Madeleine McCann's parents have denied having a spat with the Ben Needham campaign and say they support it.
Spokesman Clarence Mitchell today confirmed that the official Twitter account publicising the search for missing Madeleine McCann has been suspended due to the abusive comments that had been posted.
The ‘Find Madeleine’ site had been targeted with comments that displayed "hatred and sheer viciousness" towards Kate and Gerry McCann.
These comments may have resulted from questions posed by Mrs Needham who publicly has pondered the fairness of the £10.1 million spent by the UK government on the search for Madeleine when compared to the £800,000 spent since 1991in the search for her son, Ben, who went missing from the Greek island of Kos (pictured) in 1991.
Mr Mitchell said today that "Kate and Gerry McCann have always supported the campaign to find Ben Needham, indeed they have promoted it on their Find Madeleine Campaign social media platforms.
"However, it is a great pity that due to continued, ill-informed and abusive comments by some social media users, the decision has been taken to discontinue the 'Find Madeleine' Twitter account."
Mitchell added that "Kate and Gerry continue to wish Ben's mother, Kerry, all the best and they hope that she will one day be reunited with Ben, just as they, similarly, continue to hope that they will be reunited with Madeleine."
Ben Needham's mother told the British daily newspaper the Mirror that she was "shocked and hurt."
"I have myself had massive amounts of slanderous abuse from supporters of the McCann Campaign in the past but I have never taken that personally," she told the Mirror.
"I have never criticised the McCann family. I have only every criticised the authorities for the way the two cases have been handled so differently."
The Find Madeleine website today displayed a message that "deleting our Twitter account is the only option left to protect ourselves and the search for Madeleine".
The Facebook and Twitter accounts were set up in 2008 in order to raise awareness of the Find Madeleine campaign.
Madeleine disappeared during a family holiday in Praia da Luz in May 2007, while Ms Needham's 21-month-old son Ben vanished from Kos in July 1991. Neither child has been spotted since.
Comments
2) How many arrests have been made?
The Home Office does not hold this information as, whilst this department funds the investigation, the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] is an independent organisation and so has operational responsibility for the management of the investigation.
3) What firm leads are being followed up?
As per answer 2.
etc as below
3) What firm leads are being followed up?
As per answer 2.
4) How many police officers are still working on the case, and their ranks?
The MPS has informed me that there are currently 18 Police Officers working on the case comprising one Detective Chief Inspector, two Detective Inspectors, three Detective Sergeants and twelve Detective Constables.
5) Why so much time and money is being spent on this one, very old, case when a child goes missing in the UK every 3 minutes.
... The circumstances of each case will vary and it is for individual forces to make an operational assessment on how they pursue it....
6) When is the investigation likely to be closed?
The MPS will continue to work on the case whilst there are lines of enquiry to follow.
So far as I'm concerned enough of my taxes have been spent on these people. It should be spent on other missing children in the UK.
1) How much UK taxpayers' money has been spent on the failed search for Madeleine McCann?
The total cost of Operation Grange, up until end of June 2015, is £10.1m.
And Portugal's backwardness shown well in its Fascist elite still running with so much of Salazar's 60 years of control methods.
What kind of imbecilic backward country still 'searches' today for a missing amnesiac pensioner or 3 year old child WITHOUT circulating any details to the public of who is being searched for ? A legacy like so much else in Portugal today because, in Salazars time, far too many people went missing 'officially'. Taken away secretly by the authorities and killed. The secret police banning relatives putting up posters asking for the persons whereabouts as it was making the country look silly.
Anything making Portugal look silly - for whatever reason - being a 'red line'.
It is well known that the trolls hounding the McCanns were Portuguese and they are also behind the abuse and stirring between the McCanns and the Needham search too.