To think the Met spending £5 million on Maddie McCann is unfair on others who have missing children

[Ilovemyself]

I know how retched I would feel if I were in the McCanns position, and would want no expense to be spared in the hunt for answers.

But I can't help but think that this case has been so high profile that other cases must have funding cut or not even be followed up as the budget is limited.

I honestly don't know what the answer is, but it does seem this case has benefitted in ways others wouldn't.

I feel bad for thinking its unfair on others, but just can't help wondering how other victims of serious crime feel.

[janey68]

I said resources should be carved up equally in the first instance, as in 'all things being equal'. Obviously once leads are established then some cases will merit greater resources. The point about the McCann case is that there was never equity in the first place, because the new leads have only been established because of a 2 year review Which comparable cases haven't had. For all we know, there could be new witnesses and leads coming to light in other cases if they were given the publicity, money and time afforded to the McCann case

So no, of course I'm not suggesting that every case must have exactly the same resources invested regardless of the evidence- that would be daft. What I am saying is that the starting point should be equitable provision. Not resources based on how much the parents have been in the papers or whether the prime minister has got involved

[janey68]

Oh and as to your question about what happens now: no of course the £5 million follow up investigation can't be dropped. How can a police force possibly say 'well we've spent two years reviewing, and now we're going to ignore our findings. '

So, the mccann case will continue to get preferential treatment. There's no going back now is there?

And of course, we can all hope that there will be a resolution but after 6 years, when the new leads seem to be based on simply trying to track down these 38 people who were on holiday around that time, and trying to glean further information... Well, I will be hugely surprised if the case is resolved.

[CloudsAndTrees]

Is it preferential treatment though?

I'm not sure that it is. It could just be that things have moved on, I'm sure there are many areas where police will investigate a crime differently now compared to the way they would have investigated 20 years ago.

It doesn't have to be deliberately preferential just because its a better way of handling the case.

I would fully support any worthwhile review of cases of missing children, but I could do that without saying that the McCanns had it so everyone else should too.

[janey68]

I don't think we're going to agree on this if you fundamentally believe that the McCann case has been treated equally to other cases.

It is a very thorny topic, and difficult to use terminology like 'preferential treatment' (perhaps it sounds clumsy but i cant think of a better way to express it) because ultimately the mccanns are in an awful position, no one would envy them. But the fact that they are in this situation does not make them immune from what people believe to be valid criticism. Whatever anyone tries to say, this case has been personally championed by the PM, funded to a level far higher than that of other missing person cases, and given a public profile far in excess of other cases

And it's undeniable that the mccanns have been elevated to some sort of weird status whereby public forums were shut down simply through people stating factual information, if it didn't show the family in a positive light. Now that fact alone shows preferential treatment over other cases. I would concede that that aspect has improved: the fact that this thread hasn't been shut down is evidence of that, because I truly believe that a few years back , any posts which stated that the mccanns refused to take part in a reconstruction, would have been.

But yes, this is not about cases being handled differently because of investigative methods moving on; this is one case being elevated to a status and being funded way beyond other comparable cases

[SDhopeful]

What is puzzling is why it is the Met investigating. the disappearance happened in Portugal, not in the UK. No jurisdiction there for the British police. The McCs could have asked for the Portuguese police to re-open the case, if new evidence was found - don't see how it is a matter for the British police at all?.

[snooky179]

Doesn't it strike you as odd how high profile this has been? It's unprecedented. Every missing child needs to be found but never has any case been given this type of money/publicity. I think we should be asking why? I'm sure Ben Needham's mum would have welcomed even a fraction of the political involvement & money being spent on the search for her son. By the way, the majority of the money raised from public donations to the family has been spent on legal action against anyone questioning their version of events, which begs the question, why should public funds be used to fund a search already financed by public donations, rehashing evidence already explored by the Portuguese police.