Police watchdog: McCann inquiry ‘ludicrous’

Kate and Gerry McCann are facing a backlash over plans for the British police to investigate the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, who was taken from them while she slept in their Praia da Luz holiday apartment four years ago.

After an open letter written by the couple was published in the Sun, prime minister David Cameron asked the Metropolitan Police to get involved in a fresh inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine, who would now be eight years old.

But a senior member of the watchdog that monitors the Met's activities, the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) has spoken out against the decision to re-open the investigation. Jenny Jones told the Mail on Sunday: "The police should not take this case up in this way. It is ludicrous.

"This could take years and will cost millions. It is very unusual for police to step in like this and it is not an appropriate use of police resources.

"The Government is closing down the Forensic Science Service because there are not enough funds. This is a crucial part of police work.

"Although it is tragic and I feel for the McCanns, how can the Prime Minister justify spending millions of pounds on one case?"

Earlier, Sunday Times columnist India Knight rode to the couple's defence after they faced a fresh round of abuse online, where anonymous commenters accused them of being bad parents - or even of being complicit in their daughter's disappearance.

Abuse of this sort even surfaced on parenting website Mumsnet - so much of it that the site owners took the rare step of deleting all posts that speculated on the McCanns' guilt.

Knight applauded Mumsnet's action, writing: "But really: how tragic, how ugly is it that people should still, four years later and with a child still missing, gleefully run to their keyboards with the sole intention of being vile?

"That's not the moral high ground. Where I come from we call it the sewer." ·