British DNA tests on Madeleine ‘conflicting’

BRITISH forensic analysis produced contradictory results on the key question of whether Madeleine McCann’s DNA was found in her parents’ hire car, according to a leaked Portuguese prosecutors’ report.

The report also casts doubt on the reason why a Cadaver dog apparently detected a “scent of death” in the Algarve holiday apartment where the young girl went missing last summer.

Mark Williams-Thomas, a child protection expert and former British detective, has been briefed on the document, which was prepared by the Portuguese attorney general’s office.

He said it referred to two reports prepared by the Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS), from September and December.

The initial FSS report said samples matching Madeleine’s DNA were discovered in the McCanns’ hire car, on the window sill of their holiday flat and in the car park of the apartment complex.

But the second said it was uncertain whether the samples came from the missing child, her mother or her sister Amelie.

It is not known whether the first report was received before or after Portuguese detectives made the McCanns official suspects in Madeleine’s disappearance on September 7.

Mr Williams-Thomas said: “I’m not criticising the lab... What I’m saying is that at the time they did the report they were doing it on the basis of the evidence they found — but of course that may change because of the type of evidence they were dealing with.”

One theory is that the tests were carried out on very small samples using “low copy number” DNA techniques.

These can result in the evidence deteriorating or being destroyed while under analysis — meaning that the second set of tests may have been carried out on a partial sample.

The FSS insists its techniques are extremely rigorous and reliable but acknowledges that test results are dependent on the quality of a sample.

The prosecutors’ report also notes that Kate McCann’s work as a GP apparently brought her into contact with dead patients before last May’s family holiday in Portugal, Mr Williams-Thomas said.

This could explain why a cadaver dog picked up a scent in the McCanns’ apartment, he said.

Mr Williams-Thomas said: “My understanding is that Kate definitely came into contact with death in the days and weeks prior to going away... That’s not a strange thing to happen because she’s a GP.”

He said he had not researched how long the scent of death could remain on people and be picked up by dogs.