Madeleine McCann police use sniffer dogs to comb wooded area during reservoir search
Police are using sniffer dogs to comb through a wooded area on the banks of a reservoir during the second day of an operation in Portugal as part of the investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.
Officers are searching close to the Arade dam, located around 30 miles (50km) from the Algarve resort town of Praia da Luz, where the British girl went missing 16 years ago when she was aged just three.
Officers were working with strimmers and heavy machinery, while a fire service vehicle and rigid-hull inflatable boat were on the banks of the reservoir.
As other officers searched an area of woodland with a sniffer dog, their colleagues carried spades and rakes.
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A day searching for Madeleine McCann
On Tuesday, police took away a number of bags from the search site and police divers could be seen entering the water. It is not known what was in the bags.
They also used rakes, spades and pickaxes to scour the ground, deployed a drone to scan the area from above and used sniffer dogs on both sides of the dam, while firefighters carried out searches of the reservoir in a dinghy.
A no-fly zone has been imposed over the reservoir.
A media briefing is expected at the end of the searches on Wednesday or Thursday.
The fresh operation, headed by Portuguese police and aided by their British and German colleagues, was announced on Monday.
It is being carried out at the request of German authorities and is likely linked to photographs of the reservoir found at the hideout of Christian B, a source told Reuters.
The convicted child abuser and drug dealer was named by German prosecutors last year as an official suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance. He has denied any involvement.
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A police search team work on the shore of the Arade dam. Pic: AP
Search began earlier this week
Vehicles and officers were first seen at the site of the reservoir on Monday after reports of the new search emerged.
Portuguese media say it is the fourth search for Madeleine, following the initial one in 2007 in the Algarve area and further efforts in 2013 and 2014. Another search was held in Germany in 2020.
The reservoir is currently less than half full due to a drought affecting Portugal and neighbouring Spain. The area where police were working would be below water in years of normal rainfall.
Pic: AP
Suspect used to visit reservoir
It comes after German police announced in June 2020 that they believed Madeleine was dead and that Christian B was likely responsible.
It is claimed the convicted child abuser and drug dealer used to visit the reservoir, allegedly referring to it as “his paradise”.
He is currently behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve region where Madeleine went missing.
The waterway was previously searched in 2008 after Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia paid for specialist divers to check the site.
He claimed to have been tipped off by criminal contacts that Madeleine’s body was in the reservoir, but nothing was found.
Pic: AP
Madeleine’s parents say they will ‘never give up’ searching for her
On the 15th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance last year, her parents said it was “essential” to learn the truth of what happened to their daughter after she went missing during a family holiday on 3 May 2007.
Kate and Gerry McCann marked Madeleine’s 20th birthday earlier this month, vowing they would “never give up” the search for her.
Dozens of people around the world have been arrested after police disrupted a UK-founded website scamming victims on an industrial scale.
LabHost, a site set up in 2021, tricked as many as 70,000 UK victims, obtaining 480,000 card numbers and 64,000 PINs worldwide, the Metropolitan Police said.
It was created by a criminal network and enabled more than 2,000 users to set up phishing websites designed to steal personal information such as email addresses, passwords and bank details.
Criminal subscribers could log on and choose from existing sites or request bespoke pages replicating those of trusted brands such as banks, healthcare agencies and postal services.
Person arrested in connection with the investigation. Pic: Met Police
The website even provided a tutorial to cater for wannabe fraudsters with limited IT knowledge, with a robotic voice saying at the end: “Stay safe and good spamming”.
Those subscribing to worldwide membership – meaning they could target victims all around the world – paid between £200 and £300 a month.
Since it began, the site has received just under £1m in payments from criminal users.
But just after it was seized and disrupted, its 800 customers got a message telling them that police knew who they were and what they were doing.
Thirty-seven people were arrested around the world, including some at Manchester and Luton airports, as well as in Essex and London.
Detectives have also contacted up to 25,000 UK-based victims to tell them their data has been compromised.
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Items seized by the Metropolitan Police. Pic: Met Police
Police began investigating LabHost in June 2022 after they were tipped off by the Cyber Defence Alliance – a group of British-based banks and law enforcement agencies which share intelligence.
Dame Lynne Owens, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said: “Online fraudsters think they can act with impunity. They believe they can hide behind digital identities and platforms such as LabHost and have absolute confidence these sites are impenetrable by policing.
“But this operation and others over the last year show how law enforcement worldwide can, and will, come together with one another and private sector partners to dismantle international fraud networks at source.”
Adrian Searle, director of the National Economic Crime Centre in the NCA, said: “This operation again demonstrates that UK law enforcement has the capability and intent to identify, disrupt and completely compromise criminal services that are targeting the UK on an industrial scale.”
Calls made to an anti-slavery helpline have reached a record high, with the number of potential victims in the care sector rising by almost a third.
According to anti-slavery charity Unseen, the number of calls to the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline in 2023 increased by more than 19%, up from 9,779 in 2022 to 11,700 last year.
Labour abuse remained the main form of exploitation up by 11% from 464 cases in 2022 to 516 in 2023.
Potential victims indicated in the care sector went up by 30% from 708 in 2022 to 918.
There was also a 21% increase in potential victims of criminal exploitation to 385 in 2023.
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Justine Carter, director of Unseen and co-author of the report, said: “Modern slavery and exploitation are heinous crimes that have no place in a modern, progressive UK that cares about human rights.
“It is encouraging that we are continuing to see rising numbers of calls and contacts to the Helpline, indicating that we are succeeding in raising awareness of the issue and mobilising more people to act.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Forced surrogacy was reported for the first time last year, with three potential victims indicated.
Following a case in 2022, four cases of organ harvesting were also reported.
The figures are part of the Helpline’s Annual Assessment, which covers potential victims from 106 different countries, up from 99 in 2022.
Nationals of India, Albania, Romania, Vietnam and China were the most commonly reported.
The number of potential victims was 5,876, down 10% on 2022 (6,516), while the number of modern slavery cases raised was 2,185, down 16% on 2022.
Ms Carter added: “We remain concerned that the ever-increasing hostile environment in the UK towards migrants and foreign workers means that fewer people feel able to raise concerns and seek the help and support that they desperately need.
“More needs to be done to encourage victims to come forward and to properly resource efforts to stamp out modern slavery and exploitation for good.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Modern slavery is a barbaric crime and we are committed to ensuring that needs-based support is available to victims to help them rebuild their lives, and to working with first responders to ensure victims understand the support and protection available.”
An MP has lost the Conservative Party whip while newspaper claims about alleged misuse of campaign funds are investigated.
Mark Menzies, the MP for Fylde, disputes the allegations reported by The Times but the Conservative Party is looking into the claims.
A spokesperson for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: “Following a call with the Chief Whip, Mark Menzies has agreed to relinquish the Conservative whip, pending the outcome of an investigation.”
Losing the whip means Mr Menzies is no longer a member of the Conservative parliamentary party and will sit as an independent MP, rather than a Tory MP, in the House of Commons chamber.
In a statement to The Times, Mr Menzies said: “I strongly dispute the allegations put to me. I have fully complied with all the rules for declarations. As there is an investigation ongoing I will not be commenting further.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The Conservative Party is investigating allegations made regarding a Member of Parliament. This process is rightfully confidential.
“The party takes all allegations seriously and will always investigate any matters put to them.”
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said earlier on Wednesday that it was “frankly appalling” that the Conservative Party had allegedly been aware of the allegations for more than three months.
“Rishi Sunak must suspend the whip for Mark Menzies immediately, while all the relevant authorities investigate the matter,” she said.
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Mr Menzies has served as the MP for Fylde in Lancashire since May 2010.
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Last week William Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove, Greater Manchester, also gave up the whip after he admitted to The Times that he had given his colleagues’ phone numbers to someone he met on a dating app.
Scotland Yard said it is investigating reports of the so-called “honeytrap” scam after it was suggested at least 12 men in political circles received unsolicited messages, raising security concerns.
Mr Wragg also resigned as vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers and stepped down from his role heading the Commons’ public administration and constitutional affairs committee.
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