 |
Original Source:
MAIL: SUNDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2007 |
By
DANIEL BOFFEY and IAN GALLAGHER
Last updated at 02:03am on 9th September 2007 |
|
|
|
The hire car at the centre of the case against Madeleine's parents is still
being driven around by the McCanns, raising questions over the professionalism
of the police investigation.
The four-seat silver Renault Scenic was dismantled, stripped and swabbed for
forensic analysis at the beginning of August but returned to the McCann family
just two-and-a-half days later to allow them to continue to run their campaign
to find their daughter.
Swabs from the car were sent to the Birmingham
forensic laboratory after British sniffer dogs detected a scent in the boot
during the brief time that it was in police possession.
And since the car was handed back to the family, results from the laboratory
have indicated that a trace of Madeleine's blood had been left in the boot.
The trace has proved to be a key part of the police case against the McCanns,
with Kate being repeatedly asked to explain the forensic results during her 16
hours of questioning on Thursday and Friday.
The decision to not impound what is proving to be a pivotal piece of evidence
could even undermine the police case, according to experts.
Lord MacKenzie, a former head of the Superintendents' Association, expressed
astonishment over the Portuguese police's failure to protect their evidence.
"It is very strange," he said. "You would certainly expect in a
case of this importance for such a piece of evidence to be kept.
"There are cases where photos of the evidence would be acceptable where
the evidence really needs to be given back, but certainly not in a case of
murder or abduction.
"If you have some possible evidence, which obviously they thought they
might have, given that they sent the forensics to the UK, then you would keep the car.
"And if the results are positive then it is pretty vital to have kept
it."
The revelation came as a friend of the McCanns raised further questions over
the credibility of the police's evidence against Kate.
The friend said the car, believed to have been rented from Eurocar at Faro
airport, had been hired on May 28 --25 days after Madeleine vanished.
And she revealed that "a variety of other named drivers" had access
to it over the 72 days before it was taken in to be swabbed on August 7.
The revelation suggests that any traces of blood in the car could not be directly
linked to Madeleine's parents.
The friend said: "The car was hired 25 days after Madeleine disappeared
and a variety of people, family included, used the car.
"Then police took the car in around 100 days after Madeleine disappeared
before giving it back to Kate and Gerry."
The family friend was also able to give an explanation for the timing of the
rental which it is believed had caused interest among detectives.
The car was hired the day before the McCanns travelled to Rome to be blessed by the Pope, at a time
when they would not personally need a vehicle.
But the family friend explained that the car was always intended for use by a
number of people around the couple in Praia da Luz, especially while the
McCanns were away on their tour to gain publicity for the Find Maddie campaign.
Mrs McCann has vehemently denied that she was responsible for the trace of
blood, swearing at officers because she was so angry and saying: "There is
no way."
Kate's mother said any evidence against her daughter must have been
"planted".
Last week family spokesman Justine McGuinness described the allegations over
the hire car as "mad and ridiculous".
However she was unable to comment yesterday on who had picked up the car from
Faro and who, other than Gerry and Kate, had access to it.
|
|
 |
|
