best for Madeleine but they are not miracle workers.”
Another well-placed source added: “What seemed obtainable at the start seemed impossible in the end.”
Operation Grange was set up in 2011 after an open letter by the McCanns to David Cameron was printed in The Sun.
It had been four years since Madeleine, three, disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
The McCanns were desperate for a British police review as they believed the Portuguese authorities had hopelessly bungled their investigation. Funded by the Home Office, it was initially given a budget of £5million.
The family were overjoyed by the move and certainly in the early days it offered them much hope.
Detective Inspector Hamish Campbell, the first head of Operation Grange, said within months that his team were investigating new leads, new sightings and new lines of inquiry.
Two years on, his successor Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood gave the McCanns the greatest hope of all, declaring: “I still genuinely believe that there is a possibility that she is alive.”
He added that his team had examined 30,500 documents from Portuguese police files and had identified 38 “persons of interest”.
He said the operation had shifted from “review” to investigation.
Arrival . . . UK police have travelled on 67 flights to Portugal, but no arrests
Arrival . . . UK police have travelled on 67 flights to Portugal, but no arrests
By the latest count, the Met claims “7,154 actions had been raised” and 560 lines of inquiry identified. They had identified more than 60 persons of interest and 650 sex offenders were also investigated.
But the numbers mask the chaos going on behind the scenes.
In June last year UK search teams spent seven days scouring wasteland around Praia da Luz.
Sniffer dogs, helicopters and ground-penetrating radar were called in. TV crews and reporters from around the world flooded into the seaside village believing a body was about to be found — but nothing was unearthed.
Portuguese cops said all the areas had been already been searched several times since Madeleine went missing.
In July 2014 British cops flew to Portugal to question four new suspects. But they had to wait while they were quizzed by Portuguese police and were not allowed to ask questions themselves.
In December last year they returned to question another ten — with the same result.
To date, the operation’s most important line of inquiry was a three-man burglary team whose mobile phones placed them near the McCanns’ apartment at the time Madeleine vanished. But so far no one has been arrested or even questioned.
The winding-down of the operation will be welcomed by some.
In March soaring costs and lack of progress prompted Met Police Federation chairman John Tully to question whether it should continue.
He said: “We no longer have the resources to conduct specialist inquiries all over the world which have nothing to do with London.”
Luxury digs . . . cops stay in 5-star accommodation, such as Hotel Dona Filipa
Luxury digs . . . cops stay in 5-star accommodation, such as Hotel Dona Filipa
Former Flying Squad Commander John O’Connor claimed it had been launched as a “humanitarian act” by Mr Cameron and the Met Commissioner. He said: “I’d hope the parents of any child in the same position would be offered the same sort of review.”
Madeleine’s case was always a special one. Never has a missing child received so much worldwide focus. Indeed, the average amount spent on investigating a missing child is around £2,400.
Last year 140,000 under-18s went missing, with campaign posters and a localised police investigation all most parents would expect.
It was Madeleine’s cute appearance that some believe ignited the huge interest in her disappearance. The image of her frozen in time aged three, huge blue eyes peeping out from beneath her fringe, captured the hearts of millions.
The constant looping of a video of her dancing at Christmas added further support and, within months, £1million had been donated to the Find Madeleine fund.
A powerful PR machine and the McCanns’ enormous strength kept the story in the public eye.
Kate, 47, previously told The Sun she and Gerry, also 47, will never rest unless they discover the truth.
Consultations are already believed to have taken place with private investigators who may be able to help them. But they have been here three times before.
The first team they hired were Spaniards, Metodo 3, in September 2007. Their director Francisco Marco boasted: “Madeleine will be home by Christmas.” He added: “We know who the kidnappers are and we are very, very close to catching them.” They were followed in May 2008 by Oakley International — an “A-Team” of former British special forces soldiers and US security agents run by Brit Kevin Halligen.
He was later exposed as a fraudster and jailed after being tracked down by The Sun. He was also alleged to have fleeced the Find Madeleine Fund out of £150,000.
The third team were Alpha Investigations, run by ex-RUC officer David Edgar and former Merseyside detective Arthur Cowley.
They were hired after the Portuguese cops shelved their investigation in the summer of 2008.
And after drawing yet more blanks, they stepped down when Operation Grange was launched in 2011. The McCanns, who earlier this week thanked Operation Grange cops for their “meticulous” work, can only hope their new private search will bring more success.
