Maddie search expanded as effort branded PR exercise - Sunday World

[Cheshire Cat]

The search, part of a €10m investigation launched in 2011 by the Metropolitan Police Force at the instigation of the British Prime Minister has yielded no significant evidence that could lead to an arrest or charges or done anything to help reveal exactly what happened to Maddie seven years ago when she mysteriously disappeared without trace from apartment 5a in Praia da Luz.

The investigation was started as the Metropolitan Police Force faced a growing wave of public discontent over corruption allegations and cover-ups, and face even more damaging revelations in the months to come, over the continuing fall out from the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry.

Sources in the Met have told the Sunday World that the investigation is a desperate attempt to reclaim the reputation of the force with a trophy case and a result which, the force hopes, will put its troubles behind it.

“It is a distraction. There are hundreds of missing children in London who have not been found and why we should be spending millions on searching for a child who went missing in another country I don’t know. Why isn’t this money being spent on the other missing children?”, the anonymous detective told the Sunday World.

The investigation led by Detective Inspector Andy Redwood is now nearly two years old and will have to deliver results soon before the public and critics ask questions about a seemingly open ended investigation with a blank cheque for one missing child, while so many other missing person cases in the UK are given a fraction of the resources to help find them.» 

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[Cheshire Cat]

Some more of the article :


The Met asked the Portuguese authorities for permission to search three sites and its original search was due to be completed on Friday.
Cold Case specialist, Alan Bailey, claims that the three sites over many acres, with 12 locations for specific ground penetration radar searches, is simply shooting in the dark because it is impossible to search the areas fully and forensically in such a short time, even with the extra seven days.
“The search lacks focus and direction. There is clearly no specific leads or intelligence beyond a traditional geographic profiler’s suggestion of possible locations where a preferential paedophile may have dumped a body or possible evidence”, he told the Sunday World.
The sites were all checked previously in the immediate days after the disappearance of Maddie and any chance of discovering buried material or disturbed soil were much greater then than seven years later, he said.
The search areas totaling up to 15 acres according to one source, simply does not inspire confidence that the investigation is on the brink of a break through.
Every time the Met  promises a major breakthrough it risks damaging its position.
“Cold case investigators should dampen expectations and only promise to do all it can to bring a fresh set of eyes to a case. It is dangerous and upsetting to raise people’s expectations’, the former head of the Irish Cold Case unit told the Sunday World.
The force will face considerable difficulty if it fails to deliver after this last ditch attempt to solve this very difficult case with these new searches.
There is some concerns that f there is no significant movement in the investigation it may be forced to push for arrests which may not be merited.
The Met will look for a face saving exercise and by pushing for arrests that the Portuguese authorities may not support, could give them a neutral way out.
By promising to solve the case in a fire engine fashion, overtaking and by implication deriding the work of other investigators on the case, then it has  perhaps, set itself up to fail and to fall from a great height.

[TheTruthWillOut]

The pressure is building on SY/Met....

Add to this IMO the Claudia Lawrence cold case review being questioned too and I have to ask....Who are the bungling cops?

[Baldrick]

The search, part of a €10m investigation launched in 2011 by the Metropolitan Police Force at the instigation of the British Prime Minister has yielded no significant evidence that could lead to an arrest or charges or done anything to help reveal exactly what happened to Maddie seven years ago when she mysteriously disappeared without trace from apartment 5a in Praia da Luz.

The investigation was started as the Metropolitan Police Force faced a growing wave of public discontent over corruption allegations and cover-ups, and face even more damaging revelations in the months to come, over the continuing fall out from the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry.

Sources in the Met have told the Sunday World that the investigation is a desperate attempt to reclaim the reputation of the force with a trophy case and a result which, the force hopes, will put its troubles behind it.

“It is a distraction. There are hundreds of missing children in London who have not been found and why we should be spending millions on searching for a child who went missing in another country I don’t know. Why isn’t this money being spent on the other missing children?”, the anonymous detective told the Sunday World.

The investigation led by Detective Inspector Andy Redwood is now nearly two years old and will have to deliver results soon before the public and critics ask questions about a seemingly open ended investigation with a blank cheque for one missing child, while so many other missing person cases in the UK are given a fraction of the resources to help find them.» 

in full here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Sources in the Met have told the Sunday World that the investigation is a desperate attempt to reclaim the reputation
And a great job they are doing