Madeleine McCann: Police Bills And Kids With Yellow Balloons
MADELEINE McCann: Is it unfair that British police are now investigating the disappearance of the innocent child?
The Lancashire Telegraph reports:
Britain’s top policeman, Lancashire-born Paul Stephenson, has faced accusations that the Madeleine McCann case was getting “unfair” and “special” attention at Scotland Yard.
Is it? It was getting lots of heat in the media before the Kate McCann book came out, but is there much going on away from the headlines?
The commissioner, appearing before members of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said additional funds from the Home Office to support examinations could help save jobs in the force’s homicide division.
Sir Paul was confronted over the review by London Assembly member Jenny Jones.
Speaking at City Hall, she said she sympathised with the McCann family but asked him: “Why is this a special case?”
Sir Paul replied: “I do not take your point.”
And:
The police chief said he “jealously guarded” his operational independence as he pointed to similar reviews which took place in the wake of the Soham murders and Jersey child abuse scandal.
The Government will reimburse the Met on a quarterly basis as the review goes on, he said.
“It is not an open cheque and it is not going to go on forever,” he added.
No? What time limit is on this investigation, then? Or is the cop just confident of getting a result?
Speaking later, Ms Jones, of the Green Party, said she was angered by the commissioner’s response to her question.
She said: “I am just not convinced by the commissioner saying that he has extra resources that he can move around so that other victims will not have unfairly lost justice as a result.”
Surely the thing to do is approach the case as if the child had vanished in the UK, and spend the same amount on a comparable investigation?
Meanwhile:
BRIGHT yellow balloons were released into Harborough’s skies to mark International Missing Children’s Day.
Children from Little Bowden Primary School took part in the event yesterday (Wednesday), organised by missing children’s group Forever Searching.
The organisation came about following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007. As volunteers began their search for the Leicestershire three-year-old, it became apparent just how many children across the UK were missing. This sparked the need for greater public awareness of all missing children cases.
Event organiser and Harborough mum Maxine Harris became involved with Forever Searching after Madeleine’s case hugely raised the profile of missing children. Maxine, who also works with the McCann family’s campaign, said: “You should never give up searching. I’d like to think that if it was my child, others would never give up. It’s good to feel that you’re actively doing something to help.”…
150 Maddies every year, right?
It is estimated that up to 110,000 children go missing in the UK every year. Most are found within a week with 1 per cent becoming long-term missing after a year.
Julie Myerson reviews Madeleine:
“Given how much false information has been circulated about the [McCann] family,” she writes, the author’s aim to “give an account of the truth” excites Myerson’s “full sympathy”. She concludes that even though “there is a readership for Madeleine, many others will feel free to discuss and comment on the book without having read it,” and “you hope for the McCanns’ sake that, whether or not they ever discover what happened to their daughter, the agonising rawness … will eventually subside to nothing.”
Spotter: Karen
Posted: 26th, May 2011 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (78) | TrackBack | Permalink
