Daily Express: Madeleine McCann: Ex-detective savages 'dangerous' claim about Kate and Gerry McCann

Madeleine McCann: Ex-detective savages 'dangerous' claim about Kate and Gerry McCann

A TOP former detective on the Madeleine McCann case has savaged businesswoman Michelle Dewberry after she claimed that the search wouldn’t have got the same “attention and funding” if it involved a “family from Hull”.

By Freddie Jordan
PUBLISHED: 09:51, Wed, Jun 12, 2019 | UPDATED: 18:06, Wed, Jun 12, 2019

Speaking on Sky News’ The Pledge, the former Apprentice victor argued police were continuing to put resources into the Maddie search because of Kate and Gerry McCanns class. She said: “If this was a family from Hull who’d gone to a caravan park down the road and left their kids in the caravan while they’d gone to the local boozer, this wouldn’t be getting millions of pounds worth of attention and funding.” Host Nick Ferrari consequently asked her if “we police according to class”, to which the entrepreneur replied, “well, in this instance, yeah.”

But the comments were criticised by the former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) Jim Gamble.

On Twitter Mr Gamble, who served as the senior child protection officer in the UK’s first investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, directed his anger towards Ms Dewberry.

Mr Gamble said: “What a load of unadulterated nonsense. The original Home Secretary that set this off was from Hull.

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and an opinion on the back of absolutely no experience worse.”

Mr Gamble further explained his position on Twitter.

He said: “They would not get more money unless there are credible lines of enquiry to be followed. And this is a very rare type of investigation.

“This case however is rare because it involves a child who went missing abroad, suspected abducted in a foreign country. The only other similar case I know is Ben Needham.”

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has remained unsolved since the then-three-year-old went missing in a Portuguese holiday apartment while her parents dined out in a local restaurant.

More than £11 million has since been spent on the Metropolitan Police investigation to find her, to no avail.

Operation Grange, the Metropolitan Police investigation into Madeleine's disappearance, was set up in 2013 by David Cameron after the Portuguese inquiry failed to produce substantial answers.

The force have had to apply for Home Office funding on a regular basis to keep the British investigation afloat and have once again been successful in their attempts to secure further funds with a government commitment to continue the search until March 2020.

The McCann family have insisted they will never give up hope of finding their daughter.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1139395/madeleine-mccann-update-latest-jim-gamble-sky-news-michelle-dewberry-video

As I said earlier somewhere else, why do people in the public eye engage on twitter and thus expose themselves to ridicule?  It's like flashing on a  train in rush hour - once the initial reaction dies you're left with only the memory of a momentary adrenaline rush and frostbite around the 'arris.

Sometimes Mr Gamble, a still tongue makes a wise head.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than open your mouth and prove it beyond all doubt !

Is Jim Gamble connected to the Media Monitoring Unit in any way?

It seems the are many "go-to" people in this case.

Last few sentences were brilliant Verdi,so true.

BlueBag wrote:Is Jim Gamble connected to the Media Monitoring Unit in any way?

It seems the are many "go-to" people in this case.

You bet your bottom dollar!

All roads lead to Rome ....

Two phrases jump out at me .  We have to assume they have been accurately recorded.

1.   “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing . . .

2.   “They would not get more money unless there are credible lines of enquiry to be followed. 
“This case . . . involves a child who [was] suspected abducted in a foreign country. 

1.   implies that there is more than the public has been allowed to know, and that he, Gamble, is party to some other information or considerations which have eluded everyone else.
If so, and he may be right, he is fuelling several of the major Conspiracy Theories which have bedevilled this case from the early days.

2.  allows his use of the words "suspected abducted' to linger in our thoughts.   Gamble has, I believe, always taken the official line that Madeleine WAS abducted, though he has never revealed when or how this might have been achieved. But then nor has anyone else, so he is not alone in this.   Those who did the investigation, from both Portugal and Britain, came to the same conclusion - that there had NOT been an abduction as it was a physical and temporal impossibility.

And the use of "credible lines of enquiry" in conjunction with "suspected abducted" may be linked, in that the 'credible lines of enquiry' may be into the allegation of abduction, rather than an abduction per se


Or he may just be talking rot and trying to repair the damage to the 'cause' that Michelle inflicted. I don't know.