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    Madeleine McCann cops given extra £108k as search continues for missing Brit 18 years on
    United Kingdom

    Madeleine McCann cops given extra £108k as search continues for missing Brit 18 years on

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    45 Comments

    2. NuPNua on

      That’s mental, why are we still funding this when the police in the country could use the dosh right now

    3. TheMountainWhoDews on

      Let me get this straight – Operation Grange has a budget of 108k a year, which is what, 2.5 cops? These guys sit in an office in Scotland yard for 40 hours a week, waiting for leads?

      I’m not entirely blaming the police here, its the home office that’s giving them funding. Why is there no sunset clause to this? Why has no-one at Scotland yard or the home office gone through line by line and noticed this oversight? Do they have such contempt for the taxpayer that they think this is a worthwhile venture?

    4. Mail-Malone on

      She’s dead or alive, if alive she’s now got her own life and probably totally unaware.

      As a parent though I understand the need to know, but at the same time don’t leave your kid unattended in a foreign country whilst you go to the pub. If they weren’t middle class this would have been forgotten about years ago.

    5. MyDIYaccount9977 on

      It’s baffling this continues to get attention but you hear next to nothing about other and more recent missing children’s cases.

      The whole police force is run by morons though so i guess it’s not surprising…

    6. Sensitive_Echo5058 on

      Year 2092 “cops given more money to find bones of missing Brit”.

      We really do need to move on from this case, although it might be difficult for the family, they should have thought about the consequences of their actions before leaving their child unaccompanied so they could wine and dine.

    7. ryrytotheryry on

      I hate to say it but she is long gone, most likely dead but if not, trafficked. This money could be better spent on immediate missing children

    8. ThatchersDirtyTaint on

      They’ll hold the press conference that they’ve found nothing on the 19th hole.

    9. Virtual-Feedback-638 on

      What is behind this waste of resources? Has it not been legitimately too long with no light at the end of a very very long tunnel?

      Why are the parents walking totally not taking any responsibility for anything?

    11. MiniatureMini on

      Shocked but not surprised that this is STILL going on. What about all the other missing children? This entire case is so bloody strange. But the real question is will it ever end?

    12. Arugulo on

      Why are they so fixated on this one person? Over £1.3 million has been spent on a single case, it’s insanity.

    13. radiant_0wl on

      Only a few will know the operational details and if there’s a viable path of enquiries then great use of funding.

      But I share in everyone else’s despair, publicly they don’t seem to be any fresh leads and all past ones been fully explored multiple times.

      It does seem like a waste of time and resources

    15. Electrical-Injury-23 on

      Let me guess, fact finding trip to the algarve.

      Don’t forget the golf clubs guys.

    16. apeel09 on

      This is an absolutely disgraceful waste of money. Imagine the number of missing children they could have looked for using the money they’ve spent on this one case? I don’t know what this family has on the Establishment but it’s unfair 1000s of other families.

    17. Evening-Feature1153 on

      A complete waste of tax payer money. She’s been dead for 17yrs and 364 days. Too famous to survive.

      Tragic and fucking awful, but it’s the truth .

    18. homeinthecity on

      Can someone explain why this is still being funded? Imagine you’re the parents of a recent misper that doesn’t go anywhere and then you see this.

    19. Thebritishdovah on

      Oh for fuck’s sake.

      It’s tragic but at this point, they should give up. I know that sounds shitty but no-one else has had this much attention and money thrown at their disapperance. Besides, who the hell leaves their young kids unattended in another country in an unlocked cabin?

      It’s strange how they became wealthy over their book, using the donations.

      Again, I know this is shitty for me to say it but it seems that we’ll constantly have the yearly police get sent to Portugal for investigation.

    20. sweetvioletapril on

      This is ridiculous.Who is paying for this, the negligent parents? Something is very ” off” about this whole affair, and it is no wonder it has become the subject of speculative conspiracy theories. The ” specialness” of this child, the lack of cooperation from the parents and their entourage, and the huge sums of money that have been poured into this wild goose chase, make me question everything about this case. It has become a business.

    21. Sharkpork on

      I have no problem with them forking out if new information comes to light but at this point it’s virtually a cottage industry. Prove the German bloke did it or let it go until something new comes to light.

    23. EastRiding on

      Where do I write to get my taxes back? Waste of time me paying them if it’s going to bollocks like this. What reasonable reason could justify further spending on this?

      (Edit: not questioning the tragedy of the original case or the early years of trying to find out what happened but this has gone on too long now hasn’t it?)

    24. amazingusername100 on

      I think it’s time this particular case was closed. If they haven’t got enough evidence to charge someone after 18 years, it’s not going to happen now sadly.

    25. aapstjernsojo on

      Willing to spend millions on a girl who went missing almost 2 decades ago when there’s people that go missing every day.

    27. TheGardenBlinked on

      And yet, thousands of other missing kids get sod all. What is it about the McCanns?

    29. AKAGreyArea on

      While I don’t engage with some of the nasty conspiracy theories around this, I can’t see the justification for this now. Time to let go of this terrible event.

    30. AlcoholicCumSock on

      Who can they possibly speak to that hasn’t been spoken to in the last 18 years?

      Kids getting stabbed in our schools weekly. Online vigilantes having to catch nonces because the police “don’t have the resources”, but £13m spent on this?

    31. ikothsowe on

      How does this single case keep getting refunded. Who are the McCanns connected to and who is using their influence to misdirect public money?

    32. spacecrustaceans on

      I bet that, in years to come, it will emerge that the police accepted long ago that she was dead, and quietly redirected the funds, either to line their own pockets or to spend on unrelated police operations, under the guise of continuing the search for Madeleine. If anyone knows how to launder money, it’s the police.

    35. Dark_Foggy_Evenings on

      Nobody will never convince me that when this funding is released annually there aren’t certain old bill looking at each other, smirking and saying something like

      *My turn this time innit?-I’ll nip down to Superdrug at lunchtime and stock up on Factor50 and some snacks for the plane from £land next door. You get on Expedia-anything except RyanAir yeah? Kushti.*

    38. Macho-Fantastico on

      I always want to see unsolved cases solved, but there’s been so much money thrown at this case that it’s insane. There’s so many UK families who’ve lost love ones and haven’t received a single penny of help but they’ve spent millions trying to find Madeleine without any real developments. Where’s the justification for spending all this money?

      Something off about the whole thing.

    39. Von_Uber on

      If the McCanns were two working class people from Sunderland social services would have been all over them like a rash.

    40. Kijamon on

      I think this marked a real separation of generations. These things happen when you gamble or you ignore your better judgement and while I’m hugely sympathetic to the McCann’s this is just a fruitless exercise. We will never know now what happened to their daughter.

      I grew up in the 80’s and twice I nearly died and was saved purely by my big brother laughing at me. First time I had fallen face down in the bath while mum went to answer the phone. Second time I had slipped under the rungs of a bunk bed and was hanging myself. Both times my mum heard the laughing and came to see what that was all about. That’s the sort of shit the 80’s and 90’s did regularly. But it only took one time for it to be world ending.

      You just can’t imagine that sort of thing happening with parents today. Our 2 year old has never been left alone in the bath for a millisecond. Can you imagine many parents going off to the bar and leaving their kids in bed on holiday? Even if you did have line of sight to the door, short of a baby monitor who is going to risk that today?

      This was probably a watershed moment for parents and should be framed as such going forward rather than “where is Maddy”

    41. saxbophone on

      Oh for Christ’s sake she’s dead.

      That we still spend disproportionate amounts of public money on this is the elephant in the room of public scandals!

    42. xwsrx on

      Pure Lomie bait.

      May as well say “Complain here if you lack the emotional intelligence to imagine if this was your daughter”

    43. Technomongoose on

      Ahh yeah fund this search but when my little sister was almost taken into a van all the police did was take a statement, the number plate of the van and we’ve never heard back since (it was 3 years ago)

    44. TheSouthsideTrekkie on

      I really feel for her, for the people who knew her, but it’s been so long now I think we need to accept she’s gone. It was a mistake to publicise her photo so widely in the days after her disappearance as anyone who had kidnapped a child that became that well known would definitely not want to be caught with her. So many mistakes were made with the investigations, and regardless of who made them or what caused her to vanish, nothing we do now will bring her back or even make a difference to her loved ones.

      Maybe we could learn some lessons from what happened to keep future children safe, but spending countless millions on trying to futilely find her won’t bring her back or even prevent another little girl from going missing in the same way. The best way to remember her would be to make sure it never happens again. I might have my own thoughts on how we could do that, but I don’t think there’s any point in sharing them here.