EXPRESS COMMENT: We must never give up on Maddy

Eight years on, police may be close to solving the riddle of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance. JAMES MURRAY, who has covered the case from the start, says the probe must continue.

PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, May 10, 2015



Prayers to mark the 8th anniversary of Madeleine McCann's disappearance: 5 year-old Danielle Steel ties a message to a symbolic tree of hopeGETTY

ON TUESDAY a family will gather for a small birthday party. Carefully chosen gifts will be offered, birthday cake eaten and cherished memories re lived.

Although the house will be filled with love and hope there will also be a feeling of emptiness as Kate and Gerry McCann and their 10-year-old twins Sean and Amelie remember much missed Madeleine, who should be celebrating her 12th birthday in the bosom of her family.

Instead, her whereabouts are unknown and nobody knows whether she is even alive. As the election dust settles in the weeks ahead, questions will undoubtedly be asked about how much more should be spent trying to crack the mystery.

Some pragmatists will argue that the £10million or so given by the Home Office to finance Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange “Maddy Squad” investigation is enough.

They will call for the squad to be broken up, so the elite detectives can return to their jobs with homicide command.

They will also argue that further probes should be paid for by the McCanns, with the money in their Madeleine Fund. It is my firm belief that Home Secretary Theresa May should resist those demands because it seems the truth is finally beginning to emerge.

Grange officers have at last established a proper, professional working relationship with their Portuguese counterparts which is producing results. Certain people have been identified and interviewed.

Their alibis and their reactions are being scrutinised as never before. Some have been cleared of any involvement but probes into others continue. One of the greatest achievements of the Grange team has been detailed analysis of phone records, showing roughly who was active on networks at key times on the evening of May 3, 2007, in the Algarve resort.

Portuguese officers, guided by Grange detectives, are now in a position to ask people what they were doing in Praia da Luz during that evening and why did they call or text so and so?

Layers and layers of wrong leads and useless information have now been peeled away, allowing officers to concentrate on the core facts.

Their dedication and graft has been appreciated by the McCanns and the friends who joined them on that fateful holiday, the so-called Tapas Seven: David and Fiona Payne, Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner, Matthew Oldfield, his wife Rachael and her mother Dianne Webster.

Now we know, thanks to Grange, that the man Jane saw carrying a child near Apartment 5a of the Ocean Club was, in fact, an innocent holidaymaker. That in itself was a huge breakthrough.

Thanks to Grange we know that Maddy was almost certainly in the arms of a man seen heading down towards the sea by the Smith family from Ireland.

Photofits of the potential suspect have been released. Officers have also established a pattern of attacks on children in the Algarve, something Portuguese police did not manage, which could yet lead to a host of other sordid crimes being solved.

Hopefully, the skills used by the Yard experts will be taken on board by the Portuguese, leading to better crime detection in the future.

A week ago friends of the McCanns joined villagers in Rothley, Leicstershire, to mark the eighth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance. Kate and Gerry could not be there as they were visiting her seriously ill father Brian in Liverpool. In her place, Fiona Payne read out a poem, The Tree Of Hope.

On a tree children attached touching messages. One wrote: “Dear God, please help all the missing children in the world and bring them back to their families.

"Make sure they are in safe hands and are going to be reunited with their families. Please bring Madeleine back to us. Amen.”

I would challenge any cold-hearted cynic to look that child in the eye and explain why the Grange operation should be shelved.

IN A POSTING on their Find Madeleine site Kate and Gerry wrote: “We are also buoyed and reassured by the unwavering commitment and continued progress being made in the investigation.

We are really grateful to the Metropolitan Police team for their conscientiousness, patience, consideration shown to us nd above all, their will to find Madeleine and determine what happened. “Co-operation with and from the Portuguese police has, and still is, vital to the success of the investigation.

We are very appreciative of the joint working relationship established between the two forces.” After years of very little co-operation that acknowledgement is a milestone.

Now with the rifts put aside, Grange lead detective Nicola Wall has a golden opportunity to justify the millions spent with a breakthrough.

Lessons learned from Grange must now be adopted by all forces to improve the chances of other innocents like Madeleine, who had no control over their fate.

In a civilised society, no price should ever be put on a child’s life.

In a civilised society, no price should ever be put on a child’s life.

Well said, Mr Murray!

Disgusting hounder:


Why not ask the Express to pay for the continuing investigation and give the remaining Fund money given back to the tax payer?


Why do vile creatures like them want to stop the investigation? Frightened that it's going to show their beloved Amoral in an even worse light, if that is possible?

What are the McCann-haters so scared of?

»
Quote from: John on Today at 12:01:08 PM
It would be interesting to know who in the UK has a vested interest in having this entire episode disappear just like Madeleine?

Who is pulling the strings at SY?

Wrong question.

We should be asking about vested interests in Portugal, and who was pulling the strings when the Algarve Mafia were ruling the roost.

http://www.stopthemyths.info/viewtopic.php?f=115&t=7722

Top
Re: Express
Postby Chinagirl » Sun May 10, 2015

Extraordinary that the great detective, Amaral, ignored this pattern of attacks on children ......

Extraordinary indeed - wonder why he did that? Especially when, as the PJ revealed a few months ago, the Portuguese police KNEW about the attacks, even had DNA from one of them.

Whatever was Gonzo playing at when he tried to frame the McCanns?

Layers and layers of wrong leads and useless information have now been peeled away, allowing officers to concentrate on the core facts.

Come to think of it, Mr Murray has played a useful role in getting certain people in Portugal to tell barefaced lies. On the record....

Wondering what the point is
Post Tony Bennett Today
I had a note from Admin a short while ago to say that my post (and the thread) had been removed to Admin because I had expressed my frustration in unusually strong terms that (a) people could not see that Operation Grange was a preposterous and expensive charade, (b) that the McCanns (and now the BBC and Operation Grange) had made good use of the Smithman sighting since early 2009, and (c) that hardly anyone could see what to me is plain - that the Smiths didn't see anyone that night in Praia da Luz.

I know a handful of people on here agree with me, and I am grateful for that, but quite honestly when I am told by a couple of posters here that I have 'done the Smithman sighting to death' and many people elsewhere suggest that I am a paid McCann stooge who is deliberatey lying about 'Smithman' then I have to seriously question: what is the point? - if the vast majority are against me

But....but.....I thought the Hounders all believed in Free Speach?

...they do but......Remember?

Ah yes......Only for them!

I actually find the wingnuts that are convinced Gerry McCann is Smithman rather entertaining, a most peculiar bunch. They're harmless really, rather like the Cargo Cult natives that are convinced Prince Philip is a god.....

Great analogy!  

big true, which I totally agree with:

"In a civilised society, no price should ever be put on a child’s life.",

the money spent is this investigation is truly money well spent,

that is in what money should be used, because a child´s life has no price.

bb1 wrote:
Wondering what the point is
Post  Tony Bennett Today
I had a note from Admin a short while ago to say that my post (and the thread) had been removed to Admin because I had expressed my frustration in unusually strong terms that (a) people could not see that Operation Grange was a preposterous and expensive charade, (b) that the McCanns (and now the BBC and Operation Grange) had made good use of the Smithman sighting since early 2009, and (c) that hardly anyone could see what to me is plain - that the Smiths didn't see anyone that night in Praia da Luz.

I know a handful of people on here agree with me, and I am grateful for that, but quite honestly when I am told by a couple of posters here that I have 'done the Smithman sighting to death' and many people elsewhere suggest that I am a paid McCann stooge who is deliberatey lying about 'Smithman' then I have to seriously question: what is the point? - if the vast majority are against me

But....but.....I thought the Hounders all believed in Free Speach?

Erm. There is no point. Silly old fart.