Front page of daily star: Police urged to shelve Maddie hunt as cops needed in UK to battle terrorism

Sorry driving back from RTS awards in London apparently the 31 police looking for Maddie have been urged to quit the search . I have no more details other than the star are running it

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/431325/Police-working-Madeleine-McCann-case-need-back-Britain


EXCLUSIVE: Police urged to shelve Maddie hunt as cops needed in UK to battle terrorism

POLICE were last night urged to shelve the hunt for Madeleine McCann as detectives battle terrorism and a wave of murders.

By Jerry Lawton/Published 18th March 2015


MYSTERY: The hunt for Madeleine has cost £10million [EPA]

Officers reeling from £600million of police cuts are struggling to probe 14 unconnected killings across the capital since Christmas while fighting a war on terror.

Meanwhile, a specialist team of 31 detectives continues to work exclusively on the hunt for Madeleine, who vanished eight years ago from her parents’ holiday fl at in Portugal.

Though the mystery has no connection with London, the Metropolitan Police was assigned to investigate four years ago after Madeleine’s parents Kate, 47, and Gerry, 46, made a personal plea to David Cameron.

Despite dozens of trips by offi cers from the UK to Portugal, no one has been arrested and the original probe officer Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood has retired.

But the Operation Grange inquiry, which has so far cost around £10m, is continuing.

Now officers are baffl ed why they are working round the clock investigating a spate of murders and combating the threat posed by Islamic State while 31 Grange detectives who could ease their workloads are barred from helping them.

Spike That is because police chiefs have “ring-fenced” the Madeleine inquiry to prevent the officers involved working on other cases.

Last night police union chiefs called for the probe to be shelved, with detectives assigned to it deployed on other inquiries. Metropolitan Police Federation chairman John Tully told the Daily Star: “It is time to re-focus on what we need to do to keep London safe.


“The Met has long been seen as the last resort for investigations others have struggled with elsewhere”
John Tully
We no longer have the resources to conduct specialist inquiries all over the world which have nothing to do with London.

“The Met has long been seen as the last resort for investigations others have struggled with elsewhere.

“But we have made £600m of cuts. We have closed 63 police stations across London. Another £800m of cutbacks are anticipated over the next four years.

It is surprising to see an inquiry like the McCann investigation ringfenced. I have heard a few rumblings of discontent about it from lots of sources.

“When the force is facing a spike in murder investigations it is not surprising there is resentment of significant resources diverted to a case that has no apparent connection with London.”

Operation Grange was set up to review the original Portuguese police probe into Madeleine’s disappearance aged three from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.

After the Portuguese inquiry was shelved as “unsolved” the McCanns, from Rothley, Leics, successfully appealed to the PM to get the Met to re-examine the case.

Last night a Met Police spokesman confirmed the 31 offi cers assigned to Operation Grange work solely on that investigation and are not involved with other inquiries

"snipped" from 'article'

Meanwhile, a specialist team of 31 detectives continues to work EXCLUSIVELY on the hunt for Madeleine, who vanished eight years ago from her parents’ holiday flat in Portugal.

Last night a Met Police spokesman confirmed the 31 officers assigned to Operation Grange work solely on that investigation and ARE NOT involved with other inquiries.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

THAT makes it WORSE!

THIRTY ONE, FULL TIME, EXCLUSIVE, SOLELY DEDICATED, POLICE OFFICERS, ALMOST 4 (FOUR) YEARS INVESTIGATION, £11+ MILLION of TAXPAYERS 'FUNDING' AND NOT A TEENY WEENY JOT, A SCINTILLA, A SNIFF of WHAT actually 'HAPPENED'!

Other than what they were TOLD only, ONLY, by the last people to see (admitted on record) Madeleine 'alive', her very own parents!

(and THEY don't tell 'porkies' do they?)

Do we really 'NEED' THESE 'particular' 31 officers 'back on our streets'?

They don't seem to be very good at their 'job' do they? (imo)

Still, if these, what did EX DCI Mahogany call them, ah, 'the most ELITE, EXPERIENCED, DETECTIVES, the SY/MET HAS',  are 'shelved' then 'poor ol' G&K may, MAY, dip into their Madeleine PRIVATE 'fund' and give EX DCI Mahogany, the extraordinary 'priviledge' of working for them, but only as an 'elite' PI, this time!

Did Grabbit&Leggit aka Edgar&Cowardly, 'return' their orange picker 'disguises' to McCann Central aka 'Shed in Cheshire'?

Might come in 'andy for Andy!

"she wuz took by a smelly, pot bellied, swarthy, bungling, paedo, tractor driving, burglator, who broke in thru the winder, or wuz it door, anyways,don't matta, coz that's wot some 30 year career, ex copper geezer, at the Yard, whooze tipped me the 'wink' toldz me. innit', said their new PI, EX DCI Mahogany, after one day.

"£350,000 please!"

KERCHINGGG!

ps: Not sure ANYONE is 'looking for/searching for' the little girl 'pictured' are you?

As the police are so strapped for cash, I think it would be a good gesture for the parents to give the remaining money in the Fund back to the taxpayers.

If the report is correct I think such a waste of resources has been scandalous and we did read that the Pt. police thought it was all a waste of time from the beginning and to be fair it was reported that the Met. police hadn't wanted to get involved in the first place.

I do wonder whether this news has anything to do with the awaited news from Portugal?

Gonçalo Amaral: "The English can always present the conclusions to which they themselves arrived in 2007. Because they know, they have the evidence of what happened - they don't need to investigate anything. All this is now a mere 'show off'

Rocky is a wise old owl IMO.

NickE wrote:Gonçalo Amaral: "The English can always present the conclusions to which they themselves arrived in 2007. Because they know, they have the evidence of what happened - they don't need to investigate anything. All this is now a mere 'show off'

How sad and disgusting is this !!!

And Official find Madeleine Facebook cover photo has just been changed from
this

to this

Full time.

Detectives.

Doing what?

What exactly can they be doing?

This is a farce.

And what terrorism threat might these super-duper, cream of the crop cops be looking at? Focused on Northern Ireland as that's where the threat is believed to lie? No, they would be expected to look at any potential evidence not focus on an issue that everyone agrees is low risk and so old hat.

It’s the Daily star, so it must be right, but weren’t we told by the Met just before Christmas that the number of officers was being scaled back?
 
Somewhere in the 20’s iirc, plus about 8 clerical/support staff, but I can’t find the report at the moment.

Doug D wrote:It’s the Daily star, so it must be right, but weren’t we told by the Met just before Christmas that the number of officers was being scaled back?
 
Somewhere in the 20’s iirc, plus about 8 clerical/support staff, but I can’t find the report at the moment.

Here's a link to a Daily Mirror article 5th November 2014

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-scotland-yard-cuts-4576868

snipped from the article

The force has removed six officers despite enquiries in Portugal intensifying - with the team making an average of over a flight a week to the Algarve so far this year.
Two detective sergeants and four detective constables have been lost over the past year, new police figures reveal. It reduces the total number of detectives working on the case from 29 to 23.
At the same time six civilian staff have been brought in, meaning the overall number of British staff and police working on the case, codenamed Operation Grange, remains at 37.

Thanks Aquila.
Found the FoI response as well and it's good to see the Daily Star reporting accurately as always!!!
 
December 2014 was 21:

.............................. 
 
The MPS has allocated one Major Investigation Team (MIT) to this role. MIT 5 currently consists of the following:
 
01 x Detective Chief Inspector
02 x Detective Inspectors
03 x Detective Sergeants
15 x Detective Constables
 
09 x Police Support Staff (1 of which has murder review experience)
04 x Agency Staff (All are ex police officers)
 
Staff numbers for Operation Grange can vary according to the normal turnover of staff in any organisation. The MIT 5 team is based at Belgravia Police Station, and currently, the MPS has no intention to amend staff numbers or move location.
 
http://www.met.police.uk/foi/pdfs/disclosure_2014/december_2014/2014120000911.pdf
 
 .............................


so unless Grange has been ramped up by 10 following Wall's appointment.......................

"snipped' from above 'post'

"Two detective sergeants and four detective constables have been 'lost' over the past year.........."

How very 'careless' OG are!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, presumeably OG are, now, desperately 'searching' for Madeleine, 2 DS's and 4 DC's?

BlueBag wrote:
31 Full time.

Detectives.

Doing what?

What exactly can they be doing?

This is a farce.

i've got my optimistic head on today

maybe it isn't a farce

Operation Grange is bigger than Operation Yewtree,
both in terms of manpower and money spent.
Can you imagine trying to really unpick this case?
to get to the bottom of all the shananagans?
the number of people involved is in double figures
and the court case could go on for months

presumably this "news" comes from either Mitchel or Gamble
they want it shut down


fingers crossed
.

PeterMac wrote:
SO
Please give generously

I don't think I will be giving generously to anybody who thinks that "giving up" should be hyphenated.

What kind of illiterate halfwit was responsible for that stinker?

Sceptic wrote:And Official find Madeleine Facebook cover photo has just been changed from
this

to this

So, they've 'changed' the 'photo' on the FB from the expensive, taxpayer funded, OG 'age progressed' photo of Madeleine '@9 (nine) years old' TO a 'photo' of, an almost 4 year old!

Good luck 'searching' for THAT 'girl'! (maddie 'snatch' squads)

jeanmonroe wrote:

Sceptic wrote:And Official find Madeleine Facebook cover photo has just been changed from
this

to this

So, they've 'changed' the 'photo' on the FB from the expensive, taxpayer funded, OG 'age progressed' photo TO a 'photo' of, an almost 4 year old!

Good luck 'searching' for THAT 'girl'! (maddie 'snatch' squads)

The much publicised Smithman e-fits from Scotland Yard are also missing. A few months ago Scotland Yard's message was the first thing seen on the findmadeleine.com website. Then it was whooooshed.

PeterMac wrote:

splurgegun wrote:
presumably this "news" comes from either Mitchel or Gamble
they want it shut down

That is my guess.
Meeting in Portugal, new DCI who has not leaked,
they may new seriously worried, and now trying to get public opinion behind shutting it down, so as to leave
Abduction, useless foreign Police, Heroic Brit Pol, but lack of money,
SO
Please give generously

When Sonia Poultry started tweeting about how much Op Grange was costing was when I started wondering about her motivation and who was bankrolling her
.

PeterMac wrote:

splurgegun wrote:
presumably this "news" comes from either Mitchel or Gamble
they want it shut down

That is my guess.
Meeting in Portugal, new DCI who has not leaked,
they may new seriously worried, and now trying to get public opinion behind shutting it down, so as to leave
Abduction, useless foreign Police, Heroic Brit Pol, but lack of money,
SO
Please give generously

Hope this is the case...

First we have progress meeting in Portugal on Friday with UK rep. of Attorney General + SY in attendance.
 
All of a sudden we have this...

On reflection I'm optimistic too. I think this article has been incubated by TM media as they are fearing that OG has U turned and soon an unstoppable juggernaut may be headed up the M1 to Leicestershire.

To pull the plug on an investigation directly funded by the Treasury through budget constriction would be seen as a very lame excuse in a much more savvy public arena these days.

So what do TM want? DCI Houdini at the helm 'It was a burglator that has died/disappeared who drugged the kiddies, but Maddie woke up, was killed & carried off. Can't now bring this person to justice as we've run out of money.....etc. Bye'

Couple of things here

1) Why only in the Daily Star? Are Team McCann starting to lose their spin-traction with the other tabloids?

2) There's always been talk about whether OG is a whitewash- 5 years and however many millions spent, and not a shred of movement, no arrests, nada. If this is a genuine attempt to "derail" OG, why now? Why are TM even worried by OG which looks more and more pointless with every week that passes.

I read Blacksmith's blogs a lot and he is of the opinion that it's not a whitewash and that OG is a genuine investigation, that they're just working away quietly to build a case, and that what we read in the newspapers is just spin from Clarence.

Is the tide really turning, or is this just a continuation of what we've been seeing for years.

I really struggle to believe that Blacksmith is right and this is all a real investigation, how can it take 8 years to build a case as open-and-shut as this?

HelenMeg wrote:

PeterMac wrote:

splurgegun wrote:
presumably this "news" comes from either Mitchell or Gamble
they want it shut down

That is my guess.
Meeting in Portugal, new DCI who has not leaked,
they may new seriously worried, and now trying to get public opinion behind shutting it down, so as to leave
Abduction, useless foreign Police, Heroic Brit Pol, but lack of money,
SO
Please give generously

Hope this is the case...

First we have progress meeting in Portugal on Friday with UK rep. of Attorney General + SY in attendance.
 
All of a sudden we have this...

I understand the optimism.

But back on 15 March I posted on this thread:

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t11090p10-meeting-on-the-maddie-case-between-british-police-and-portuguese-authorities?highlight=portugal
Suppose that the British police were just plodding on, trying to establish who the abductor was, but not having established yet who it was that took Madeleine. Would such a high-level conference really be necessary? I suggest 'NO'.

That leaves four possibilities, I think:

1. [SNIPPED]

2. [SNIPPED]

3. [SNIPPED]

4. This is a continuing cover-up at the very highest level in both the U.K. and Porugal, and they all need to get their heads together to work out how to bring this expensive charade to an end.

I still suggest that the evidence points to No. 4

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm sorry, I've not changed my mind one iota. On the contrary, this is just what I expected: a series of helpful media stories. preparing the way for the 'final curtain': "We've done our best, we just couldn't find the mystery abductor"