The head of the Operation Grange team, Andy Redwood is to retire from the Metropolitan Police Service on December 22 this year.
Redwood’s place at the head of the Scotland Yard team investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be filled by Nicola Wall.
The team from London will be arriving in Faro on December 8, with Wall already in charge with a mission to ‘conduct further inquiries in contact with the Portuguese authorities,’ according to Scotland Yard today.
Nicola Wall leaves the Homicide and Major Crimes division to head up Operation Grange which to date has cost the British taxpayer £10 million. Scotland Yard confirmed today that Madeleine’s parents have been informed of the change.
"The last three and a half years leading Operation Grange have been an extraordinary privilege and I leave the investigation in the very capable hands of my senior colleague," said Redwood.
The research team was in Portugal in October and has held meetings with the Judicial Police in Faro and the National Institute of Legal Medicine.
British police have been looking at new lines of inquiry and have a short list of 11 persons of interest that they wish their Portuguese colleagues to interview next week.
DCI Wall, who once appeared in a Vogue article on female police officers (see below), is no pushover as her 25 years in one of the toughest work environments in policing has seen her rise to the top.
It remains to be seen what the Portuguese police will make of her but with a reputation for solving cases with speed, she may succeed where others have failed.
From Vogue. May 2013:
Wall has served 25 years at the Met, eight as a DCI, and heads up the Murder Investigation Team in west London. She's also a trained hostage and crisis negotiator. Married two years ago, her husband does contract work in the Middle East and she sees him sporadically. "We don't have children," she says briskly. "I've got the greatest respect for women who balance both - because that's fantastic - but I don't have to. And I've got a house in Putney, and I have a really nice life."
For Wall, there is no typical murder. No two jobs are the same. "We could end up with the Tia Sharp jobs of this world," she says of the 12-year-old whose body was discovered at her grandmother's house last August. "And then there are jobs that are equally as difficult as those, but that just somehow don't get that media spark."
She usually has about six or seven live cases at any one time, and prides herself on her investigative speed; she is only partially joking when she attributes her low media profile to the fact "we solve cases so quickly nobody gets involved…"
A diminutive peroxide blonde, with fine cheekbones and a faint Derbyshire accent, she cuts an unusual figure. "I'm a bit different," she admits. "The jury nearly fell over last time I was in the box!"
Wall especially enjoys playing with her femininity, if only to shake up the stuffier factions of the Met that still exist. "I usually wear a heel, and I always paint my nails," she says with a toss of her well-groomed head. "They usually brighten a day."
