THE parents of Madeleine McCann have defended the new police cash boost to help find their daughter – and urged critics to “stop being armchair detectives.” Kate and Gerry hit back after a top ex-cop said solving the Maddie riddle after nearly 11 years was “almost impossible”.
Former detective Colin Sutton, who turned down the chance of leading the Maddie inquiry, believes the girl is dead and her body buried in one of many ancient wells near Praia da Luz, Portugal, from where she vanished in May 2007.
He told an Australian documentary at the weekend that investigators faced a “thankless task” and insisted: “It’s almost impossible without specific intelligence that would allow you to focus on a specific area.”
So far the investigation, launched in May 2011, has cost the taxpayer more than £11.2million.
Last week former GP Kate, 50, and heart doctor Gerry, 49, of Rothley, Leics, were verbally attacked by the parents of two missing kids.
The mum of Ben Needham slammed the McCann’s on national TV.
Venting her frustration on Loose Women, Kerry Needham said she had not received the same “magnitude” of support as Maddie’s parents.
Kerry, 43, from South Yorks, whose son disappeared during a family holiday to the Greek island of Kos in 1991, said: “It hurts. It hurts us and it hurts me as Ben’s mum.
“I’m not taking anything away from it at all – she deserves to be found but so does Ben and we haven’t had a fraction of that help.
“I’ve had to fight alone as a single mum and tried to get the help that Ben deserves and that we deserve as a family. It did happen in the end but not to the magnitude that that case has had.”
A dad whose son has been missing for over two years hit out after the Home Office it was giving Scotland Yard’s Maddie inquiry, Operation Grange, an undisclosed sum to keep going for another six months.
As more funding to find Maddie – understood to be £150,000 – was announced Kate and Gerry were also targeted by furious dad Paul Whinham.
He has written to the Prime Minister to complain about the resources given to the seven-year probe which has already cost taxpayers £11.5 million.
Paul from Wallsend, Tyneside, whose son Michael disappeared from his home in Newcastle in November 2015, aged 31 said: “There’s people like me all over the country being told there’s no more the police can do and yet this one case gets all the money and attention.”
Paul revealed he penned his letter a few months ago, saying: “I wrote asking why all missing people weren’t being treated equally.
“The policing minister Nick Hurd wrote back to say that every enquiry gets the same treatment, but then goes on to say that when Theresa May was Home Secretary she set up a special unit to look for Madeleine McCann.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5962857/madeleine-mccanns-parents-kate-and-gerry-hit-back-at-critics-of-new-met-police-cash-to-track-down-missing-girl/
