Christian Brueckner: To be or not to be

Not much time for burgling and abducting, which are night time activities, usually.

And burying stuff.

Didn't the PJ take statements from all the people working at the Tapas Bar ?

This is beyond a joke.
Let's see what Clarke-Kent makes of it in his rag

Met Police detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann are set to receive £100k grant to help fund investigation for missing toddler

By NICK PISA
PUBLISHED: 17:55, 5 March 2024 | UPDATED: 18:36, 5 March 2024

Detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann are set to receive a £100,000 grant to help fund their investigation for the missing toddler.

So far, the Metropolitan Police have received £13 million from the Government since 2011 as they pursue leads for Madeleine, who was just three years old when she vanished in May 2007.

At the time, she was on holiday in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz with her parents Kate and Gerry and her two siblings. Nothing has been seen or heard of her since then.

MailOnline can reveal that a request for further funding from the Home Office was made by the Metropolitan Police on behalf of Operation Grange - the unit tasked with hunting Madeleine.

In June 2020, German police announced that convicted rapist and paedophile Christian Brueckner was 'prime suspect for her abduction and murder' and he is currently on trial accused of three rapes and two indecent assaults.

The German national not been charged at any point with her disappearance and he has denied that he was involved.

A source close to the McCann family said: 'This is very welcome news - Kate and Gerry have never given up hope and nor will they, finding Madeleine or what happened to her is paramount to them.

'They are eternally grateful to the officers from Operation Grange and are being kept in touch on aspects of the hunt and the police obviously have leads if a request for funding has been made.'

The request to the Home Office was made in the last few days as the £110,000 budget for 2023-24 was due to run out at the end of March.

Operation Grange was launched in 2011 by then Home Secretary Theresa May after a request from PM David Cameron that British detectives should also help in the hunt.

There were fears that the funding would be cut but it is expected to remain at the same figure as last year and the initial team of 40 officers is now down to just four.

According to Home Office figures the funding has fallen in recent years from around £300,000 in 2018-2021 to £110,000 for the last financial year.

A Home Office spokesperson said: 'In line with our Special Grant processes, funding for Operation Grange is approved on an annual basis.

'Funding for 2023-2024 will run until 31st match and decisions on 2024-2025 will be made in the next financial year in line with usual practice.'

A spokesperson for the Met confirmed to MailOnline that a request for funding had been made to the Home Office but declined to discuss the amount requested.

Brueckner, a German national, is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine in Portugal in 2007, but he has not been charged at any point with her disappearance and he has denied that he was involved.

He was made a formal suspect by prosecutors in Portugal in 2022, after his yellow and white VW T3 Westfalia campervan was reportedly spotted near the Praia da Luz resort in Portugal where Maddie vanished.

Brueckner, 47, is currently serving an unrelated jail term in Germany for rape.

He is also set to appear in court in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, on February 16, accused of five offences between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal.

Brueckner has denied he was in the area at the time and distanced himself from the allegations against him.

But German prosecutors say phone logs show he received a call on May 3 2007 near the Ocean Club.

Pictures released last month showed the convicted paedophile partying with friends a few weeks after the police first interviewed him in connection with the missing child.

Brueckner maintains that he was miles away with a young woman.

Madeleine's family kept the investigation open with private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own enquiry in 2011.

Nine years later, police in Braunschweig, northern Germany, identified a convicted paedophile and German national as a new suspect.

In 2021, prosecutors said they were '100 per cent sure' that they had the right man.

German prosecutor Hans Wolters said evidence included phone analysis placing him at the Ocean Club resort the family was staying at when Madeleine went missing and an alleged confession Brueckner made to a friend.

In April last year, it was reported Christian Brueckner may not face charges in Germany over Madeleine's disappearance after a court ruled prosecutors had no jurisdiction to pursue a case against him.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13160237/Detectives-missing-Madeleine-McCann-grant.html

What are they spending these millions on? There are no interviews, no reenactments, only millions of pages of paperwork. These are full of lies, contradictions and invented, impossible scenarios, so where does this money go?

I don’t believe the police have been getting money to look for Maddy
for a long time,they are just doing what the McCanns want them to do.I believe they know too much about certain people which would 
bring turmoil to governments past and present and the Met police.

Perhaps this funding is nothing more than keeping peoples' mouths shut?

Cake Lover wrote:Perhaps this funding is nothing more than keeping peoples' mouths shut?

What it also does it keep the case "Active" and therefore all FOI requests can be refused.

It will have to be kept active until the end of time, or until a suitable scape goat dies, whichever comes comes first, it seems.

The cost to the British taxpayer of GBP 100,000 per year is clearly 'value for money' in terms of maintaining a 17 year long cover-up to the Home Office, as it prevents any Freedom of Information requests or questions in Parliament, as it is 'an on-going investigation', with the added covert bonus of a D notice as it links to National security. Simples.
And if you Brits want to challenge it, you should write to your local MP, as part of the fabled British democratic process. Oh dear. See on going investigation.
Seriously, this is a disgrace. Perhaps the only MP who can question it is the new honourable member for Rochdale, George Galloway. Perhaps he is due the CMOMM forum letter?

Anything at this point is worth a try. He can only refuse to get involved, can't he -    but he has stated his suspicions about the case.

Cammerigal wrote: Perhaps the only MP who can question it is the new honourable member for Rochdale, George Galloway. Perhaps he is due the CMOMM forum letter?

It has been under active consideration for the last week !