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The clock is ticking on guaranteed
funding for Operation Grange - the
six-year probe by Britain’s Metropolitan
Police which has cost over £12 million
as officers search for answers about
what happened to Madeleine McCann.
As has happened throughout the last
decade of strategically-released stories
(often light on content) today saw yet
another “exclusive” by Murdoch tabloid
the Sun, penned by a purported great
friend of Madeleine’s mother Kate.
Informing readers that “Met Police have
less than eight weeks of Home Office
funding left to try and crack the
world’s biggest ever child
disappearance”, the story centres on
Madeleine’s parents “anxiously waiting
to find out if Grange will receive more
funding”.
In the interim they have thanked the
public “for continuing to be by our
side”.
What is shocking about today’s story is
the extent to which the public appears
to be on Kate and Gerry McCann’s ‘side’.
At time of writing, there was not one
positive comment underneath the online
text, and many entries go way beyond the
bounds of acceptable rudeness. They
could easily be actionable.
A former police superintendent involved
in the Complete Mystery of Madeleine
McCann website - which has been
campaigning for a much wider brief for
Grange’s search to take in other
hypotheses beyond abduction - told us:
“We cannot work out what the Sun is up
to.
“It knows full well that every article
it puts up will attract negative
comments, but it isn’t moderating them.
“It is allowing explicit allegations of
specific and very serious crimes to be
made against the McCanns, beyond
anything that the Portuguese PJ police,
Gonçalo Amaral or indeed the British
police ever suggested, and so extreme
that most of the commentary blog sites
would not allow them to appear.
“CMoMM (the Complete Mystery of
Madeleine McCann) for example takes down
any such posts, with an explanation of
why this has been done - yet the Sun
allows truly foul language, and then it
leaves it online for everyone else to
see, for weeks, months and sometimes for
all time.
“Today’s article itself contains
absolutely nothing. So why write it? And
more to the point, why then allow
comments?”
It’s a second mystery for anyone for
whom this seemingly endless puzzle has
become a mission to try and solve - and
of course there is the added question
‘will the Home Office really decide to
increase funding yet again, after so
much money has been ploughed into an
inquiry that is still so open-ended’?
Coinciding with this latest reminder
that Grange’s time could finally be up,
criminal profiler Pat Brown has released
an ebook entitled: “Ten Missing and
Murdered Children’s Cases that Have
Nothing to do with Madeleine McCann”.
The prolific American author and
television personality explains it is “a
satirical but truthful look at how the
Madeleine McCann case has eclipsed all
other missing and murdered children's
cases much to their detriment”.
Brown’s publicity blurb includes a
tongue-in-cheek “note to the media: When
you promote Pat Brown's new book, Ten
Cases that Have Nothing to Do with
Madeleine McCann, don't forget to
mention Madeleine McCann”.
Meantime, according to the Sun, the
Metropolitan Police investigation “is
continuing with focus and determination,
but as yet no new significant clues have
been unearthed”.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com |
