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Post by Admin on Dec 1, 2014 13:49:25 GMT
An investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has cost almost £8million since the child went missing in Portugal in 2007, new figures have revealed. Metropolitan Police has spent nearly £5million paying police officers involved in Operation Grange, the special investigation unit set up in 2011 by David Cameron. More than £100,000 has been spent on the transport of British authorities to and from Portugal where Madeleine was taken from her bed in the holiday resort of Praia de Luz. Madeleine was just three when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment while her parents ate dinner nearby. Kate and Gerry McCann have fought a tireless campaign to find their missing daughter since, regularly appealing to police to keep the investigation into her disappearance active. Figures revealed via a Freedom of Information request showed the full cost of the investigation to date.  Months after the three-year-old vanished, Leicestershire Constabulary was awarded two grants by the Home Office to help fund their efforts. In 2008 they received £525,000 and were awarded a further £221,000 the following year before the case was handed over to Metropolitan Police. David Cameron set out a budget of £5million upon the establishment of Operation Grange in 2011. In its first year, the unit cost close to £2million, with the vast majority of expenses attributed to police officer and staff pay. Between 2012 and 2013, the most expensive leg of the investigation to date, £2.7million was spent on transport, salaries, overtime and premises cost.  While figures for 2013 and 2014 has not yet been finalised, the Home Office said it expected them 'to be broadly in line with previous years'. The McCanns also enlisted the services of a small team of private investigators to help with the search. This week the couple said they would welcome an underwater search of a lake near the holiday complex from which she disappeared.  Officers are not thought to have carried out a full search of the man-made Barragem da Bravura reservoir, despite reports of a rain-sodden letter appearing on the first anniversary of her disappearance which claimed the child's body had been hidden there. Portuguese police are eager to speak to a number of suspects including a British ex-pat living in Praia de Luz at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, a Portuguese newspaper claimed. Robert Murat said he would be happy to cooperate with authorities investigating her disappearance, despite already being interviewed in relation to the case. |
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Post by Admin on Dec 17, 2014 13:47:06 GMT
Former suspect Robert Murat attended an Algarve police station today over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The IT consultant, 41, was driven into Faro Police Station through a back entrance just before 9.30am along with his German-born wife Michaela Walczuch, 38, and their lawyer Francisco Pagarete. None made any comment in the morning or at midday, when they were driven out in a different vehicle for a short lunch before returning for the afternoon. Mr Murat, who is not suspected of any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance, was called in for questioning on the second day of a fresh round of police interviews requested by Scotland Yard detectives. Portuguese police acting on behalf of the Operation Grange officers began questioning Michaela, Mr Murat's girlfriend when Madeleine disappeared, as a witness soon after her morning arrival. They also quizzed Silvia Batista, who ran the service and maintenance departments at the Ocean Club holiday complex in the resort of Praia da Luz where Madeleine was staying with her family.  British expat Murat, made a formal suspect or arguido days after Madeleine went missing on May 3 2007 before being cleared a year later, said last month when it emerged police wanted to question him that he was happy to cooperate. Speaking before he received his official notification, he said: 'My conscience is clear and I have no problem speaking to police again.' His wife's quiz was the first time she has had to face Scotland Yard questions but the fourth time in all she has been questioned by police as a witness.  Robert Murat's lawyer said at the time he and his then-girlfriend were having their names dragged through the mud on a daily basis. Michaela dismissed as 'ridiculous' claims she had been spotted with the missing girl in Morocco, insisting she was lunching with Mr Murat and his lawyer that day. The pretty blonde, whose home was searched by Portuguese police after Madeleine disappeared, went on to complain of being treated like dirt by detectives and claim Kate and Gerry McCann's former detective agency Metodo 3 had cynically used her.  Mrs Batista, one of 11 people due to be questioned this week as witnesses, was one of the first people on the scene after being alerted to Madeleine's disappearance. She told police she found the youngster's heart specialist dad Gerry 'hitting the floor with both hands' and 'screaming with anger' when she reached apartment 5A where Madeleine had been sleeping with twin siblings Sean and Amelie. She also said Gerry told her he had closed the windows of their bedroom - open when Madeleine's disappearance was discovered - because the twins, then 18 months, were still asleep in separate cots. The police quizzes taking place this week are the first since four men were questioned as arguidos at the start of July. |
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Post by Admin on Dec 25, 2014 13:03:05 GMT
 After British detectives sat in on interviews in Faro with witnesses last week, the Sunday Express can reveal Policia Judiciaria co-ordinator Ana Paula Rito is taking a broader look at leads which may not have been fully pursued. She is now keen to learn more about the Brazilian couple, who are said to have expressed a strong desire to have a child when they were in the Algarve in May 2007 when Madeleine vanished. A few days after Madeleine vanished from flat 5a of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, a British man came forward with his concerns about the couple and was interviewed by Portuguese detectives. On the night of the abduction the man was closing his video rental shop just a few streets away from the apartment.  At 10.45pm, 45 minutes after Kate McCann had discovered that her daughter was missing, he noticed the Brazilian woman, aged about 25, driving past his shop in a red car. He told police there was a dog in the front seat and the woman driver kept looking at something on the back seat which he could not see.  Her partner, a bald Brazilian man in his early 40s, had worked on a local farm but was fired after some machinery was damaged and later worked at Lagos marina, about four miles from Luz doing boat repair work. The couple, who were staying on a yacht at the marina left shortly after the disappearance and have not been seen again. A dark-haired woman seen hanging around the apartment at 8pm on the night Madeleine vanished has never been identified or traced. |
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2015 15:35:25 GMT
 Mark Warner will no longer operate the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on the Algarve where it struggled to attract bookings following the three-year-old’s abduction in May 2007. Profits dwindled as British holidaymakers shunned the complex after worldwide media coverage raised safety fears. The club has now been removed from Mark Warner’s website. A source said: “People feel the resort will become deserted. It is a huge blow.” One local added: “This place has never been the same since Madeleine. It’s as if a cloud is hanging over it the whole time. British police keep returning and raking it all up again.” Madeleine went missing after her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, left their three children in the apartment while they had dinner with friends nearby, checking them every 15 minutes. Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Grange, who are investigating the mystery, flew out to the Algarve early last month to question witnesses. They want to establish if there are any inconsistencies in their statements. As soon as Madeleine went missing,Mark Warner, which built its reputation as a child- friendly holiday company popular with middle-class parents, insisted the “one-off”. Managing incident was a director David Hopkins said: “Our security is terribly robust.” But a company spokesman admitted: “It is a matter of pub- lic record that bookings were affected.” |
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Post by Admin on Jan 22, 2015 14:51:37 GMT
 A woman who became known for publicly calling for "justice" over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been handed a jail sentence after defrauding £18,000 from her vulnerable parents for a spending spree. Deborah Butler hit the headlines in 2009 by distributing leaflets giving "10 key reasons which suggest Madeleine was not abducted". Some were delivered to the Leicestershire street where Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry live.  The 51-year-old denied she was targeting the family, whose daughter has not been found after disappearing from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007, but simply wanted the then-closed investigation to be re-opened. Away from the media spotlight, Butler, of Grace Avenue, Allington, set herself up as official carer to her parents, Alan and Dorothy Johnson, who suffered from dementia. In 2011 she took control of their bank cards, which they did not know how to use, and went on a spree buying items for herself including a TV, laptop, designer clothes, a Spanish holiday, plus more mundane essentials such as petrol and food.  The 51-year-old also arranged for carers and attendance allowances, plus the Johnsons’ state pension to go to her bank account. In October 2011 her mother died and other family members found conditions at her parents seaside flat in Eastbourne had deteriorated as the pensioners struggled to cope. Conditions were described as 'squalid.' The family also discovered a large chunk of the Johnsons’ savings missing and Butler was arrested.  She always insisted her purchases were for her parents. But investigators were adamant everything bought was being used at her Kent home. Butler denied four charges of fraud totalling £18,411 at a trial in December but was convicted. At Lewes Crown Court on Friday she was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years. DC Julie Nightingale, of Sussex Police, said: “The victims were treated as a stream of income. “They were very vulnerable but Butler left them to live in squalor while she enjoyed life at their expense. She must complete 200 hours of unpaid work and will be supervised by the probation service. The KM approached Butler after the case but she said: “I won’t be making any comment.” |
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