10 May 2011
Daily Mail
Chris Brooke
The Portuguese police case against the McCanns relied on dubious evidence from two British sniffer dogs.
PC Martin Grime took his highly-trained spaniels Keela and Eddie to the apartment Madeleine was taken from. In her book, serialised in the Sun, Mrs McCann recalled the 100th day of the hunt for Madeleine when a police officer told her the two dogs had indicated blood and human remains were in the apartment.
‘Police appeared to be telling us, on the say-so of a dog, that someone had definitely died in apartment 5a and it must have been Madeleine.’
Later she said the Portuguese officer boasted about the success rate of the dogs. This helped persuade the authorities to name the McCanns as ‘arguidos’ or official suspects.
However, after forensic tests were carried out it later became clear that no scientific evidence could be found to back up the reaction of the sniffer dogs.
Mr Grime is now a director of a forensic science company, GSS International, and is employed as a sniffer dog expert. He owns both his former police dogs and they continue to work with him.
Yesterday he was in the United States on business and a spokesman for the Hampshire-based company said he had been asked by police in the UK not to comment on the McCann case.
Mr Grime and his dog Eddie were involved in the search for remains at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey. The massive investigation in 2008 ended with the conclusion that nothing suspicious was found at the scene and there was no evidence of murder.
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