Police Funding for Madeleine McCann

It is hard isn't it? It might be a good idea to put some more political pressure on the police and the politicians in the country where she was abducted. It's not really down to the Met.

I feel like you grannyactivist I really really feel for the parents even though many blamed them I felt it was a mistake that could have been made by anyone I think of how our generation went to Butlins and went out for the night leaving children and babies asleep with just a person patrolling round every hour or two ( I must add I never went on Butlins holidays so posters don’t point the finger) BUT why do some people get millions and millions spent on them and others stop after a few weeks never to be heard of again
The same has happened with the young airman who went missing in Suffolk millions and millions have been spent on searching digging up huge areas of landfill and yet other young people go missing on a night out and after the first few weeks nothing is heard, and although I m sure the cases are left open they stop searching
So why ? I often wonder this

I agree.
The family life for them will never be the same and I am so sorry for them but while I hate to bting the class issue into this, the fact that they are a middle class family, both Drs, seems to me to be playing a part.

I think the whole thing has been marky from beginning to end.

murky

I agree. Its not fair on all the other families who don’t shout as loud, aren’t as forceful and get their cases buried and lost. Lots of adults go missing too but don’t get anywhere near the amount spent on finding them that Corrie McKeague did because they don’t have relatives willing to nag the media and make a fuss.

It's a real conundrum isn't it, that such a large amount of money can be found to continue the investigation into what happened to Madeline McCann, yet no funds are available to investigate child sexual exploitation in poor northern towns. I hope that in making that comparison, I don't offend anyone. The reality is that lack of funding/resources was one of the reasons given for the lack of police involvement during the 1990's when concerns were consistently being raised about the organised sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

I've always struggled to understand why it is that the tragedy surrounding this small child has received so much police time, money and resources. Is it possible there is evidence the disappearance of this little girl is linked to organised crime.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I think their must be something to Madeleines disappearance that we the general public are not being told.

I agree I ve often wondered if by finding Madelaine they are hoping to uncover a whole regime of kidnapp or sex trafficking but why then is Corrie McKeague getting so many millions he was literally on a drunken night out (I don’t mean that in a nasty way at all I really really hoped they would find him or at least something to put his family at rest) but the police have bulldozed and bulldozed large areas costing millions yet I can think of a few youngsters in my area that have gone missing the lead goes cold after a couple of weeks and that’s all you hear I know these cases stay open How do they decide which cases get millions of pounds and which don’t i wonder ? And why are some people seemingly more important than others

Money and influence.

The whole situation is strange, and always has been, in my opinion.

The McCann case was different to other cases of missing children because the parents were considered middle class, I can’t recall another tragedy of a missing child where the parents were subjected to press and public critcism and accusations as these parents were. Within days the mother was condemned for not crying in public. Class war started immediately by the public, because they were doctors.

I too have empathy with the family of MM but it is true it appears that a disproportionate amount of time & money has been spent on the hunt for her compared to other, equally distressing, cases. Particularly when other essential services are cut.
A pretty, white middle class girl caught the media attention and sold papers. Not all children do that. ?

I agree with all the above; there is more to this than meets the eye.

But I also feel that this prolonged investigation with the associated publicity must make it very hard for the family to accept she is not coming back and move on with their lives as best one can after the loss of a child.

I also agree with the above comments. The police had what seemed to be positive leads in the Corrie McKeague case which made a lot of sense, hence the digging at the landfill site. I live about five miles away and it was a main item in our local news for a long time. The parents are separated and the father was camped outside during the search but the mother is now saying she has never believed he was there.

How much more valuable funding will be thrown at this remains to be seen.

I think the parents may well be considered middle class because they are doctors, but having read about them, I don't think either of them were born into a life of privilege, particularly not Gerry McCann, but at the time Madeleine disappeared they were living the dream, the dream that turned into an everlasting nightmare. I always thought the heartbreak was etched on Kate McCann's face. From then on I imagine they were haunted forever by "what ifs", "what if we'd never gone on that holiday, what if we hadn't had those evening get togethers a few yards away" It's easy to judge but I'm sure many of us may have been laissez faire with our own children at times, in retrospect I know I had been. The disappearance of young Madeleine was a seminal moment with many in reassessing our parenting in a "there for the grace of God that could have been me" so no I wouldn't judge them. I do however think a lot of money has been thrown at this case, I remember the little blonde toddler called Ben who disappeared in Greece, I don't think his case attracted anything like the resources that has been spent on Madeleine's disappearance. Sadly, I don't think she's alive, and I just wish some concrete evidence could be found to give her parents some sort of answer so that could have a conclusion.

As others have stated I think there are a multitude of ills that have and are being inflicted on children which need investigating too.

Luckygirl I think all the carrying on with the investigation is at the parents behest.
They could ask for it to stop if they wanted to move on.

How can they move on?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.