Daily Mail today - British police take 67 return flights to Portugal as cost of Madeleine McCann search nears £9million

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British police take 67 return flights to Portugal as cost of Madeleine McCann search nears £9million

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British police take 67 return flights to Portugal as cost of Madeleine McCann search nears £9million

• EXCLUSIVE: Trips last year cost nearly £16,000, around £1,300 a month
  
• Came as police carried out largest ever search by British police overseas 
  
• Eight-day search in Algarve in June ended with nothing of interest found 
  
• David Cameron set a provisional budget for £5million for the investigation
  
• Operation Grange has cost around £2.5million every year for three years
  
• Home Office said this year's spend likely to be 'broadly in line' with past
  

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Published: 16:57, 11 February 2015  | Updated: 18:07, 11 February 2015




British police searching for missing Madeleine McCann spent £16,000 on 67 return flights to Portugal last year, helping the cost of the investigation to soar to nearly £9million.
The trips, which cost more than £1,300 per month, came as the Met Police carried out the biggest ever search undertaken by a team of British police overseas, in a bid to find clues about the young girl's disappearance.
In June, police flew to the Algarve to carry out forensic searches around Praia da Luz, focusing on scrubland a few hundred metres from the apartment block where Madeleine was last seen alive. 
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The search for Madeleine McCann (pictured) has is nearing £9million with £16,000 spent on flights in the past year, new figures show 
But, despite an intensive eight-day search operation involving scores of officers carrying out ground excavations, police failed to find any clues. 
According to figures released under a Freedom of Information act request, officers and staff made 48 return flights in the nine months between January and October. A further 19 were made to the end of December. 
The cost for the flights was £15,945, an average of £238 per return flight.
As well as flights for the search, the trips involved several journeys made by officers to liaise with the Portuguese authorities prior to the excavations. 




And in December, detectives DCI Nicola Wall and DCI Andy Redwood also travelled to Faro Police Station to question 'key witnesses' in the case. The three days involved overseeing the questioning of four British people and seven Portuguese citizens. 

During the search, which was said to have been carried out to the ‘highest possible standards’, police combed an area of scrubland equal in size to around nine football pitches.
This included checking water pipes, drainage channels and derelict buildings around the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on the Algarve. 
Police also searched a horseshoe-shaped piece of waste ground that was specifically identified as an area of interest by the latest inquiry. 

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In June, DCI Andy Redwood and other officers flew to the Algarve to oversee excavations of ground around Praia da Luz (pictured)
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The Home Office said it expected the spend on the investigation between 2014 and 2015, which is currently at £1.2m, to be 'broadly in line with previous years'
In total, a Met spokesman said 41 ‘ground anomalies’ – areas where the earth had been disturbed – were discovered by aerial surveys and ground-penetrating radar equipment.
These sites, which included three outside the original area, were then painstakingly checked by search teams. But they said no evidence relating to Madeleine McCann had been identified.  
Scotland Yard abandoned their search of land close to where Madeleine vanished in 2007, but said the multi-million-pound inquiry would continue.  
The Home Office, which has spent around £2m per year on the investigation since 2011, said this year's spend was likely to be 'broadly in line' with previous years. It means the bill is likely to top £9m. 

But despite the increased police activity in Portugal, other figures show the number of detectives on the investigation has reduced.
At one point there were 29 detectives among 37 staff trying to solve Madeleine's disappearance in Praia da Luz in Portugal.
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The young girl's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both 46, from Rothley, Leicester, have fought a tireless campaign to find their missing daughter, regularly appealing to police to keep the investigation active
Now, according to the figures, the number of detectives stands at 21, including 15 constables, three sergeants and two inspectors.
There are also nine police support staff and four agency staff - all ex police officers - on the 34-strong team, which is led by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall.   

Madeleine was just three when she went missing from her family's rented holiday apartment in the resort in May 2007, while her parents ate dinner nearby. There have been no positive sightings.  

Operation Grange, the special investigation unit into the young girl's disappearance, was set up in 2011 by David Cameron. He set a provisional budget for £5million for the investigation  
In its first year, the unit cost close to £2million, with the vast majority of expenses attributed to police officer and staff pay.
Between 2012 and 2013, the most expensive leg of the investigation to date, £2.8million was spent on transport, salaries, overtime and premises cost. The following year, through to 2014, the Home Office spent £2.6m. 
Kate and Gerry McCann, both 46, from Rothley, Leicester, have fought a tireless campaign to find their missing daughter since, regularly appealing to police to keep the investigation into her disappearance active.  
Portuguese police closed their investigation into her disappearance in 2008 and it took a further three years of campaigning by the McCanns to force the Scotland Yard investigation. 
Months after the three-year-old vanished, Leicestershire Constabulary was awarded two grants by the Home Office to help fund their efforts.
In 2008 they received £525,000 and were awarded a further £221,000 the following year before the case was handed over to Metropolitan Police. 
In a statement, the Met said any reduction in overall numbers of staff - from 37 to 34 according to the figures - on the investigation was temporary.
It said: 'There has been no change to the level of resources allocated to the investigation and any reduction will be the result of natural wastage. Those individuals will be replaced in the near future.'  


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Yet another budget approved for this year.  Good grief, how long is this going for last?  

Even local cases dont get that kind of attention, resources, or money for indefinite period.

It seems they are dead determined to find the illusive abductor, whom they haven't a clue who that might be or where he might be.

However they also spent a considerable amount of time and resources fine finger combing an area for signs of Maddie's remains.

The two just does not go hand in hand.

I'm guessing the three burglars made their getaway long before their well telegraphed arrest could be carried out.

Aiyoyo

I agree totally.'Looking' for an abductor on the one hand and searching the local area for a body on the other do not add up.

It is about time that the SY were honest about their exact line of investigation [assuming that they have one].They may well be trying to keep everyone 'on board' and calm, but the officers who I have spoken with who work for the police, privately acknowledge that an abductor would not have tried to bury a body in rock hard earth near the scene.An abductor would have local knowledge and would not attempt it..Someone who did not know the area would try to get rid of the body quickly, but would probably choose the sea.Searching the local area for a resting place...even a temporary resting place....can only mean that it was not a pre-planned abduction by stranger.

WHERE did ONLY GM and DP 'go' when they 'went out again' at 4am, 4th May 2007, after 'everybody' had left us all alone' (KM)?

I 'know' where they SAID they went, but nobody, independently, has confirmed they ACTUALLY saw them.

(I'm sure, after the McCann's 24/7 media monitor has read this 'post', we'll 'suddenly' find an 'independent 'witness' who SAW them! (at 4am))

Could THEY (GM/DP) have 'moved something' from 'somewhere' to 'somewhere else'? (at 4am, 4th May, 2007)

And just exactly were 'the few things' DP 'knew/considered' were 'relevent and pertinent', to establish the material truth (about a 3 years old child's 'disappearance') that he would NOT, and never has, afaik, tell investigating police officers from TWO UK police forces?
-----------------------------------------------------------
£9 million? More like £11 MILLION, to 'date'!

Taxpayers money, taxpayers SCRUTINYI

Public money, public SCRUTINY

MY tax, my SCRUTINY

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Lazerri isn't too chuffed about it either!

jeanmonroe wrote:WHERE did ONLY GM and DP 'go' when they 'went out again' at 4am, 4th May 2007, after 'everybody' had left us all alone' (KM)?

I 'know' where they SAID they went, but nobody, independently, has confirmed they ACTUALLY saw them.

(I'm sure, after the McCann's 24/7 media monitor has read this 'post', we'll 'suddenly' find an 'independent 'witness' who SAW them! (at 4am))

Could THEY (GM/DP) have 'moved something' from 'somewhere' to 'somewhere else'? (at 4am, 4th May, 2007)

And just exactly were 'the few things' DP 'knew/considered' were 'relevent and pertinent', to establish the material truth (about a 3 years old child's 'disappearance') that he would NOT, and never has, afaik, tell investigating police officers from TWO UK police forces?
-----------------------------------------------------------
£9 million?  More like £11 MILLION, to 'date'!

Taxpayers money, taxpayers SCRUTINYI

Public money, public SCRUTINY

MY tax, my SCRUTINY

Ref red highlighting - well said JeanM.

I would like to see an MP ask in the House of Commons whether the remaining money in the FIND MADELEINE FUND will be donated to the SY budget to help find her.

I read recently they have around £700,000 left in the fund.   If we are contributing to  the search,  imo it makes sense for such a large amount being held in a fund set up to find Maddie  be used?

jeanmonroe wrote:WHERE did ONLY GM and DP 'go' when they 'went out again' at 4am, 4th May 2007, after 'everybody' had left us all alone' (KM)?

I 'know' where they SAID they went, but nobody, independently, has confirmed they ACTUALLY saw them.

(I'm sure, after the McCann's 24/7 media monitor has read this 'post', we'll 'suddenly' find an 'independent 'witness' who SAW them! (at 4am))

Could THEY (GM/DP) have 'moved something' from 'somewhere' to 'somewhere else'? (at 4am, 4th May, 2007)

And just exactly were 'the few things' DP 'knew/considered' were 'relevent and pertinent', to establish the material truth (about a 3 years old child's 'disappearance') that he would NOT, and never has, afaik, tell investigating police officers from TWO UK police forces?
-----------------------------------------------------------
£9 million?  More like £11 MILLION, to 'date'!

Taxpayers money, taxpayers SCRUTINYI

Public money, public SCRUTINY

MY tax, my SCRUTINY

Then add to this, Kate and Gerry go out 'searching' - on their own - at 6am.

That was around the time George Brooks caught a couple 'a man and a woman' - in the headlights of his car - the man carrying what appeared to be a young child.

They turned and scurried up a side street very quickly to obviously avoid being seen.

Strange, isn't it? The parents admit to not doing any searching during the first 5 hours (the crucial hours) - when many others are running around on their behalf.

But then, the father goes out with just one friend, 'down to the beach?'

How long were they out for?

Then both parents go out at first light - at the exact time a 'mystery couple' are seen carrying a child.

If they ever made a McCann version of Cluedo, I think I'd win every game.   

That is the first I have heard of the George Brooks` sighting. Can`t imagine why a couple would be carrying a young child around at 6am and then dive down a side street.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Rothley, United Kingdom, about 6 hours ago
This has many simalarities to another case I've read about recently - can't recall which one but it seems so familiar.




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Gerald McCann was seen at 4am on 4th May by a GNR Officer;

He only had direct contact with the couple and their friends at about 04.00 when Gerry McCann approached the GNR group of which he was a member to ask whether there was a church close by. He replied to him in English, giving the directions to a nearby church.
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The McCann couple were seen at 7am on the 4th by another GNR Officer;

He remembers that he saw the McCann couple at about 07.00 alone in the street next to the site where they were stationed.
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