The Operation
Grange investigation by the Metropolitan Police into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is said to be “upbeat” and set to continue despite mounting costs, a top resignation and apparently still no breakthrough in sight.
The latest episode
in this extraordinary case, with Scotland Yard detectives questioning ten
people in Faro, does not seem to have resulted in any meaningful progress.
The previous high point in the investigation
featured British police searching across three sites next to Praia da Luz in the
summer. Scorned by sceptics as a ‘whitewash’ and a ‘circus,’ the searches
produced no new evidence and gave rise not only to exasperation among local
citizens, but also speculation that the investigation was nearing its endgame.
The speculation
heightened with news that the cost of the inquiry was approaching £10 million
at a time of stringent budget cuts that could have disastrous consequences for
police forces across the UK .
The announcement
that Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood was retiring from the Met as the
head of Operation Grange further invigorated the notion that the case was going
nowhere.
“After careful
consideration and a full and rewarding career in the Met, the time is right for
me to move on,” Redwood said.
A headline in the
Mirror declared: “Madeleine McCann top cop quits: This does send a certain kind
of message.”
The paper reported
that with Redwood’s resignation, “the inquiry into the disappearance of
Madeleine McCann suffered a blow.” It went on to quote a source close to the
inquiry: “The investigation has gone on for three and a half years now. However
a lead detective would not typically stand down if they can see a result in the
pipeline.”
If this did
indeed send “a certain kind of message,” it was somewhat confused by the simultaneous
announcement that DCI Nicola Wall was to replace Redwood as leader of the
Operation Grange team.
This left some
observers wondering if the latest questioning in Faro was a last ditch effort
that might soon lead to a formal wrapping up of the investigation.
Not so,
apparently.
Anthony Summers,
co-author with his wife Robbyn Swan of the book Looking for Madeleine, told the
BBC Breakfast programme that, according to his sources, the Operation Grange
team is “upbeat and believes the case is solvable.”
There is said to
be no political pressure, no hidden agenda and no pressure or problem about
expenditure.
The team still comprises
about 30 officers and support staff, essentially the same number as earlier in
the investigation. The expectation is that they will continue ploughing methodically
though a vast amount of information.
So, the indications
are that although the investigation is taking a very long time with apparently
little success, this should not be interpreted as meaning that detectives are
pessimistic about the case or about to give up.
It has been known
by insiders for some months that Redwood was going to retire. But immediately
after the announcement, the Mirror quoted a senior Labour MP as saying:
“There are times when public duty must override personal circumstances, and
this is one of them. If senior officers were aware of the DCI’s retirement
plans, why was he put on to this case in the first place?”
Interesting
question, but this is a side issue.
The main thrust
is that Nicola Wall has now met the senior Portuguese officials she will be
collaborating with after formally taking command of Operation Grange on 22
December.
When Inês
Sequeira was appointed Portimão’s new public prosecutor in October she was
quoted in the press as being “utterly determined” to crack the case.
She has the
backing of Portugal ’s
first woman attorney general, Joana Marques Vidal, Portimão’s PJ chief, Ana
Paula Rito, and the Oporto-based PJ detective in charge of the Portuguese
investigation, Helena Monteiro.
Nicola Wall has served
at the Met for 26 years, most recently as head of the Murder Investigation Team
in West London . Hitherto she has not had much
media coverage, but that’s about to change.
Vogue magazine
last year reported that she prided herself on her investigative speed; that she
was only partially joking when she attributed her low media profile to the fact
“we solve cases so quickly nobody gets involved.”
An omen perhaps?
An omen perhaps?