Scotland Yard asks for more money for Madeleine McCann

Scotland Yard asks for more money for Madeleine McCann



Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have applied for more funding for the search.



The Home Office confirmed that it is considering an application from the Metropolitan Police for more money to keep the probe, called Operation Grange, going.



A spokeswoman said: 'The Home Office has provided funding to the Metropolitan Police for Operation Grange and the resources required are reviewed regularly with careful consideration given before any new funding is allocated.'



Government funding for the investigation has been agreed every six months, with £154,000 being granted from October last year until the end of March.



More than £11 million has been spent so far on the probe to find the missing girl, who vanished from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007, aged three. 



The size of the extra cash award raised hopes police were closing in on identifying whoever abducted the three-year-old but also led to questions about what the money would be spent on, as only four officers remain on the case. 





Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, insist the inquiry must continue as there is 'absolutely nothing' to suggest she has been harmed.



Not one piece of forensic evidence linked to her has been found since she vanished.



And despite thousands of tip-offs and potential sightings, police have not confirmed that a single one was her.



Last week it was revealed Madeleine's parents have set aside almost £750,000 to fund a private search if police stop looking for their missing daughter.



The Find Madeleine Fund consists chiefly of donations and profits from mother Kate's book on the child's disappearance in Portugal.



The 49-year-old has made £793,516 from the bestselling Madeleine: Our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her. 



Family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said the Find Madeleine Fund gives the McCanns the chance to 'pick up their own inquiries again, if they choose, with private investigators'.



Madeleine, three, vanished from an apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents were eating tapas with friends at a restaurant nearby.



She would now be nearly 15. 





Operation Grange has been one of the longest, most high-profile and costly police investigations in history.



Launched in May 2011, officers have sifted (and translated) 40,000 documents produced by Portuguese police who conducted the initial investigation, and by the eight teams of private detectives who have worked on the case.



Some 600 'persons of interest' have been examined and 'sightings' of Madeleine — in Brazil, India, Morocco and Paraguay, on a German plane and in a New Zealand supermarket — assessed. 



The Portuguese investigation of Madeleine's disappearance was criticised by the British authorities as being not fit for purpose.



Scotland Yard began an investigative review into the disappearance in 2011, on the orders of then-Prime Minister David Cameron.