Detectives led astray by sniffer dogs

Detectives led astray by sniffer dogs
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.

Continue Reading... Labels: Eddie, Forensic Science Service, FSS, Haut de la Garenne, Jersey, Keela, Madeleine McCann, Martin Grime

McCann sniffer dog video released

5 September 2008
Press Association

A Portuguese police video showing British sniffer dogs reacting to Leicestershire couple Kate and Gerry McCann's hire car and their holiday apartment has been made public.

The two specialist animals - one capable of detecting corpses and the other trained to find human blood - carried out searches in the Algarve in early August last year after the McCanns' daughter Madeleine vanished.

Footage posted on The Sun newspaper's website shows the cadaver dog, named Eddie, barking loudly next to the driver's door of the McCanns' Renault Scenic rental car.

Continue Reading... Labels: Eddie, Forensic Science Service, FSS, Keela, Madeleine McCann, Martin Grime

Forensic tests as Madeleine milestone looms

Forensic tests as Madeleine milestone looms
9 August 2007
The Irish Examiner

Tests were being carried out last night at a top British forensic laboratory on evidence recovered from Madeleine McCann’s holiday apartment. Samples, suspected to contain tiny traces of blood, arrived yesterday at the headquarters of the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham.

The traces, recovered from a wall of the Algarve apartment, were only uncovered this week, more than three months after the four-year-old vanished. It is believed a trained sniffer dog, brought in by British detectives, located the tiny traces despite attempts to wash them off.

Scientists will be hoping to extract DNA from the samples to cross-reference against an example obtained from a toothbrush or hairbrush used by Madeleine.

Detectives are desperate for a concrete forensic lead in the search, which is due to mark its 100th day on Saturday.

A Forensic Science Service spokesman confirmed the samples were received but declined to comment further on a "live case".

The family are expected to mark the grim 100-day milestone with a series of events, including a special Catholic prayer service in Praia da Luz.

In Britain, Premiership League football clubs will play a video reminding fans that Madeleine is still missing.

Portuguese newspapers have claimed police believe the blood will prove Madeleine died in the apartment, whether she was murdered or by accident.

Kate McCann said she and her husband Gerry are in close contact with Portuguese detectives who have told them they believe Madeleine is alive.

Friends of the family said they were disgusted at what they said was a smear campaign against them.

Earlier, another line of inquiry was all but extinguished when Belgian prosecutors said tests on a milkshake bottle used by a girl who looked like Madeleine were inconclusive.

A DNA sample taken from a restaurant in Tongeren, close to the Dutch border, where a woman reported seeing Madeleine with a suspicious couple, was that of a man.

But investigators said the finding did not rule out the possibility that Madeleine was present, and said they were still hunting the couple’s black Volvo car.

Spokeswoman Katja Vandoren said: "The possibility exists that the bottle was finished by the man who was with the little girl present. We continue to examine all useful tips."

The sniffer dog that found the body of murdered Ulsterwoman Attracta Harron was flown to Portugal to aid the search for Madeleine. English springer spaniel Eddie and his companion Keela are trained to sniff out minute traces of blood.
  

Continue Reading... Labels: Attracta Harron, Eddie, Forensic Science Service, FSS, Keela, Madeleine McCann, Trevor Hamilton