12 Years On From Her Disappearance - Scotland Yard Ask For More Funds In Madeleine Search

2 May 2019, 15:10

Scotland Yard has asked for more funding as it continues to follow up leads in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Madeleine - who was from Rothley in Leicestershire - was three when she was last seen while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

British police launched their own investigation, Operation Grange, in 2013 after a Portuguese inquiry failed to make progress.

Force bosses have been applying for funding from the Home Office every six months to continue the inquiry, which has cost about £11.75 million.

Last November, a further £150,000 was granted.

On Thursday, Commissioner Cressida Dick confirmed the Metropolitan Police had applied for more Home Office funding.

She said: "We have active lines of inquiries and I think the public would expect us to see those through.

"A very small team continues to work on this case with Portuguese colleagues and we have put in an application to the Home Office for further funding."

Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have always pledged never to give up the search for their daughter.