Scientist’s McCann DNA warning
police told hire car tests inconclusive days before madeleine’s parents made suspects
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A British scientist warned DNA tests on a sample from Kate and Gerry McCanns’ hire car were inconclusive just days before they were made suspects, official police files revealed last night.
In an e-mail dated September 3, 2007, John Lowe, from the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS), said it was impossible to conclude if the material came from their daughter, Madeleine.
Four days later detectives named the McCanns arguidos, or formal suspects, in the child’s disappearance, citing DNA evidence as grounds. The revelation came to light after the mammoth police files from the inquiry, which lasted more than 14 months, were formally made public yesterday.
Journalists were handed DVDs containing copies of thousands of pages of evidence from the case outside the courthouse in the Algarve town of Portimao.
The dossier includes details of the lines of inquiry, forensic reports, and statements by the McCanns and witnesses.
In his e-mail – addressed to Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the UK side of the investigation – Mr Lowe reported a sample from the boot of the McCanns’ hire car, which they rented 24 days after Madeleine went missing, contained 15 out of 19 of the young girl’s DNA components. But he cautioned that this – based on the “low copy number” technique which uses very small samples – was “too complex for meaningful interpretation”.
Mr Lowe wrote: “What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine – because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car, or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance.”
The police files also reveal detectives categorically told Mr McCann Madeleine’s DNA had been found in the hire car, contradicting the FSS expert.
A friend of Mr McCann said it seemed clear the Portuguese police were trying to extract a confession.
The friend added: “It would appear they were seeking to apply pressure by over-stating the evidence they had – and frankly it is a scandal.”
Although the questioning on September 7 last year was not recorded, a police officer took notes which were included in the dossier.
The officer wrote Mr McCann was told his daughter’s DNA was discovered in the boot of the rented Renault Scenic and behind a sofa in the family’s apartment.
The notes said: “Confronted with the fact Madeleine’s DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain why this would be.”
The files were released yesterday. Lawyers for the McCanns, both 40, from Leicestershire, were formally given access to the documents last week.
They are studying them for fresh leads that the couple’s private detectives can follow up in their own search.
Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 last year as her parents dined with friends nearby.
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