Madeleine McCann: Investigation to receive a further £192,000 from Home Office
The Home Office has granted up to a further £192,000 for the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
The Metropolitan Police has already spent £13.2million as of March 2024 investigating the high-profile case.
Madeleine went missing in May 2007 while on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when the then-three-year-old was left in an apartment with her younger siblings as their parents went out to dinner with friends.
The confirmation of the latest annual funding for Scotland Yard's Operation Grange was revealed in a parliamentary written answer by Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom.
Responding to a parliamentary written question by Conservative peer Lord Black of Brentwood, Lord Sharpe said: “For the year 2024-25 the Home Office has agreed to provide up to £192,000 to the Metropolitan Police Service through special grant funding for Operation Grange, the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
“At March 31 2024, the total cost of the investigation was £13.2 million.”
He added: “Operation Grange’s special grant budget currently funds a team of three police officers and one member of police staff, all of whom operate on a part-time basis.
“Special grant funding is reviewed annually by the Home Office.
“The department also liaises regularly with the Operation Grange investigation team to assess progress and challenge the use of funds as necessary.”
The prime suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance is currently on trial in Germany charged with unrelated sex offences, allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
The 47-year-old German, only known as Christian B because of the country’s strict privacy laws, spent many years in Portugal – including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.
He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an elderly woman at her home in the resort town in 2005.
He had denied all the charges against him and any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
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