Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann was child who was abducted from a hotel in 2007.  She was three years old, at the time of her disappearance and started the biggest manhunt in British History. Again personal beliefs are not to be discusses here (As there is a lot of controversy on this matter) so we are only going to be discussing the case here and what has been found out.

One of the first things that is striking is that most of the requests that you find were made in 2014 (Which is a bit odd since this happened in 2007).  The second is how little information you can get out there.  Part of this is because Operation Grange (The name given to the man hunt for Madeleine) is an ongoing investigation, which does limit what the Met (or any other police force) could give in response.  The third thing that is striking is what people have asked about this matter.  The fourth is how much the UK government is keeping back to save face.

The Met spent £1500 on flights to Portugal in 2014.  This by itself is nothing major, but does give us an insight into the amount that are being spent.  (Especially when you have someone send a FoI request as blunt as this one).  The home office also provided a special grant which allowed the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to Portugal to help conduct their investigation (See more details on this one here).  The cost, for seven days was £46,000 and there were other police forces involved in the investigation, not just the MPS.

When the Foreign and Commonwealth Office were asked if any diplomat warned Tony Blair (Then Prime Minister) of the McCanns, they were refused. I only bring this to your attention because it shows that sometimes you have to remember that in the world of international relations it is very hard to get the information that you need. It also shows (because this case came from a newspaper report) that sometimes the newspapers have more access to information that we do (?).

This is the one that REALLY interested me.  It asks for the FoI request about the McCanns and the responses given by The Leicestershire Constabulary.  The reasons that it is interesting is that it shows everything that was asked, and what was said.  The reasons I bring it to you is (not just because I might start employing this technique myself) is because we can gather a lot about people and what THEY want to know about this high profile case.  Some of the records were also disclosed by the MPS too.

This has been a hard one to write.  The reasons is because there is so much information to get into 500 words. Not only that but it has been hard to get through the international minefield that lays ahead. I May do another follow up on this, but for the moment, know that there is a lot of information on this.