Yes it's time we stopped looking for Maddie.

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Yes, it's time we stopped looking for Maddie: As a police boss says the £10m hunt must end, DAVID JONES, who's reported on the case for eight years, explains with a heavy heart why he agrees
By David Jones for the Daily Mail 23:31 23 Mar 2015, updated 23:54 23 Mar 2015

19comments
•Police chiefs have been urged to wind up the hunt for Madeleine McCann
•Metropolitan Police Federation chairman John Tulley called for a 're-focus'
•He said: ‘It's time to re-focus on what we need to do to keep London safe'
•Maddie vanished from apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal eight years ago
•Met Police has spent £10m in hunt for her but no arrests have been made
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal eight years ago
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal eight years ago
Not long ago, seized by the compulsion to follow up yet another supposedly promising new lead in the Madeleine McCann case, I returned to Praia da Luz, the conspiratorial little resort that will be forever associated with her name.
Having reported on her story from the earliest days after her disappearance, investigating innumerable twists and turns, I have beaten the tortuous path to that craggy tip of the Algarve more times than I care to remember.
Yet revisiting some of its now-fabled landmarks — apartment 5A at the Ocean Club holiday resort, the white-washed chapel where Kate and Gerry would pray for deliverance — it struck me how precious little we have learned about her fate.
Look back at the newspapers of May 4, 2007, the day after Madeleine vanished, and you will read of a ‘gorgeous, active, chatty and intelligent’ little girl, a few days shy of her fourth birthday, who appeared to have been snatched from her bed while her parents dined with friends at a tapas bar a few dozen yards away.
You will read how the child’s abduction was discovered by her mother when she went to check on her at around 10pm; how she found a window was ajar, and ran back to the restaurant in hysterics to raise the alarm; and how witnesses later saw a child being carried off through the darkened streets.
Fast forward eight years, and that, with the addition of a few marginally relevant details, remains the full extent of our knowledge.
We have no more idea what became of Madeleine now than we did then. It is almost as if time has stood still.
Given the enduring global obsession with the case, we might think this quite extraordinary. As of today, the Daily Mail’s archive contains 11,450 stories about Madeleine. Googling her name, I found no less than 1,290,000 references — five times more than you get by tapping in ‘Madonna’ — and the number soars higher with each passing day. The public’s fascination has been matched by the exorbitant amount of time and money spent on trying to solve the mystery.

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First we had a series of Portuguese police investigations, the ineptitude of which is well documented.
Next came a procession of private detectives (including a self-proclaimed Spanish super-sleuth, expensively hired by the McCanns in December 2007, who blithely promised to have Madeleine home for Christmas).
Then, in 2011, at the behest of David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May, Scotland Yard’s finest were called in to clear up the mess.
At least, that was the Prime Minister’s hope, and perhaps his expectation, when — apparently moved by a personal appeal from the McCanns — he ordered a team of Met detectives to be removed from their other duties and assigned to the case, codenamed Operation Grange.
But almost four years and an eye-watering £10million of taxpayers’ money later — an amount that would pay the annual wages of countless PCs — it is patently obvious his intervention is not producing results.
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The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into Maddie's disappearance after her parents (pictured above) made a personal plea to Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011. It has so far cost a total of £10million
The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into Maddie's disappearance after her parents (pictured above) made a personal plea to Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011. It has so far cost a total of £10million
 

Scotland Yard detectives in Portugal back in December
Though a huge number of man-hours have been spent re-examining the 5,000-page Portuguese judicial dossier in the hope that it might contain a vital missed clue, though great swathes of wasteland in Praia da Luz were explored with sophisticated gadgetry last year, and a plethora of suspects re-interviewed, there has been no sign of a breakthrough.
Despite the lack of progress, 31 Met police staff — detectives and civilians — were still working solely on the investigation this week, at a time when the Yard’s budget is being slashed by £600million over four years, with further cuts to come, and the threat of Islamic terrorism is stretching its resources to breaking point.
Supported by some half a dozen civilian staff and occupying a large office at New Scotland Yard, the Met’s ‘Madeleine Squad’ have spent four years painstakingly re-examining the botched Portuguese investigation. They have been to Portugal no fewer than 33 times — yet still apparently drawn a blank.
You cannot fault their thoroughness. Portuguese officers found hundreds of hair strands in the McCanns’ holiday apartment. Some were never tested for DNA; others were checked but the results were patchy. The Operation Grange team want permission to carry out fresh DNA tests on them, together with the curtains that were hanging in the apartment.
“If I was the McCanns, I'd cling to miracles too ”
Meanwhile, every witness statement and tip-off is being re-checked, every theory considered, no matter how unlikely.
This led, late last year in Portugal, to the questioning of 11 possibly key witnesses, among them Robert Murat, the British expat who won a huge sum in libel damages after wrongly being named as a suspect by the Portuguese police in the early stages of the hunt for Madeleine.
And only a few days ago, Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall — the newly installed head of Operation Grange — flew to Lisbon with a small team of officers for a private meeting with the authorities.
Each such development raises fresh hopes and excites the media, but so far they have all come to nothing. And one had to ask whether DCI Andy Redwood, who had set up the inquiry and had overseen it enthusiastically for four years, would have recently stood down had he been on the brink of solving the biggest case of his career.
All of which goes to explain why the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation has now suggested that it might be time to pull the plug on Operation Grange.
Expressing the private concerns of many of the union’s 30,000 member officers, John Tully said: ‘It’s time to re-focus on what we need to do to keep London safe. We no longer have the resources to conduct specialist inquiries all over the world which have nothing to do with London.
Met Police officers questioned 11 possibly key witnesses in Portugal last year but no arrests have been made
Met Police officers questioned 11 possibly key witnesses in Portugal last year but no arrests have been made
Met Police Federation chairman John Tully said earlier this week that '‘it’s time to re-focus on what we need to do to keep London safe' as he called for senior officials to close the operation into Maddie's disappearance
Met Police Federation chairman John Tully said earlier this week that '‘it’s time to re-focus on what we need to do to keep London safe' as he called for senior officials to close the operation into Maddie's disappearance
He added: ‘When the force is facing a spike in murder investigations, it’s not surprising there is resentment of significant resources diverted to a case that has no apparent connection to London'
He added: ‘When the force is facing a spike in murder investigations, it’s not surprising there is resentment of significant resources diverted to a case that has no apparent connection to London'
‘The Met has long been seen as the last resort for investigations others have struggled with elsewhere. It is surprising to see an inquiry like the McCann investigation ring-fenced. I’ve heard a few rumblings of discontent about it from lots of sources.’
He added: ‘When the force is facing a spike in murder investigations, it’s not surprising there is resentment of significant resources diverted to a case that has no apparent connection to London.’
Mr Tully’s remarks have inevitably sparked heated debate. One side insists that the investigation must continue at any cost, while friends of the McCanns have reportedly accused him of speaking out of turn and citing the case to peddle the Federation’s agenda.
But many have praised him for having the courage to voice the unsayable truth. With a very heavy heart, I must say I agree with them.
As the grandfather of three children who are roughly the same age as Madeleine when she was taken, and similarly cherubic, I dread to imagine how it must feel to be living in purgatory like the McCanns.
If, God forbid, I was in their shoes, I would want, demand and plead that everything humanly possible must be done to find a member of my family; or, at the very least, to discover what became of them.
I would gladly swing for any policeman or Home Office mandarin who presumed to evaluate the chances of finding them in the cold terms of cost-effectiveness. I would insist that the search must go on: indefinitely, and whatever the price.
Like Kate and Gerry McCann, perhaps I would cling to miracles, too.
I would remind people how a woman called Jaycee Lee Dugard was found safe in California, fully 18 years after being abducted by a sex offender and given up for dead.
And how, only last month in South Africa, a girl called Zephany Nurse was reunited with her overjoyed parents 17 years after being plucked from her sleeping mother’s arms in a maternity hospital, when she was three days old.
Met Police officers have been re-examining the 5,000-page Portuguese judicial dossier in the hope that it might contain a vital missed clue. However, many officers are now calling for Operation Grange to come to an end
Met Police officers have been re-examining the 5,000-page Portuguese judicial dossier in the hope that it might contain a vital missed clue. However, many officers are now calling for Operation Grange to come to an end
This week, 31 Met police staff — detectives and civilians — were still working solely on the Maddie McCann investigation. It comes at a time when Scotland Yard’s budget is being slashed by £600million over four years
This week, 31 Met police staff — detectives and civilians — were still working solely on the Maddie McCann investigation. It comes at a time when Scotland Yard’s budget is being slashed by £600million over four years
The sad truth is, however, that when we examine such exceptional cases, they do little to support the argument for a hugely expensive and protracted police investigation.
Jaycee’s deranged kidnapper, Phillip Craig Garrido, virtually shopped himself to the FBI by presenting them with a rambling essay purporting to offer a cure for sexual predators, and later parading her and another of his victims at a university campus lecture.
The salvation of Zephany, whose mother Celeste has urged the McCanns to continue praying as she did, and ‘never give up’, owed still more to happenstance. Her identity was discovered after she was unwittingly enrolled at the same school as her sister, and fellow pupils noticed their extraordinarily similar looks.
But leaving aside, for a moment, the remote likelihood that the Operation Grange team might unearth some crucial piece of evidence at this late stage, it seems only fair to compare the ‘no stone unturned’ investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance with that of the many other British children who go missing.
Children who, it must be said, vanish without a publicity blitz to draw attention to their plight, without their parents being received by statesmen and religious leaders including the Pope, and without celebrities offering enticing rewards for their return.
Recent figures show that a staggering 160,000 such children are reported missing in the UK each year — one every three minutes. In the vast majority of cases they are quickly reunited with their parents. Nine out of ten cases are closed within 48 hours, and 99 per cent are solved in under a year.
Under protocol set down by the Association of Chief Police Officers, those who are not found promptly are categorised according to the degree of jeopardy their disappearance is perceived to place them in.
Kate and Gerry McCann have shared numerous treasured photos of Maddie in the hope of finding her
Kate and Gerry McCann have shared numerous treasured photos of Maddie in the hope of finding her
Those deemed to be ‘high risk’ are judged either to be vulnerable, in danger of harming themselves or others, or falling victim to serious crime. Those at medium risk are thought ‘likely’ to be in danger, and those at low risk are judged to be safe.
So how much time and money might you expect the police to invest in searching for one ‘medium risk’ child? According to a recent study by Portsmouth University’s Centre For Missing Persons, the amount is astonishingly low: between £1,325 and £2,415.
Compared with the millions poured into the search for Madeleine, this figure — which covers such basic procedures as taking an initial call, risk assessment, obtaining a photograph of the child, undertaking a house search, and a police national computer check — is derisory indeed.
Mercifully, as matters stand, just 131 unsolved missing children cases (including Madeleine’s) are listed on the website Missing Kids UK, which is run by the Child Exploitation And Online Protection Centre — the national law enforcement agency which protects Britain’s minors.
On the website, one finds many forgotten children whose anguished parents would doubtless walk barefoot across hot coals if it meant their disappearance would receive the same microscopic attention as Madeleine’s.
It goes without saying that none of this is any fault of the McCanns.
To the contrary, via Kate’s best-selling book and the couple’s countless public appearances, during which they are always eager to look beyond their own loss, and by promoting innovative methods of prevention and detection, no one has done more to raise public awareness of missing children. They have become unofficial global ambassadors for the cause.
It is to their eternal credit that they have remained so resolutely optimistic, re-stating at every opportunity their unswerving belief that somehow, one day, their daughter will come back to them.
They always speak about Madeleine — whose 12th birthday falls this May — in the present tense, and in their Leicestershire home they continue to maintain her pink bedroom, crammed with teddy bears, rosary beads and other gifts from wellwishers. There is also a special keepsake box into which her siblings, twins Sean and Amelie, now ten, put mementoes for her for when she returns.
Last week, reportedly responding to Mr Tully’s remarks through friends, they remained typically upbeat, expressing their gratitude to the Operation Grange team and insisting there was ‘still a job of work to be done’. If I were them, I would say exactly the same.
Regrettably, however, after eight years of false dawns, wrongly accused suspects, and epic wild-goose chases (one of which saw me spend days on the trail of a blonde-haired girl sighted with an Arab woman in northern Morocco), I have come to the same conclusion as John Tully: enough is enough. A great many people in Praia da Luz, as I have discovered, feel the same way.
Kate and Gerry McCann (pictured) have always remained optimistic about finding their daughter Maddie
Kate and Gerry McCann (pictured) have always remained optimistic about finding their daughter Maddie
From the moment Madeleine was taken, they have behaved with commendable dignity and shown enormous compassion towards her family, even though the reputation of their once-blameless resort has been irreparably sullied and the tourism industry that supported their livelihood has suffered a mortal blow. (The Mark Warner holiday firm through which they booked their ill-fated trip has dropped the town from its destinations.)
Surely now it is time to spare a thought for their wishes? Surely it is time to stop treating their town as one big crime scene, to be forensically re-examined and excavated, and allow them to try to get back to some semblance of normality?
Surely, too, it is time to call a halt on the to-ing and fro-ing of British detectives to this agreeable part of the continent — trips that somehow require them to stay in four and even five-star hotels with spas and golf concessions? Yesterday, invited to compare its scale and cost with that of other missing person inquiries, the Met said this was not possible because each case was individual, and Madeleine’s disappearance was ‘clearly a unique and complex case’.
In response to Mr Tully’s remarks, the Met said the investigation had commenced at the request of the Home Office, which fully funds it, adding that it ‘does not impact on our other operations in London’.
They admitted that no arrests had been made since the operation began, but declined to describe any progress they may have made.
It should be stressed that I am not arguing for a minute that we ought to forget about Madeleine, or cease to be vigilant. And, of course, the police must investigate any genuinely promising new leads, should they emerge.
I simply believe, with the best of intentions, that it is time to put sentiment aside, face up to the harsh financial realities of modern policing, and regard Madeleine McCann in the same manner as all those other missing children.

NickE wrote:Meanwhile, every witness statement and tip-off is being re-checked, every theory considered, no matter how unlikely.

Really?

PeterMac has sent them shedloads of evidence - but there's no sign of Scotland Yard taking any notice of any of that.

Re-checking every witness statement?

What about the ones where Dr Kate McCann and Dr David Payne make up to 20 separate contradictions about an alleged visit made by Dr Payne to apartment G5A at about 6.30pm on 3 May 2007?

Hae they been re-checked?

A list of contradictions, checked, Redwood-style, 'carefully and with critical analysis by a team that was taking nothing for granted...drawing everything back to zero?

Has that happened?

Are new statements by Dr Kate McCann and Dr David Payne among the 500 or so witness statements taken by the Grange team so far?

No?

I thought not

Perfect headline placement next to the picture of Gerry in the Daily Mail

It's mad to make this child killer a national hero: Richard III is one of the most evil, detestable tyrants ever to walk this earth, says MICHAEL THORNTON

This is the link
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

Tried to do a screenshot but failed!

Hm. Mr David Jones - being economical with the facts here a little.
Ineptitude of original investigation? How about the FSS report on the fluids from the car - instead of nailing the DNA sample it proved conveniently 'inconclusive'.
He mentions a re-inspection of the curtains but fails to mention the blood spots identified on said curtains. Or indeed the work of Eddie & Keela at all. Or Kate McCann's refusal to aid the 'inept' investigation. Or the vitriol poured out by many pro-McCann supporters. Or the fact that the McCann's have spent more time pursuing people through the courts trying to defend their reputations than actually searching for their daughter. Or, as Tony points out, the inconsistencies and changes to witness statements. Or how the people of Praia da Luz feel like their town has been ruined by the whole affair. Or how the window was not merely described as 'ajar' but how shutters had been 'jemmied/smashed' with a whooshing door. I am sure there are many more items conveniently absent from Mr Jones' article which is only fit to be cut up into little squares to be hung in the smallest room, awaiting the appropriate fate.

The PJ checked the shutters...no damage and only Kate's fingerprint on them.

The PJ could see evidence of Staging.

The PJ could NOT get answers to their questions which could have helped a search for their daughter....ok they had a right to stay silent but they should not have criticised the police if they were not willing to help them.

The UK did send in the dogs and they indicated just in 5A, Kate's clothes and the hire car rented to the McCanns but the UK police couldn't see the elephant in the room.

I suppose 11 million quid is small change to cover up certain people especially when it doesn't come out of your pocket.

My guess is this . . .

New DCI - a woman.
She has not leaked, nor issued press statements. No new sightings, no new leads of lunatics, dead bogeymen, . . . Nothing.
So the McCanns must be TERRIFIED that she is going to do what they all should have done all those years ago
Ask the two questions
"Did you enter through the front door using your key or by the patio door left open for the purpose ?
Why did you LIE ?"
"Were the curtains wide open, or tight closed and "whooshing ?"
Why did you LIE ?

So the entire team, the McCanns, Philomena who is now apparently implicated in preparing the "Dossier of Death", Mitchell, and all the other slimy and verminous life forms which surround them
must be terrified that DCI Wall is going to carry it through.
And therefore they have to sow the seeds and get public opinion on the side of shutting it all down.

"no one has done more to raise public awareness of missing children. They have become unofficial global ambassadors for the cause.
It is to their eternal credit that they have remained so resolutely optimistic, re-stating at every opportunity their unswerving belief that somehow, one day, their daughter will come back to them."

How can they promote awareness of missing children when they stubbornly refuse to aknowledge that most missing children of their daughters age do 'come to harm' very very quickly, a very basic fact surrounding missing children?   Even when blood dogs found evidence of harm they were not interested.    How can these so called journalists ignore all this and trot out the same stuff that never questions the parents?  We do seem to be living in a topsy turvy Orwellian 'dublethink' world where people who neglect children and leave them alone night after night are given hero status.

 Compare it to what April Jones father said in the same paper a few days ago!

"
I’d read that the first 24 hours were crucial. By 10pm I was still frantically pacing from the front gate to the back. April had been gone less than three hours. That’s when I experienced it – a horrible sensation like nothing before.
I’m sceptical of anyone claiming to have a sixth sense, but it felt as though all hope was leaving my body, no matter how hard I tried to cling on to it. That second I knew April wouldn’t be coming home. I think I already knew the awful truth. My little girl was gone forever.  "

  

PeterMac wrote:My guess is this . . .

New DCI - a woman.
She has not leaked, nor issued press statements. No new sightings, no new leads of lunatics, dead bogeymen, . . . Nothing.
So the McCanns must be TERRIFIED that she is going to do what they all should have done all those years ago
Ask the two questions
"Did you enter through the front door using your key or by the patio door left open for the purpose ?
Why did you LIE ?"
"Were the curtains wide open, or tight closed and "whooshing ?"
Why did you LIE ?

So the entire team, the McCanns, Philomena who is now apparently implicated in preparing the "Dossier of Death", Mitchell, and all the other slimy and verminous life forms which surround them
must be terrified that DCI Wall is going to carry it through.
And therefore they have to sow the seeds and get public opinion on the side of shutting it all down.

I suppose that would kind of make Andy Redwood the 'goodcop' and Nicola Wall the 'badcop'......not that I really believe that tactic is used outside of cheesy TV shows and films

And my comment which the Daily Mail declined to publish was: "is this reporter wearing rose tinted glasses, or is it just me?"

 There, I've mentioned it here. Now that feels better.

Knitted wrote:

ChippyM wrote:Snipped:  "I’d read that the first 24 hours were crucial. By 10pm I was still frantically pacing from the front gate to the back. April had been gone less than three hours. That’s when I experienced it – a horrible sensation like nothing before. I’m sceptical of anyone claiming to have a sixth sense, but it felt as though all hope was leaving my body, no matter how hard I tried to cling on to it. That second I knew April wouldn’t be coming home. I think I already knew the awful truth. My little girl was gone forever.  "

As opposed to:

"We knew that the first 24 hours were crucial. By 10pm we'd raised the alert ... but that’s when we experienced it – a horrible sensation like nothing before that we'd forgotten to get someone to jemmy the damn windows!"

Yes or even, 'a horrible realisation that we'd left our precious daughter alone for hours whilst out drinking and left the doors unlocked making her an easy target for any old perv or kidnapper'!

PeterMac wrote:My guess is this . . .

New DCI - a woman.
She has not leaked, nor issued press statements. No new sightings, no new leads of lunatics, dead bogeymen, . . . Nothing.
So the McCanns must be TERRIFIED that she is going to do what they all should have done all those years ago
Ask the two questions
"Did you enter through the front door using your key or by the patio door left open for the purpose ?
Why did you LIE ?"
"Were the curtains wide open, or tight closed and "whooshing ?"
Why did you LIE ?

So the entire team, the McCanns, Philomena who is now apparently implicated in preparing the "Dossier of Death", Mitchell, and all the other slimy and verminous life forms which surround them
must be terrified that DCI Wall is going to carry it through.
And therefore they have to sow the seeds and get public opinion on the side of shutting it all down.

I agree. This is an orchestrated campaign to shut down the investigation

NickE wrote: "Supported by some half a dozen civilian staff and occupying a large office at New Scotland Yard, the Met’s ‘Madeleine Squad’ have spent four years painstakingly re-examining the botched Portuguese investigation. They have been to Portugal no fewer than 33 times — yet still apparently drawn a blank. You cannot fault their thoroughness. Portuguese officers found hundreds of hair strands in the McCanns’ holiday apartment. Some were never tested for DNA; others were checked but the results were patchy. The Operation Grange team want permission to carry out fresh DNA tests on them, together with the curtains that were hanging in the apartment. "

Again... seriously I get really mad when people keep saying that. Anyone that knows the Portuguese investigation, the reports, the Tapas interviews with the police ,can't say that! Especially a "journalist "!!! Ok people have their right to keep themselves in ignorance. It's not my thing though. Off topic, I've been following the West Memphis Three case for years like an obsession. Recently I found there's a lot of people that believe they're not innocent, those people researched the case files and have very valid points. I was the one living in ignorance, I feel like I was on the "pro " side without knowing the other, like every pro in this case is (it didn't changed my mind but gave me a lot of useful information ).
Anyway the Portuguese investigation as we all know solved almost the whole case, but the British investigation always ignored that!!! How can they ignore Eddie and Keela?  If they were brazen enough to give us that explanation for Tannerman, why don't they find a "perfectly innocent " explanation for the dogs alerts?!  
After years of frustration and sometimes hope for justice in this case, all I have left is the frustration.
Well, I have hope in the outcome of Mccan VS Amaral but no hope that Madeleine will have the justice we all want for her.
I'm sorry if I'm making no sense.

Wait I just forgot they came to Portugal 33 times and yeah they found something...
a sock.
They should open a task force to find the pair.
All MOO of course.  

(Sorry if the quote makes it seem like NickE.wrote it, he didn't it's part of the article he posted, I just can't quote better on mobile )

Ayniia:
 
‘Wait I just forgot they came to Portugal 33 times and yeah they found something...
a sock.
They should open a task force to find the pair.’
 
Did we ever get confirmation that four dogs were sent to Portugal last year as reported in the South Wales Press article about the dogs iirc?
 
We only ever saw two, so what were the others doing?
 
Mike Stapes FoI request last year got the following response:
 
https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t10231p10-freedom-of-information-requests-re-madeleine-mccann-the-cost-of-operation-grange-request-refused
 
1) How many officers from UK police forces went to Praia da Luz – and how
 many of those were from the Metropolitan Police.
 

There were 29 officers in total, 14 from the MPS and the remainder from 
other UK forces.

 
2) Can you please provide a breakdown of the role of every officer who 
went to Portugal. (ie Dog Handlers, Family liaison officers, scientific 
support staff, etc )
 
Not answered on basis of:
 
 ‘adverse effect upon International Relations’ and  ‘investigations where its release would or would be 
likely to, have an adverse effect upon other investigations or the 
prosecution of offenders.’
 
To my mind these answers tend to lend credence to the four dogs report, as I cannot come up with any reason for the nonsensical refusals to reply properly to the second request, unless there was a secondary investigation going on at the same time that they wished to keep under wraps.

It's time to stop looking for Maddie McCann: Top cop

A top UK police boss has said it’s time to stop looking for Madeleine McCann, according to reports.
The Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, John Tully, suggested it was time to wind the investigation up.
“It’s time to re-focus on what we need to to to keep London safe. We no longer have the resources to conduct specialist inquiries all over the world which have nothing to do with London,” he said.

• Madeleine Mccann case: Notorious pedophile arrested to be questioned
  

"The Met has long been seen as the last resort for investigations others have struggled with elsewhere. It is surprising to see an inquiry like the McCann investigation ring-fenced. I’ve heard a few rumblings of discontent about it from lots of sources,” Chairman Tullly added.
Maddie went missing in Praia da Luz in Spain May 2007 while her parents ate at a restaurant nearby.
A correspondent who has reported on the case for the last eight years has written a column in support of the Chairman’s comments.
Reporter David Jones said the comments had sparked heated debate on the subject but that he ultimately agreed with him.
“Many have praised him for having the courage to voice the unsayable truth. With a very heavy heart, I must say I agree with them,” he said.
He pointed to little progress in the “hugely expensive and protracted police investigation” and the growing need to invest in resources to combat terrorism in London.
The cost of the investigation has been around $17 million so far.

Do all witness statements include the Gaspar Statements?

Ok, I agree, this is a Portuguese case but given the contents of the Gaspar Statements and the fact that they relate to two practicing UK doctors, is it too much to expect that the allegations contained in those statements are fully investigated both in the Madeleine McCann case and probably more so, outside the Madeleine case?  Other children could be at risk here, has anything been done?  IMO, CEOP should have pounced on that statement the day that it was released.

And why did Leicestershire police hold onto that statement for so long?

Gasper statements were not mentioned in rogatory interviews.

What does that tell everyone?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/566136/Hunt-missing-Madeleine-McCann-should-continue
 
Fairly pointless to post the whole article imo, as it will just make you angry, but the last two lines are worthy of note:
 
‘Maddie is out there somewhere.
The only reason to cease looking for her is because her parents wish it and not because her fate has gone over budget.’
 
What?

Why would 'her parents wish it' if she 'is out there somewhere'? Don't these 'journalists' read what they write? 
 
And Grange are in such a hurry to find her!


Pink tripe testing the water by floating both sides of the story maybe?

Doug D wrote:http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/566136/Hunt-missing-Madeleine-McCann-should-continue
 
Fairly pointless to post the whole article imo, as it will just make you angry...

True, but...

...neverthelesss...

_______________

Claudia Lawrence arrest proves that the hunt for missing Madeleine McCann should continue

AS A police boss says it’s time to shelve the inquiry, surely this week’s arrest over missing chef Claudia Lawrence proves there’s still hope of a breakthrough.


By ANNA PUKAS
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Wed, Mar 25, 2015


The numbers are undeniably compelling.

Four years; 31 officers of the Metropolitan Police; 33 trips to Portugal; £10million.

There, in cold, unemotional figures, is the cost of the British inquiry in terms of the time, manpower, travel and money which has been spent on investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Expressed in this manner, it is not difficult to understand why some are saying that it is time to scale back the search for the little girl.

After all, it has produced no fruitful new leads or lines of inquiry.

At the same time, the Met is stretched as never before with quashing terrorist plots while also having to cope with ever diminishing finances.

A hard-nosed accountant or a time-and-motion inspector would no doubt use those numbers to swing the argument for calling a halt to Operation Grange, the name given by the Met to the inquiry into Maddie.

The trouble is that the unexplained disappearance of a child is never a cold, unemotional event.

The thought of a child in danger touches us in the most visceral way.

That is why many tens of thousands of people who have no connection to the McCanns became gripped by the tragedy of their predicament.

These people were not just from the McCanns’ home community in Leicestershire or even from this, their home country but people from all over the world.

Nearly eight years on, they remain engaged with the case.

That is why all parents – and even many who are not – will feel only dismay at the idea that it is time for the police to throw in the towel now.

What is even more distressing is the implied suggestion that a price can be put on a child’s life.

Some ask why it is the already over-burdened London force which is looking for Maddie when the McCanns are not residents of the capital.

But it is an irrelevant question.

As British citizens, Kate and Gerry McCann are entitled to all the help the British Government can provide.

In this instance, the Government, via the Home Office, simply decided to give them some of the best crime investigators that this country (some might say the world) can offer: a team from Scotland Yard.

Others take issue with the £10 million cost so far of searching for Madeleine when the average police “spend” per missing child is between £1,300 and £2,400.

But that is because nine out of 10 cases are solved within 48 hours.

To continue looking for Maddie is to acknowledge that hope doesn’t die – and with good reason.

In this very week, police arrested a man in connection with the disappearance of chef Claudia Lawrence, who went missing from York six years ago.

As with the Maddie case, the place where Claudia was last seen has been searched time and again and still, it seems that it had not yet yielded up all its secrets.

Before Maddie, Britain’s best-known missing child was Ben Needham, who was a little blonde toddler when he vanished in 1991 while on holiday with his mother and grandparents on the Greek island of Kos.

While the search led by South Yorkshire Police (the Needhams are from Sheffield) has inevitably ebbed and flowed, it has never ground to a halt.

Further excavations on Kos were carried out as recently as 2012 and in January, Ben’s mother Kerry handed police a file listing eight separate sightings of Ben throughout the Nineties.

The Home Office has set aside a £700,000 fund to keep the search going.

Maddie is out there somewhere.

The only reason to cease looking for her is because her parents wish it and not because her fate has gone over budget.


Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/566136/Hunt-missing-Madeleine-McCann-should-continue

Snipped from the David Jones article above. The last sentence of the article is perhaps the most pertinent:




I simply believe, with the best of intentions, that it is time to put sentiment aside, face up to the harsh financial realities of modern policing, and regard Madeleine McCann in the same manner as all those other missing children.


So that would mean first ruling out the main suspects which in the vast majority of cases where children go missing in suspicious circumstances are the parents and or family members and or close friends of the family. In other words people who the child knows and trusts.

The Madeleine McCann case is, imo, a fairly text-book example of child neglect/abuse covered up by the family/friends with the claim that the child has been abducted by a stranger or strangers. There is not one single thing that points away from this, imo. 

The only thing that makes this case stand out is the extraordinarily high levels of publicity and the extraordinarily high levels of protection afforded to the McCanns and their acolytes, at least in the early years. The McScam had to be hidden at all costs. Albeit hidden in plain sight to the extent that the Emperor is stark naked.

How many other cases of 'missing children' or 'missing people' are really just cases where abuse/death/murder has been covered up? And the police either cannot or chose not to close in on the perpetrators?

Ben Needham - another text-book example in my opinion. Last seen by members of the family in particular his young Uncle. Just as with Madeleine McCann, the family did not search for Ben. In the case of Ben Needham the family simply assumed, so they say, that Ben had gone off on the back of his Uncle's moped, as he often did. And they assumed, so they say, that Ben was with his Uncle all afternoon. But not one member of the family checked, all afternoon, despite claiming that they did not KNOW whether Ben had in fact gone off on his Uncle's moped. This tells me that they did, in fact, know that Ben had gone off on his Uncle's moped and as the minutes then hours ticked by they became increasingly concerned and went off to find out what happened. 

In the Ben Needham case I would say that the owner of the villa which the male members of the family were doing up in exchange for free accommodation would have been a person of considerable interest. He apparently left Kos to go and live in Australia. However it appears that he died of some heart related complaint. Perhaps around the time that the police were digging in the area where Ben went missing?

In the case of Madeleine McCann, the parents insisted that Madeleine had been abducted. Without their being any evidence that she had been. That tells me that the parents, family and friend KNOW that this is not what happened. Otherwise, why would they insist this was the only scenario? A scenario they felt was so unlikely to happen that Kate insists that there was a ZERO risk of leaving the children unattended. In other words, a ZERO risk of abduction by a stranger.

While there are many parallels between the cases in my opinion in the case of Madeleine it is neglect/abuse covered up by a fake abduction claim. In the case of Ben Needham I think it was an accident (probably on his Uncle's moped) that was covered up by a false claim that Ben had mysteriously vanished.

How much more public money is going to be thrown at these and similar cases? What is this achieving, exactly?

Anne Widdecombe’s take on it in the Express, spelling mistakes and all:

‘Sadly it's tome to end and eight-year search for Maddie and free police resourses
 
I know the other side is argued elsewhere in this newspaper but, although it is terribly sad, in my opinion the suggestion that the police should wind up the inquiry into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance eight years after it took place is not only right but probably overdue. The investigation has cost £10million since 2011 and is tying up 31 detectives yet has made no arrests.
 
Of course the McCanns themselves will understandably not see it that way but they have had more time and money poured into the search than any other parent of a missing child I can think of.
 
They have had access to some of the most senior people in the land while other parents fret helplessly at home. 


Anybody in their position would want to leave no stone unturned and they have had the articulacy, resources and standing to ensure that almost every last pebble has been turned several times over. 


Yet there has been no result and other poor souls do urgently need the police time involved. The file will be kept open and if Maddie still lives then she will have some faint memories of her infancy. 


There is yet time for a miracle but it is looking less and less likely that anything short of that will work.
 
The McCanns, rightly, will never give up but the police must now turn their attention elsewhere.’


 
http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/566227/Top-ministers-must-stay-to-finish-the-job-says-ANN-WIDDECOMBE

Doug D wrote:Anne Widdecombe’s take on it in the Express, spelling mistakes and all:

‘Sadly it's time to end an eight-year search for Maddie and free police resources
 
I know the other side is argued elsewhere in this newspaper but, although it is terribly sad, in my opinion the suggestion that the police should wind up the inquiry into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance eight years after it took place is not only right but probably overdue. The investigation has cost £10million since 2011 and is tying up 31 detectives yet has made no arrests...'

Back in early 2009, after the publication of '60 Reasons', and with the help of donations from many, a copy of '60 Reasons' was sent by The Madeleine Foundation to every single M.P., key members of the House of Lords, and a good number of key opinion-formers, media editors and journalists. 

We had replies from 43 MPs, the longest being from Anne Widdecombe, who had clearly read my book carefully.

In her letter, she conceded that 'you appear to have researcherd your material carefully' but kindly warned me that I needed to be careful because, quote, the McCanns were 'very litigious' (!).

On the first evening after I posted the first tranche of booklets, I had an aggressive 'phone call from the 'Beast of Bolsover' himself, Dennis Skinner M.P., who was especially upset at any suggestion that Gordon Brown and the government might be backing the McCanns for dubious reasons.  

One well-known journalist, whom I decline to name, ordered and paid for 100 booklets

Tony Bennett wrote:
On the first evening after I posted the first tranche of booklets, I had an aggressive 'phone call rom the 'Beast of Bolsover' himself, Dennis Skinner M.P., who was especially upset at any suggestion that Gordon Brown and the government might be backing the McCanns for dubious reasons.  

Now I'm not generally an unkind person, but if your booklet acheived nothing more than to push Mr. Skinner a few hundred heartbeats nearer to his eventual demise then I would consider that justification enough for publishing it.

I love the idea of "time we STOPPED looking for Madeleine"
Apart from the entire village the first night, (with the exception of the Tapas 7 and the parents - obviously ! They obviously knew knew better )
Has Anyone, Ever, STARTED to look for Madeleine
And if so, WHY ?

It seems that the entire world is of the same opinion.
Searching would be a useless waste of time.
Even pretending would be obviously a very silly thing to do.

Looking for 'remains' with dogs and ground penetrating radar is another thing entirely.

Quite.

However, the devoted parents and the T7 did work tirelessly:-

1/ In trying to get their story/alibis to dovetail.....totally unsuccessful.

2/ In devising good marketing ploys.....totally successful.

3/ In devising the best ways to spend/invest the monies from the public....totally successful.

4/ In enlisting and paying for an array of lawyers/barristers/public relations consultants to safeguard their interests....totally successful.

%/ In taking legal action against anyone who dares to disbelieve their 'account' of the truth....let's wait and see.

5. (Successful against TB. One hopes NOT against Dr GA)

6. Persecuting and hounding - even unto DEATH - others who do not follow the McCann-Mitchell-Carter-Ruck 'official line' - totally successful !

PeterMac wrote:5.  (Successful against TB.  One hopes NOT against Dr GA)

6. Persecuting and hounding - even unto DEATH - others who do not follow the McCann-Mitchell-Carter-Ruck 'official line' - totally successful !

Carter-Ruck 'official line' - totally successful?

Really?

What is/was CR 'official' line?

"Madeleine WAS abducted'?

That worked a treat when CR lawyer, Isobel M, said 'THAT' in her SWORN affidavit a court room, didn't it?

Oh, hang on.................

Didn't she have to, sheepishly, 'withdraw' that 'assertion'?

IN a UK High court and in 'public'!

Because she didn't actually know IF 'that' was true, because 'that' was only what she had been 'TOLD', only, by the 'missing' girl's parents. (CR 'clients')

TOTAL 'FAIL'!

Carter Ruck have NEVER, afaik, ever, 'repeated' their lawyer's 'claim', in public, that 'Madeleine WAS abducted'

istbc.

Tony Bennett wrote:

Doug D wrote:http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/566136/Hunt-missing-Madeleine-McCann-should-continue
 
Fairly pointless to post the whole article imo, as it will just make you angry...

True, but...

...neverthelesss...

_______________

Claudia Lawrence arrest proves that the hunt for missing Madeleine McCann should continue

AS A police boss says it’s time to shelve the inquiry, surely this week’s arrest over missing chef Claudia Lawrence proves there’s still hope of a breakthrough.


By ANNA PUKAS
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Wed, Mar 25, 2015


The numbers are undeniably compelling.

Four years; 31 officers of the Metropolitan Police; 33 trips to Portugal; £10million.

There, in cold, unemotional figures, is the cost of the British inquiry in terms of the time, manpower, travel and money which has been spent on investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Expressed in this manner, it is not difficult to understand why some are saying that it is time to scale back the search for the little girl.

After all, it has produced no fruitful new leads or lines of inquiry.

At the same time, the Met is stretched as never before... [SNIPPED]

As British citizens, Kate and Gerry McCann are entitled to all the help the British Government can provide.

The Home Office has set aside a £700,000 fund to keep the search going.

Maddie is out there somewhere...

There is rejoicing at Camp McCann over the number of 'shares' the McCanns' post about Anna Pukas' article has had.

It called for Operation Grange to go on - and to go on - and on and on etc.

Here are the glad tidings from the Find Madeleine FB page, the 'Official Find Madeleine Campaign':

QUOTE
 
Thank you to all whom have shared our post about Anna Pukas' article in the Daily Express.

We are extremely grateful for the support.

As of today, it has reached 1,126,912. That's just amazing!

We need to keep it going, so as many people as possible are looking for Madeleine.

From the bottom of my heart, thank YOU! 

~FM Webmaster

UNQUOTE

Admittedly a 'share' is somewhat easier to do than sign a petition, but all the same, a million-plus shares that Anna Pukas' article has achieved makes the 1,887 folk who have signed Helen Williamson's petition, calling for an inquiry into Operation Grange, look really pathetic by comparison.

The McCanns retain 100% support from the mainstream media - and still huge support from the general public. Their public relations staff have done their job very well; for what they have received for their efforts, may they be truly thankful