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13th April 2022
12:13pm BST

Funding for the UK's Operation Grange inquiry will end later this year after it was launched four years after Maddie had disappeared from her holiday home in Portugal.
Since it began, Operation Grange has cost an estimated £12.5 million. It was initially set up by Theresa May, who was the Home Secretary at the time. When it launched, the team comprised of 29 detectives and eight civilians.
Over the years, Operation Grange has translated tens of thousands of documents, and produced age-processed imagery of Madeleine. They have also conducted investigations into over 8,000 possible sightings.
Three years after the launch of Operation Grange, the group had taken over 1,000 statements, collected over 1,000 exhibits and investigated 60 persons of interest and more than 600 sex offenders.
The decision to end this means that is it highly unlikely that the prime suspect Christian B will be charged with her disappearance.
Under Portuguese law, police cannot prosecute a suspect after 15 years, which it is coming close to in the McCann case.
Legal experts say that this time limit means that the chances of making any arrests or convictions was "greatly reduced" after Maddie disappeared in 2007.
German man known as Christian B, 45, was accused of the crime and had lived near the resort from where Madeleine vanished at the time in Praia da Luz but if he was to be charged, he would have been declared an "official suspect" by May 3 last year.
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