EXCLUSIVE: Has hunt for Madeleine McCann ground to a halt? Just months after police announced extra funding amid reports they were closing in on a suspect, we reveal they made just TWO flights to Portugal last year

EXCLUSIVE: Has hunt for Madeleine McCann ground to a halt? Just months after police announced extra funding amid reports they were closing in on a suspect, we reveal they made just TWO flights to Portugal last year

• Madeleine McCann detectives made just two flights to Portugal last year  
  
• Earlier this year Scotland Yard chief said the investigation was far from over
  
• Mark Rowley revealed new information and 'critical' leads were still coming in
  
• Met Police confirmed in March that Home Office had approved extra funding
  
  

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Published: 16:34, 15 July 2017  |  Updated: 16:34, 15 July 2017
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Detectives investigating Madeleine McCann's disappearance made just two flights to Portugal last year

Just months after British detectives announced 'critical' new leads in the Madeleine McCann case, and £85,000 in extra funding, Mail Online can reveal officers have significantly scaled back some aspects of the investigation.

Detectives investigating the toddler's disappearance, codenamed Operation Grange, made just two flights to Portugal last year.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the flights cost £500 and just £100 was spent on overnight expenses by senior investigating officer, DCI Nicola Wall, during the trips.

In 2014 Operation Grange officers spent almost £16,000 on 67 return flights in search of three-year-old Madeleine, who vanished from her parent's Portuguese holiday villa in 2007.

So far the police operation has cost more than £11m and parents Kate and Gerry McCann said they were 'very grateful' for an £85,000 cash injection from the Home Office in March this year.

So far the police operation has cost more than £11m and parents Kate and Gerry McCann said they were 'very grateful' for an £85,000 cash injection in March 

The funding boost came as Scotland Yard chief Mark Rowley said there were still 'critical' leads of 'great interest' in the case.
He also ruled out that Madeleine's parents were involved in her abduction and said she could still be alive.

As the couple faced the agonising 10th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, Mr Rowley also revealed that detectives were pursuing new information regarding the youngster's disappearance.

He said: 'I know we have a significant line of inquiry which is worth pursuing, and because it's worth pursuing it could provide an answer, but until we've gone through it I won't know whether we are going to get there or not.
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In 2014 Operation Grange officers spent almost £16,000 on 67 return flights in search of three-year-old Madeleine (left and right) , who vanished from her parent's Portuguese holiday villa in 2007

'Ourselves and the Portuguese are doing a critical piece of work and we don't want to spoil it by putting titbits of information out publicly.'

At the time he declined to expand on the nature of the working theories or reveal whether any suspects were currently being considered, claiming that disclosing further detail would not help the investigation.

Mr Rowley said: 'We've got some critical lines of inquiry, those link to particular hypotheses, but I'm not going to discuss those because those are very much live investigation.

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In April this year Scotland Yard chief Mark Rowley (pictured) said there were still 'critical' leads of 'great interest' in the case
'We've got some thoughts on what we think the most likely explanations might be and we are pursuing those.'

A MET Police spokesman told MailOnline that detectives are going through a 'vast amount of material' related to the case in the UK.
He added: 'The investigation continues with focus and determination.'

Mail Online has contacted the McCann's for comment.

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Perhaps they've finished reading the files !

Are they finding it difficult to come up with "an abduction"?  They should have read CMOMM and saved the taxpayer £11 million, because the "jemmied windows, locked doors, unlocked door, curtains closed, curtains open" and the never-ending barrage of lies and contradictions, it is obvious to a blind person that Madeleine was NOT abducted.

Oh, and just a little oversight: THE SMELL OF DEATH IN A5 APARTMENT. Now, how DID that get there?

I can't wait to see how they are going to spin this lot, when it finally comes to a grinding halt!

GCHQ vetting the comments as usual. My comments on anything to do with this case invariably do not get on, but my comments on most other subjects get through OK . . . . apart from anything to do with the LGBT agenda.

Basically, just another no news piece of garbage.

After 10years they still get it wrong - "In 2014 Operation Grange officers spent almost £16,000 on 67 return flights in search of three-year-old Madeleine, who vanished from her parent's Portuguese holiday villa in 2007"


And what would that villa be Daily Mail?

Rowley ruled out Madeleine's parents??? Erm funny how he did that when he didn't even look into them... .? remember he said Portugal investigation "dealt with that" .... and we all know where that was left.... 

Tut tut tut mail online... people will start to think you're in cahoots!!!???????

'Just months after British detectives announced 'critical' new leads in the Madeleine McCann case, and £85,000 in extra funding, Mail Online can reveal officers have significantly scaled back some aspects of the investigation.'

Mailonline

How can you scale back on three junior staff working from the broom cupboard?

Why would Operation Grange need to fly to Portugal at all?  The Portuguese retain primacy over this case - it's their investigation, not the Metropolitan Police.  If Operation Grange has uncovered something significant that may develop an investigation, they should forward it to the Portuguese - it's their investigation !!!

There's this ingenious mode of communication that's evolved since May 2007 - it's called technology. Absolutely no necessity to waste even more tax payers money by flying DCI Nicola Wall and A.N. other/s to Portugal.  What she gonna do when she get there?  Munch sardines and swill flagons of ale?

Pull the other one.  Tis the weekend - again!

" Officers have significantly scaled back some aspects of the investigation " 

Have they let the tea lady go ?

sandancer wrote:" Officers have significantly scaled back some aspects of the investigation " 

Have they let the tea lady go ?

That and the chief document collation and coordination management executive - the paper staple'er upperer.

I can't believe there is ANY work going on for OG.

Why would they?

It's a laughing stock.

Seems the onion has not quite been peeled right back yet.   When it finally has been we will be left with plenty of tears at the amount of time and taxpayers' money wasted on all of this.

This is OG signing off - that's shallot folks. ha ha.

plebgate wrote:Seems the onion has not quite been peeled right back yet.   When it finally has been we will be left with plenty of tears at the amount of time and taxpayers' money wasted on all of this.

This is OG signing off - that's shallot folks. ha ha.

I think that's the point. The oldest trick in the book, do something very, very slowly and incompetently, which also costs a lot of money. For many of the public the impact of whatever it was wears off and they are just left annoyed and demand the 'farce' is ended.  
  Sometimes a few people lower down on the scale will be used as scapegoats for good measure.  It happened in all the abuse scandals, people got very 'bored' with all the stuff coming out, (child abuse allegations are such an inconvenience!) and the odd person was arrested and convicted but it never went very far.

There are two things lacking in this case and that is for the PJ and Operation Grange to publicly state the tapas 9 have been interviewed, re-interviewed and eliminated.

I haven't seen a complete claim from either the PJ or the Met that this has happened. That's all it would take to place the Tapas 7 and the McCanns out of harm's way from critics and yet no such definitive declaration has been made. All it takes is to say that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent. That's all it takes to give Madeleine's parents, siblings, friends and family absolvement and yet it hasn't happened.

There have been declarations from senior officers of the MET who have said the McCanns aren't suspects. That's not the same as saying we've investigated, interviewed, re-interviewed and are completely satisfied that the McCanns are absolutely innocent in the disappearance of their daughter.

£12 million pounds and rising hasn't protected the McCanns and it most certainly hasn't helped to find out what happened to Madeleine McCann. I don't know about anyone else but it would make things an awful lot simpler if the MET would unequivocally say the McCanns have played no part in their daughter's disappearance after £12 million pounds on an investigation and the PJ said the same but that hasn't happened.

To prove that this Operation Grange investigation is legitimate, appropriate and done without fear or favour in the name of the victim, Madeleine McCann, and not at the behest of a bullying media, surely the onus is on Operation Grange to make a statement of exoneration of the parents and the tapas 7 - and don't take Redwood's 'the parent's aren't suspects' as anything more than a Press conference statement. I shan't hold my breath for that because this little girl's disappearance is more about media, PR, government spin than it is for a little life that's been lost which is completely shameful to every agency around her that's let her down. This little girl is the subject of mass abuse/manipulation by the media and spin. The people who are supposed to find her are sucked into a world darker than hers and that's a very sad thought.

Madeleine's life, the poster girl of missing people has been reduced to something I wouldn't wish on anything that lives and breathes and yet the McCanns are always grateful to Operation Grange for their efforts. If Madeleine were my daughter and Operation Grange and the PJ didn't completely exonerate me publicly I'd be livid, especially if I had two other children.

So why don't the PJ and the MET just say publicly that the McCanns and the Tapas 7 are completely innocent? That wouldn't be hard to do if it's the truth. Why let the McCanns be slaughtered on social media?

aquila wrote:There are two things lacking in this case and that is for the PJ and Operation Grange to publicly state the tapas 9 have been interviewed, re-interviewed and eliminated.

I haven't seen a complete claim from either the PJ or the Met that this has happened. That's all it would take to place the Tapas 7 and the McCanns out of harm's way from critics and yet no such definitive declaration has been made. All it takes is to say that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent. That's all it takes to give Madeleine's parents, siblings, friends and family absolvement and yet it hasn't happened.

There have been declarations from senior officers of the MET who have said the McCanns aren't suspects. That's not the same as saying we've investigated, interviewed, re-interviewed and are completely satisfied that the McCanns are absolutely innocent in the disappearance of their daughter.

£12 million pounds and rising hasn't protected the McCanns and it most certainly hasn't helped to find out what happened to Madeleine McCann. I don't know about anyone else but it would make things an awful lot simpler if the MET would unequivocally say the McCanns have played no part in their daughter's disappearance after £12 million pounds on an investigation and the PJ said the same but that hasn't happened.

To prove that this Operation Grange investigation is legitimate, appropriate and done without fear or favour in the name of the victim, Madeleine McCann, and not at the behest of a bullying media, surely the onus is on Operation Grange to make a statement of exoneration of the parents and the tapas 7 - and don't take Redwood's 'the parent's aren't suspects' as anything more than a Press conference statement. I shan't hold my breath for that because this little girl's disappearance is more about media, PR, government spin than it is for a little life that's been lost which is completely shameful to every agency around her that's let her down. This little girl is the subject of mass abuse/manipulation by the media and spin. The people who are supposed to find her are sucked into a world darker than hers and that's a very sad thought.

Madeleine's life, the poster girl of missing people has been reduced to something I wouldn't wish on anything that lives and breathes and yet the McCanns are always grateful to Operation Grange for their efforts. If Madeleine were my daughter and Operation Grange and the PJ didn't completely exonerate me publicly I'd be livid, especially if I had two other children.

So why don't the PJ and the MET just say publicly that the McCanns and the Tapas 7 are completely innocent? That wouldn't be hard to do if it's the truth. Why let the McCanns be slaughtered on social media?

Excellent post. 

I'm getting ready for the statement in September that OG is being wound down, we've exhausted all channels open to us, move along, nothing to see here.

It will then be up to the public, and especially the members of CMOMM and the like, to really raise awareness if the discrepancies and keep this in the news.

It would take a brave MSM journo to break rank and get his editor/owner to go to print with a factual piece laying out all the facts and discrepancies.

I won't hold my breath

aquila wrote:There are two things lacking in this case and that is for the PJ and Operation Grange to publicly state the tapas 9 have been interviewed, re-interviewed and eliminated.

I haven't seen a complete claim from either the PJ or the Met that this has happened. That's all it would take to place the Tapas 7 and the McCanns out of harm's way from critics and yet no such definitive declaration has been made. All it takes is to say that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent. That's all it takes to give Madeleine's parents, siblings, friends and family absolvement and yet it hasn't happened.

There have been declarations from senior officers of the MET who have said the McCanns aren't suspects. That's not the same as saying we've investigated, interviewed, re-interviewed and are completely satisfied that the McCanns are absolutely innocent in the disappearance of their daughter.

£12 million pounds and rising hasn't protected the McCanns and it most certainly hasn't helped to find out what happened to Madeleine McCann. I don't know about anyone else but it would make things an awful lot simpler if the MET would unequivocally say the McCanns have played no part in their daughter's disappearance after £12 million pounds on an investigation and the PJ said the same but that hasn't happened.

To prove that this Operation Grange investigation is legitimate, appropriate and done without fear or favour in the name of the victim, Madeleine McCann, and not at the behest of a bullying media, surely the onus is on Operation Grange to make a statement of exoneration of the parents and the tapas 7 - and don't take Redwood's 'the parent's aren't suspects' as anything more than a Press conference statement. I shan't hold my breath for that because this little girl's disappearance is more about media, PR, government spin than it is for a little life that's been lost which is completely shameful to every agency around her that's let her down. This little girl is the subject of mass abuse/manipulation by the media and spin. The people who are supposed to find her are sucked into a world darker than hers and that's a very sad thought.

Madeleine's life, the poster girl of missing people has been reduced to something I wouldn't wish on anything that lives and breathes and yet the McCanns are always grateful to Operation Grange for their efforts. If Madeleine were my daughter and Operation Grange and the PJ didn't completely exonerate me publicly I'd be livid, especially if I had two other children.

So why don't the PJ and the MET just say publicly that the McCanns and the Tapas 7 are completely innocent? That wouldn't be hard to do if it's the truth. Why let the McCanns be slaughtered on social media?

At the risk of being repetitive lest they forget, this is Mark Rowley's feeble excuse for exonerating the McCanns from the Operation Grange review/investigation.  It would appear that the remit was to take everything back to square on, leaving no stone unturned - with the exception of the McCanns themselves and their group of friends.  There are more contradictions in this brief interview with an officer of the Metropolitan Police than can be considered even remotely acceptable outside of Scotland Yard - leta lone inside. 

Never was there such an apparent conspiracy in the field of criminology..

Transcript of interview between AC Mark Rowley (MR) and broadcast media for use from 21:00hrs on Tuesday, 25 April.

Q: Andy Redwood, the first senior investigating officer, said in one interview his policy was to go right back to the beginning, accept nothing, but one thing you appear to have accepted is that this was an abduction. It’s in your first remit statement, it refers to ‘the abduction’, which rather suggests right from the start you had a closed mind to the possibility of parents’ involvement, an accident or Madeleine simply walking out of the apartment.


MR: Two points to that, firstly the involvement of the parents, that was dealt with at the time by the original investigation by the Portuguese. We had a look at all the material and we are happy that was all dealt with and there is no reason whatsoever to reopen that or start rumours that was a line of investigation. The McCanns are parents of a missing girl, we are trying to get to the bottom of. In terms of Andy using the word abduction, she was not old enough to set off and start her own life.

However she left that apartment, she has been abducted. It is not a 20-year-old who has gone missing and who has made a decision to start a new life, this is a young girl who is missing and at the heart of this has been an abduction.

Q: One of the biggest criticisms of the Portuguese investigation, which they acknowledge as well, is that they did not interrogate the parents from the start, if only to eliminate them. When you started your investigation, you appear to have done the same. Did you formally interview the McCann’s under caution, ever consider them as suspects?

MR: So when we started, we started five or so years into this and there is already a lot of ground been covered, we don’t cover the same ground, what we do is pull all the material we had at the start, all the Portuguese material, private detective material, with all the work that had been done, what that evidence supports, what rules these lines of enquiry out, what keeps them open and you progress forward. It would be no different if there were a cold case in London, a missing person from 1990, we would go back to square one look at all the material and if the material was convincing it ruled out that line of enquiry we would look somewhere else. So you reflect on the original material, you challenge it, don’t take it at face value. You don’t restart an investigation pretending it doesn’t exist and do all the same enquiries again that is not constructive.

Q: The first detective in charge of the case said he was going right back to the start of the case and accepting nothing. It seems very much he was suggesting that it was going to be a brand new investigation.

MR: It’s a brand new investigation, you are going in with an open mind. You are not ignoring the evidence in front of you. That would be a bizarre conclusion. You would look at that material, what does it prove, what it doesn’t. What hypothesis does it open what does it close down and you work your way through the case.

Q: Just to be clear you did not interview the McCanns as potential suspects?

MR: No