28.10.2015
On remarquera l'emploi exclusif du mot "disparition", seuls les MC parlent d'enlèvement.
The Met announced the
new structure and changes to the investigation into the disappearance of
Madeleine McCann. The investigation into what happened
to Madeleine continues but with a smaller team of officers. Officers
investigating her disappearance have completed the huge task of
bringing together and investigating the massive amount of information
held by colleagues in Portugal, the United Kingdom investigation and
the private investigators working on behalf of the McCann family.
They
are now following a small number of focused lines of inquiry that have
allowed them to reduce the size of the Home Office funded team.
Detectives
investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in May 2007 have
been working through material and following investigative inquiries
since the Home Office requested a review of the case in May 2011.
Operation Grange is working to support the Portuguese investigation and this work continues.
While there remain lines of inquiry to follow, the vast majority of the work by Operation Grange has been completed.
This
work included reviewing all the material relating to the case which
were brought together for the first time and amounted to collating over
40,000 documents from United Kingdom and foreign law enforcement
agencies, as well as various private investigation companies.
Officers
worked meticulously through the information. Some of the material had
to be translated into English, facts had to be cross-referred and
diligently analysed to ensure an oversight of what the MPS was
examining and to search for new lines of inquiry.
Once this work had been completed the review became a full investigation in July 2012.
The
investigation team has taken 1,338 statements and collected 1,027
exhibits. Having reviewed all of the documents, 7,154 actions were
raised and 560 lines of enquiry identified, and over thirty
international request to countries across the world asking for work to
be undertaken on behalf of the Met.
Officers have investigated
more than 60 persons of interest. A total of 650 sex offenders have
also been considered as well as reports of 8,685 potential sightings of
Madeleine around the world.
The Grange team received on average
two hundred emails a week, and following the media appeal in October
2013 across three countries, received over 7,000 responses.
For
an investigation of this size, the extraordinary circumstances of
investigating a missing child four years later in another country, the
vast wealth of information and theories, it was always going to be an
immense task and required a full team of 29 staff working on it.
With
the significant amount of work approaching completion, as with all
investigations the MPS has reviewed the staff required to progress the
remaining work.
A team of four officers will continue to work
solely on the Grange investigation, funded by the Home Office. The
enquiry has not reached a conclusion, there are still focused lines of
investigation to be pursued.
The officers will continue to be
overseen by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall, the current senior
investigating officer, and sit within an existing major investigation
team on the Homicide and Major Crime Command. This will give them
access to officers within that team should they be required to support
further operational activity.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, from the MPS said:
The Met investigation has been painstaking and thorough and has for the first time brought together in one place what was disparate information across the world.This work has enabled us to better understand events in Praia da Luz the night Madeleine McCann went missing and ensure every possible measure is being taken to find out what happened to her.We still have very definite lines to pursue which is why we are keeping a dedicated team of officers working on the case. We have given this assurance to Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann.The Portuguese police remain the lead investigators and our team will continue to support their inquiry. They have extended every courtesy to Operation Grange and we maintain a close working relationship. I know they remain fully committed to investigating Madeleine's disappearance with support from the Metropolitan Police.The Met was asked to take on this exceptional case as one of national interest. We were happy to bring our expertise to bear only on the basis that it would not detract from the policing of London; and the Home Office have additionally funded the investigation above normal grants to the Met. That will continue at the reduced level.I have overseen this investigation since 2012 and am very grateful for the enormous assistance of the media and public so far which, through the appeals, have generated new information and lines of Inquiry.
Our decision and rationale has been discussed with Mr and Mrs McCann.
Mr and Mrs McCann said:
We would like to thank all the staff from Operation Grange for the meticulous and painstaking work that they have carried out over the last four and a half years. The scale and difficulty of their task has never been in doubt.We are reassured that the investigation to find Madeleine has been significantly progressed and the MPS has a much clearer picture of the events in Praia da Luz leading up to Madeleine's abduction in 2007."Given that the review phase of the investigation is essentially completed, we fully understand the reasons why the team is being reduced.We would also like to thank the Home Office for continuing to support the investigation.Whilst we do not know what happened to Madeleine, we remain hopeful that she may still be found given the ongoing lines of enquiry.
The remaining Operation Grange officers will be deployed to other enquiries within Specialist Crime and Operations.
