A TOP cop has lashed out at the £100,000 extra funding - on top of £11 million already spent - given to the search for Madeleine McCann, calling it a “thankless task.”
The bombshell from Colin Sutton who turned down the opportunity to lead the inquiry into Maddie’s disappearance told a documentary her corpse could be buried in any of 600 ancient Portuguese wells.
Now Mr Sutton said: “It’s almost impossible without specific intelligence that would allow you to focus on a specific area."
“It would be very easy to secrete something there and be very confident it wouldn’t be found.”
Forensic scientist David Barclay agrees with Mr Sutton, calling Praia da Luz, Portugal, “the easiest place to hide a body.”
Maddie vanished from an apartment in the region in 2007, when she was just 3-years-old, as her parents dined at a nearby tapas restaurant.
Kate and Gerry McCann remain optimistic that one day the search will find their missing daughter, who would now be almost 15-years-old.
The parents have set up a ‘Find Maddie Fund’ and raised £728,508 to hire private investigators who can help the search.
Funds raised by the account come mainly from public donations - and if the police’s ‘Operation Grange,’ which wants to find Maddie, ever stops, then the McCanns plan to continue the hunt.
Last year, detectives admitted they were pursuing a “critical line of inquiry.”
Family spokesperson Clarence Mitchell said: “The Met Police will put in a further request for funds if they feel work still needs to be done.
“Money in the Madeleine Fund gives Kate and Gerry the option to pick up their own inquiries again, if they choose, with private investigators.
“They are very encouraged that the Met Police still believe there is work left to be done and they are incredibly grateful to the Home Office for providing an extra budget for the investigation.”
The Home Office approved the extra £100,000 last week, with Operation Grange funding approved on a six-monthly basis.
Between October 2017-March 2018, the Government gave £154,000.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The Government remains committed to the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
“We have briefed the Metropolitan Police Service that its application for special grant funding for Operation Grange will be granted.”
Madeleine McCann: Investigators pursuing 'significant' lead
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley describes the latest part of their investigation as a "critical piece of work".
Thursday 27 April 2017
By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent
Police searching for Madeleine McCann have said they are pursuing a "significant line of inquiry" as the 10th anniversary of her disappearance approaches.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told Sky News: "...Because it's worth pursuing it could provide an answer, but until we've gone through it I won't know whether we are going to get there or not.
"Ourselves and the Portuguese are doing a critical piece of work and we don't want to spoil it by putting titbits of information out publicly."
Meanwhile, the only four official suspects investigated by the Met Police over the abduction have been ruled out of the inquiry.
The suspects were believed by Scotland Yard to have taken her during a burglary gone wrong at the McCanns' rented holiday apartment in Portugal.
They were identified by their mobile phone use, their location near the apartment on the night and their backgrounds.
One is Jose Carlos da Silva, 35, a former driver at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished on 3 May, 2007.
He and the others were questioned and investigated for six months before being told they would face no further action.
Mr Rowley said: "Somebody's doing a burglary, panicked maybe by a waking child and that's what leads to Madeleine going missing."
Asked if that was an unlikely scenario and if any surprised burglar would simply run away, Mr Rowley said: "In my experience, if you try to apply the cold, rational logic of a normal person sitting in their front room to what criminals do under pressure, you tend to make mistakes.
"It was a sensible hypothesis and it's not entirely ruled out."
Madeleine disappeared as she slept in a room with her younger twin siblings while their parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors, dined with friends nearby.
Scotland Yard began investigating six years ago after the failure of the first Portuguese police investigation. The team of detectives, cut in 2015 from 29 to four, has spent more than £11m of UK Government funds.
Mr Rowley said new information was still being received daily.
The Metropolitan Police was recently given an extra £85,000 by the Home Office to keep the investigation going until September.
Portugal's deputy national director of the Policia Judiciaria, Pedro do Carmo, told Sky News that he was under no financial or political pressure to wind up his re-opened investigation.
He said: "If the Metropolitan Police decides to close its investigation that doesn't mean we are going to close ours.
"Our two investigations are not dependent on one another."
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