Mother of Katrice Lee criticises PM over police inquiry

Katrice Lee went missing 31 years ago

The mother of a missing toddler has criticised the prime minister for not ordering an independent review of the police investigation.

Katrice Lee vanished from a shop at a military base in Germany in 1981.

Her mother Sharon Lee from Gosport, Hampshire, has questioned the Royal Military Police (RMP) investigation and said she felt "brushed over".

In a letter, David Cameron said "considerable resources" were assigned to re-examining the case.

Katrice went missing on her second birthday while she and her family were shopping for party food in a NAAFI shop in Paderborn.

Her father, from Teesside, was stationed at the base at the time.

Gosport Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage asked for an inquiry into the "chronic mishandling" of the case by the Royal Military Police (RMP).

The family maintain the military police failed to interview key witnesses quickly enough after the disappearance.

During Prime Minister's Questions in April, David Cameron had agreed to look into the case.

In a subsequent letter to Ms Dinenage, the prime minister said: "I can only imagine the grief and heartbreak that Katrice's disappearance must be causing."

He said the RMP had "considerable resources assigned to re-examining this case and are using modern investigative techniques to try and identify anything that was not identified by the initial investigation and subsequent reviews".

Mrs Lee says the initial police response was inadequate

The letter stopped short of offering the independent inquiry into how the military police initially handled the case which Mrs Lee has been demanding.

Mrs Lee also said she had not been given access to a review carried out by South Wales Police in 2002 which has not been made public.

"I really cannot comprehend why we seem to be stonewalled every avenue we try to go down to find out the truth about Katrice's case.

"That's all I'm asking for, the truth about how the initial investigation was carried out.

"We have to regroup and think of another avenue but I'm not giving up," she said.

The Ministry Of Defence previously claimed an inquiry was not possible because the investigation was continuing.

A spokesman claimed that if a new line of inquiry developed, disclosure of the case files could have a prejudicial effect on the investigation and potentially prejudice the right to a fair trial.