Police Funding for Madeleine McCann

Why does the debate have to be about lack of resources rather than why that is? Secondly where does comparing money spent on BN and MM take us? Should the HO have said we spent x on BN so will only spend x on MM even though with hindsight we should have spent more on BN.

How many small children who disappeared in this country have not been found , dead or alive ?

Iam I don't know what's harsh about asking a direct question.

Presumably Madeleine McCann has a grandmother, maybe two, and I doubt if they were regulars on GN they would start such a thread.

This child's disappearance, in those circumstances, is almost without precedence.

As for the OP's history on GN - are we really not to question someone because in the past they have been kind and considerate?

I understand that people should question why more money is spent on one investigation of a missing child, more than on others.I think unfortunately it’s because some things capture the public imagination and some don’t.
I can think of nothing worse than for your child to be taken, so that you never know what happened to them, a living nightmare.

And if that one child was your child ?

Riverwalk I found your comment to grannyactivisit a bit harsh. Maybe I'm having an overly sensitive day but my memory of ga's life on gransnet is that her posts are generally kind and considerate to others.

Having direct knowledge of the harm caused by the gangs involved in child sexual exploitation, I'd be pleased if more resources went into that. There have been any number of discussions about the impact of austerity on our pubic services and I don't see it as unreasonable or unkind to raise the issue of the amount of public money put into the search for one child.

When Theresa May was Home Secretary she set up a special unit to look for Madeleine McCann. It seems to me that this situation is untenable in a period of time when our police are severely underfunded, ….

Grannyactivist would you have started such a thread if it were your granddaughter who was missing?

I'm happy for the few pennies it personally costs me for this investigation to continue ….. the situation is almost unique in recent decades.

EllanVannin, it realy was horrific, I too got a verbal battering, the truth ! .put forward, Gerry killed her because he wasn’t realy her father, they kept her little body in the boot of their car, and when the press reported the parents had gone to church the priest and parents had buried the child in the crypt.

Anniebach I remember those arguments. I was ripped to shreds for supporting the McCanns it was terrible.
All the anti's kept repeating was that " they were doctors,they had a big house,they had big cars,they had money " What on earth that had anything to do with a stolen child I don't know but it didn't take me long to realise that these people were as thick as the proverbial. Included in that foray was a solicitor who had leaflets printed to spread in various places particularly Leicester where the family live spreading hatred and gathering money to back Amaral's cause. The solicitor was finally caught up with and given a 3 month suspended sentence for spreading lies and hatred.

Kerry Needham had to move heaven and earth and kick up a public fuss to be able to get the same resources and national publicity put into Ben’s case as the McCann’s had. She and her family tirelessly followed up every lead, however small, both on Kos and in this country and eventually, last year, the police decided to fund a dig on Ben’s grandfather’s property where he disappeared, to try and find further evidence. Twenty seven years on, she still has no closure. Neither have the McCanns. I am so very sad for every family, no matter what their circumstances, of a child who disappears seemingly without trace. How on earth can you give up on them?

maryeliza, when the little girl was abducted AOL had very active forums, the hatred for the parents really distressed me, I can only say it was so evil. How can one mother condemn another mother as so many did.

I can’t allow myself to think what these parents must feel

Oh River I just said that to DH. I’ve also just read up
on the BN case and given how long ago it was I think there’s some misremembering about what’shsppened over the years. Even last year forensics were carried out on blood on a sandal. It’s worth reading the Wiki entry on it as it’s detsiked and gives the official UK police view on what they believe truly happened

I can only assume, and hope, that the police are following specific and credible leads and that's why they've had further funding.

How many of you who are critical don't mind the 'few pennies' it costs each of us to fund the royal family?

trisher I was referring to British children abroad disappearing. It’s vanishingly rare thank goodness but I do think that British resources should be used in these cases.

ab yes they did - was it in the last year or two? There was an alleged deathbed confession from the driver of one of the trucks that were working on the site doing some building I believe. And yes any suspicions would be kept quiet - why should we know? There’s huge amounts we never know eg about counterterrorism and that’s quite right. I feel sorry for both families - just not knowing - I look at my dgc and the thought brings tears to my eyes. It’s not a competition - theBN case was pre social media etc and it would probably be handled differently now.

I had to Google this. 250,000 children go missing in Europe every year. Some are kidnapped by family some are taken across borders. Sad as the McCann case may be I'd far rather some money went to these people missingchildreneurope.eu/facts&figures

If the police have some possible evidence of organised crime be rather stupid to make it public surely ?

Have the police not recently been digging the grounds of the house little Ben Needham vanished from?

I think it's wrong. If there is something else going on, for example hoping to uncover organised crime which includes kidnapping children, then it should be stated that that is what this money is for.

How must Ben's mother feel? She'll never know what happened to her son and although the same can be said for the McCann's, at least they know that everything that could have been done has been done.

It involves carefully searching small areas of earth, she has been dead 30 years, her body may have been dismembered and did they not have to dig under a garage too.

Being thorough and careful I hope - and also knowing they would have to put the garden back together afterwards. If you think there might be a body I doubt you can just send the JCB in any old way.

I did wonder why the police spent two weeks searching one small garden for SL, what were they all doing for so long?

Because we don’t spend enough money on X does not invaidate the case for spending on Y, rather it begs the question as to why we haven’t got enough money.

But this a very unusual case isn’t it. Apart from Ben Needham can anyone think of any other very small Brttish children who have disappeared abroad without trace? I cant believe that this extra money has been granted on a whim - the police must have received some furher intelligence that merits investigation. Straight after the disappearance the parents were able to organise publicity through their network of friends - just as well because I do think it’s accepted that the local police made some very early mistakes like not securing the scene. I’m sure any of us would have used contacts like they did if we had them. It’s not fair to criticise them because others can’t do that. I can’t imagine how they live with this - I was thinking about the SL case last week and so hoped the police would find her. I didn't begrudge the money spent on the garden search and guessed that the police again must have had good reason to do what they did. The vilificationn of the McCanns is truly dreadful - there are conspiracy websites that say the parents killed her and those theories are in full sight on Twitter.

I walk past "that apartment" every day when we visit our friends twice a year.

I always think of the 3 little ones asleep on their own.