Scotland Yard get £3.5m for Madeleine inquiry

by ROSA 14.05.11 4:34

Scotland Yard get £3.5m for Madeleine inquiry

by David Collins, Daily Mirror [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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The Home Office cash will fund a team – led by an experienced detective – which is being set up in the next few days to carry out a review of the entire investigation.
It will cover the cost of man hours, flights to Portugal, hotels, consultation fees from forensic firms and any other expenses.
There will also be a hefty cost for translation work on the thousands of documents requested from Portuguese authorities.
Files from Leicestershire Police – said by police sources to be “substantial” – will also be examined by the London team.
Leicestershire has been the UK liaison force for the McCann family and posted officers to Portugal during the hunt.
The funding comes after Kate and Gerry McCann made an impassioned appeal to David Cameron for help to find their daughter, who was three when she vanished in Portugal in 2007. The Prime Minister, who met the couple 18 months ago while in opposition, has already written to them saying he had personally authorised the review.
A police source said: “The money is ring-fenced and is an emergency grant put to one side by the Home Office.
“It will be made available to the Metropolitan Police specifically for the review of the Madeleine McCann case.”
The insider said the task was “enormous” and could take years.
The McCanns, who believe Portuguese police botched the investigation, said: “This is a step in the right direction.
“The expertise of the Metropolitan Police is renowned and we are reassured by our Government’s commitment to the search for Madeleine.”
The couple have written a book, entitled simply Madeleine, which they hope will boost funds for the police investigation further.

by Guest 14.05.11 10:30

Thank you Rosa thumbsup

[quote]

There will also be a hefty cost for translation work on the thousands of documents requested from Portuguese authorities

what

Why?? The McCanns have said that they have spent I think £100,000 on having the files translated, why can't they use those.

by Guest 14.05.11 10:48

Didn't Kate McCann say this book was written because the fund was low and they needed money to fund the search for Madeleine and the private detectives. Well, surely their PI's are now not needed, so why not give the money the book sales makes (and the advance they received) to the Home Office to help towards the costs of this hugely expensive investigation?

by Atilliator 07.06.11 10:30

This is outrageous. There are children going missing every year, where no finger of blame can be pointed at the parents. The £3.5 millions can be directed at these parents, not at the McCanns. Furthermore, how about the Portuguese? How much time and money has been spent by them on this wild goose chase. Portuguese people have volunteered their time and energies in the hunt for a child who is dead, only to hear their country and institutions insulted.

We have people having their housing benefit cut. We have soldiers dying in Afghanistan, because they have shoddy equipment. The country is supposed to be adopting "austerity measures".

But somehow we have £3.5 million to spend having our police chasing wild geese.

Even leaving aside the allegations against them, the McCanns are 100% culpable of neglecting their children, leaving them by themselves in an unlocked apartment, as they both feasted with friends at the Tapas Bar. If they want the search for their daughter to continue, they can meet 100% of the cost.

by Guest 07.06.11 10:45

If the Home Office need to bring everyone who is involved in this crime to justice, who has lied, who interfered from a Government level, who helped to cover things up in Portugal, who was employed to feed the abduction lie, the manpower that will be needed to interview and collate everything on this level will be enormous.

This Government must know that the FBI have a tight grip on Kevin Halligen, which once he gets on US soil, can say everything he knows about why he was paid to help the MCann's.

David Cameron has to get a grip on this now, or he could face being dropped right in it at some later point in the future.

This is why I think David Cameron pledged that sort of money. He was saying in no uncertain terms that his Government intends to get to the bottom of this. We just have to be patient.

Revenge is sweet and I think the Conservatives need to repay the gesture Labour made by having the Ashford Conservative MP arrested for nothing.

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by Guest 07.06.11 12:00

Just thinking about that "good marketing ploy" the coloboma which has turned out not to have existed, how many people must have known it was a lie? Everyone from the McCanns' circle of friends, neighbours, relatives and health professionals would have known and yet they all said nothing. We can only hope that the investigation will cover this issue.