Madeleine McCann police ‘given hundreds of thousands of pounds to continue hunt’
Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in new funding to help with her search.
A significant sum has been requested by the Met Police and is likely to be approved by the Home Office, the Sun reports.
Madeleine went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007, vanishing from their accommodation without trace.
Last year police in the UK were due to end their search after 15 years, however, it was extended for another 12 months.
Christian Brueckner, who is currently in a German prison for a number of sex and drug offences, was named by prosecutors in the country as a chief suspect in June 2020.
However investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas found that there was no solid evidence linking the 45-year-old to the disappearance as he researched a documentary that was broadcast in May last year.
Brueckner denies any involvement.
Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on attempts to find her, with a total of £13 million being spent since 2011.
A source close to the ongoing investigation last night said her parents would be ‘delighted’ with the news.
The source said: ‘This is excellent news. Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry will be delighted. It gives fresh hope.’
Madeleine McCann: A timeline of key dates and developments
2007
– May 3: Kate and Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, leave their children asleep in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in southern Portugal while they dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant.
Nothing is amiss when Mr McCann checks on the youngsters just after 9pm, but when his wife goes back at about 10pm she finds Madeleine missing.
Jane Tanner, one of the friends dining with the McCanns, reports having seen a man carrying a child earlier that night.
– May 14: Detectives take an Anglo-Portuguese property developer in for questioning and make him an ‘arguido’, or formal suspect, but this is later withdrawn.
– August 11: Exactly 100 days after Madeleine disappeared, investigating officers publicly acknowledge for the first time that she could be dead.
– September 7: During questioning of Mr and Mrs McCann, detectives make them both ‘arguidos’ in their daughter’s disappearance.
– September 9: The McCanns fly back to England with their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.
2008
– July 21: The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the ‘arguido’ status of the McCanns and the property developer.
2011
– May 12: Mrs McCann publishes a book about her daughter’s disappearance, on Madeleine’s eighth birthday.
Scotland Yard launches a review of the case after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May, supported by then Prime Minister David Cameron.
2012
– April 25: Scotland Yard detectives say they believe Madeleine could still be alive, release an age-progression picture of how she might look as a nine-year-old, and call on the Portuguese authorities to reopen the case, but Portuguese police say they have found no new material.
2013
– July 4: Scotland Yard confirms it has launched its own investigation, Operation Grange, into Madeleine’s disappearance two years into a review of the case. It has ‘genuinely new’ lines of inquiry and has identified 38 people of interest, including 12 Britons.
– October 24: Portuguese police confirm that a review of their original investigation has uncovered new lines of inquiry, and they reopen the case.
2014
– January 29: British detectives fly to Portugal amid claims they are planning to make arrests.
– June 3: Sniffer dogs and specialist teams are used to search an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine went missing.
– December 12: Detectives begin questioning 11 people who it is thought may have information on the case.
2015
– September 16: The Government discloses that the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine has cost more than £10 million.
– October 28: Scotland Yard cuts the number of officers working on the inquiry from 29 to four.
2017
– April 30: The McCanns prepare to mark 10 years since their daughter’s disappearance with a BBC interview in which they vow to do ‘whatever it takes for as long as it takes’ to find her.
2019
– May 3: Local media reports say Portuguese detectives are investigating a foreign paedophile as a suspect in the abduction of Madeleine.
2020
– June 3: Police reveal that a 43-year-old German prisoner, later named as Christian Brueckner, has been identified as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.
– June 4: Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange, which had received £12.3 million in funding up to April 2020, is still a missing person inquiry as detectives have no ‘definitive evidence whether Madeleine is alive or dead’.
2021
– May 4: Kate and Gerry McCann post a statement on the official Find Madeleine campaign website saying they still cling to the hope of seeing their daughter again as they prepare to mark her 18th birthday on May 12.
2022
– April 21: Christian Brueckner is made an ‘arguido’, a formal suspect, by Portuguese authorities.
– May 3: The McCann family say it is ‘essential’ they learn the truth of what happened to their daughter on the 15th anniversary of her disappearance.
– October 11: Brueckner is charged with three counts of rape and two charges of child sex abuse, unrelated to Madeleine’s disappearance.
There had been fears the probe into the toddler’s case could be cut back amid budget cuts.
The Met has its own operation – Operation Grange -that was announced in May 2011, at the request of the Home Secretary, it had agreed to bring its expertise to the unsolved case.
The team is led by Det Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell and is reported to have been reduced from 40 officers to four as of last year.
Former Metropolitan Police detective Peter Bleksley told The Sun: ‘As long as there are unanswered questions I can see why there is a case.
‘But, in this time of squeezed budgets, I can also see why eyebrows would be raised.
‘I understand the frustrations of missing children who do not have the luxury of such ongoing funding.’
A Home Office spokesperson confirmed last night that it had received an application for further funding, but the exact amount being discussed is unknown.
The sixteenth anniversary of Maddie’s disappearance is approaching this year. She would be 19, turning 20 in May if still alive.
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