Major update in Madeleine McCann probe as UK detectives get £108,000 in additional funding to help solve infamous case

MORE than £100,000 in additional funding for police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been approved by ministers.

Home Office sources said a request to provide up to £108,000 was granted for the long-running probe — known as Operation Grange — for the next year.

PA:Press Association

Madeleine McCann was aged three when she vanished in 2007 while on holiday with her parents[/caption]

Getty

More than £100k in additional funding for police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been approved[/caption]

It is understood the Met Police has a detective chief inspector, a detective constable and one member of police staff currently working on the investigation.

Madeleine was aged three when she vanished in 2007 while on holiday with her parents in the resort of Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve.

The prime suspect in the youngster’s disappearance was recently cleared of unrelated sex offences which were allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.

German national Christian Brueckner, 48, spent many years in Portugal, including in Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s suspected abduction and murder.

He is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for the rape of an American pensioner at her Praia da Luz home in 2005 but could be freed from jail within weeks.

Brueckner had denied all the charges against him during last year’s trial and any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.

London’s Met Police is understood to be continuing its support for authorities in ­Germany and Portugal.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who oversees the British investigation into Madeleine’s case, said: “We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May, 2007 in Praia da Luz.

“Our thoughts remain with the family.”

Operation Grange has been given more than £13.2million in funding since 2011.

Dan Charity

German national Christian Brueckner is the prime suspect in the case[/caption]