Madeleine McCann Hunt Given Extra £154,000 To Continue Search

PA

It’s now been eleven years since Madeleine McCann disappeared during a family holiday in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

To mark the anniversary of the Leicestershire child’s disappearance, the UK government is pledging a new cash injection of over £150,000.

This significant funding boost will allow Scotland Yard to extend Operation Grange until September, 2018.

PA

As reported by The Telegraph, Home Office Minister of State, Baroness Williams of Trafford made the following statement:

An application from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) for further Special Grant funding for Operation Grange for 1 April – 30 September 2018 has been received.

This is for an amount similar to the £154,000 granted for the period of 1 October 2017 – 31 March 2018. The MPS has been briefed that its latest application will be granted.

Operation Grange was launched by Metropolitan Police back in 2011 and is reportedly following several lines of inquiry.

Getty

Posting on the ‘Official Find Madeleine Campaign’ Facebook page, Madeleine’s parents Kate, 50, and Gerry, 49, wrote the following message of hope to their supporters:

It gets harder to know what to say or write as each anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction approaches then passes. Life is full and busy which helps but Madeleine is still missing and she is still dearly missed.

Information continues to come in (incredible as it may seem after so long, although we are grateful for that) and work goes on. Perseverance and hope remain.

Thank you to everyone who continues to support us and wish us, especially Madeleine, well. After eleven years such warmth and persisting solidarity is truly remarkable, and at the same time a real tonic and boost to our spirit.

We couldn’t bear for Madeleine to be forgotten or to become just a ‘story’. She is a real person and still our ‘little girl’ and as we always have, we will endeavour to do whatever it takes to find her. Thank you so much for staying with us on this mission.

Former GP Kate, and heart specialist Gerry, will be attending a 30-minute gathering in their home village of Rothley, Leicestershire.

The event will take place at a war memorial where a ‘beacon of hope’ lantern shines continuously for missing Maddie. This gathering will also reportedly reflect on all the other children in the world who are missing.

Madeleine was three-years-old when she disappeared, and would now be approaching her fifteenth birthday.

A Catholic secondary school in Loughborough, attended by her younger brother and sister, still holds a place open for her after all these years.

In March 2018, The Home Office announced Scotland Yard would receive additional funding to follow an important ‘final line of enquiry:’

The Government remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

We have briefed the Mps that its application for Special Grant funding for Operation Grange will be granted.

Details about this line of enquiry have not been made public.

Our thoughts are with the family of Madeleine McCann at this difficult time.

If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Julia Banim

Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.