Evidence suggesting that the parents of Madeleine McCann were involved in their daughter’s death was passed to a judge last night who will consider whether the couple should be charged.
The judge will today begin considering whether a request from the public prosecutor to take significant new steps in the case against Kate and Gerry McCann should be approved.
The judge has a number of options, including ordering them to return to the Algarve to be placed under house arrest, or to attend more police questioning. He could also authorise further searches and approve further phone bugs. The judge has ten days before he must make a ruling on which options, if any, are appropriate.
Last night the office of the public prosecutor made a formal request to seize an “object” vital to the inquiry which cannot be obtained under normal police powers. This could include searching areas such as a lawyer’s office or a place of worship, which are protected under Portuguese laws.
Yesterday was a day of significant developments that included:
— The handing over to the public prosecutor of ten box files containing more than a thousand pages of evidence detailing DNA results, police interviews with the couple, witness statements, intercepted e-mails and tapped phone calls;
— Police telling Portuguese newspapers that a large quantity of Madeleine’s hair was found in the boot of the car that her parents hired 25 days after she disappeared;
— A senior forensic science expert telling The Times that scientists would have been able to establish whether the hair came from Madeleine when she was dead or alive;
— Detectives briefing local newspapers that bodily fluid with an 88 per cent match to the child was also found in the car;
— A visit to the McCanns’ home in Rothley, Leicestershire, by a senior CID officer.
In a statement outside his offices in Portimão a spokeswoman for José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, the prosecutor, said that he believed that the files contained sufficient evidence to change aspects of the McCanns’ status in the case. He passed the case on to the judge who rules on crimes still under investigation.
In another development last night the Portuguese attorney general, Fernando Jose Pinto Monterio, appointed a second public prosecutor to the case.
Luis Bilro Veinõ, from the Evora district in central Portugal, will work with Mr Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses to help with the vast amount of evidence. He is one of Portugal’s most senior public prosecutors and a member of the governing body, the Conselho Superior da Magistratura Portuguesa. Mr Monterio said that he hoped that “objectivity and serenity” would now prevail, and said that during such a complex investigation it was necessary to make “uncomfortable investigations”.
Indicating that the investigation could yet be widened away from just Britain and Portugal, the attorney general said: “The investigations did not end so we will need more interventions from the police. After that we should re-evaluate the restrictions it is possible to impose and which level of international co-operation we will need.”
Detectives are convinced that Mrs McCann was in some way linked to the accidental death of her daughter, and that she and her husband then disposed of the body.
Hair and bodily fluids have been found in the boot of the car that the McCanns hired shortly before visiting the Pope at the Vatican. Police have said that the amount of hair in the Renault Scenic is too much simply to have been transferred on Madeleine’s clothing and other belongings when the couple moved to a villa in the resort.
One trace of bodily fluids has an 88 per cent match with the child, rather than the 100 per cent match that was previously reported, detectives said in an off-the-record briefing on Monday night. They denied that blood traces had been found.
The McCanns, both 39-year-old doctors, vehemently deny any involvement in the death. They fear that they are being framed by police and that evidence is being planted.
The latest developments came as Michael Baden of New York State Police told The Times that a decaying body would produce a “mass of material” unless it was tightly wrapped.
Dr Baden, who has been involved in investigations into hundreds of child murders, said: “In a body which had been decaying for 25 days you would expect to find a mass of material unless the body was tightly wrapped. But if it was so tightly wrapped, how was the hair able to escape?”
Mr Baden said that bacteria causes the body to putrefy and the decomposing tissues merge with the blood. The lining of the nose and mouth are the first to liquefy. It would still be possible to obtain a good DNA sample from such material.
Mr Baden added: “From the details that have been reported I do not think there is evidence that a corpse was in the trunk [boot].”
If the judge approves new searches they will focus on the streets around the church in Praia da Luz, the resort where Madeleine vanished shortly before her fourth birthday. Police sources told local newspapers that the child’s body could have been concealed in the area, where roadworks were being completed, in the days after her disappearance before being later moved.
The McCanns went to pray for their daughter in the village’s 18th-century church, Nossa Senhora da Luz. Within an hour of reporting the child missing they asked for the local Catholic priest, and a few days later were given keys to the church so that they could visit at any time.
Father José Manuel Pacheco, the priest, said: “I find it perfectly normal that the police will carry out new searches in Praia da Luz, and not excepting the church.” However, he said he had not been informed that the church itself would be searched.
Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Small, head of Leicestershire CID, spent an hour at the McCanns’ home yesterday. The East Midlands force refused to confirm or comment on the visit. Portuguese police are still waiting for further tests to be returned from the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham.
Why a hair may hold the key
— When seen under a microscope the difference between hair from a body and one from a live person — or a hair detached early on from a corpse — is obvious, as seen in the pictures above.
— The “live” hair has a smooth outermost layer, which is known as the cuticle, while the middle layer, known as the cortex, is a light brown colour. In contrast, the “corpse” hair has a ragged cuticle while within the cortex dark bandings can be seen developing. Eventually with “corpse” hair these dark bandings will cover the entire sample.
— According to Dr Michael Baden, chief forensic pathologist for New York State Police and a former chief medical examiner of the city, the timing of the discolouring, or the speed of the development of the bandings, could not be precisely measured: “You can’t tell from looking at it whether it’s 25 days since death or 5 days. It depends on the environment: the hotter the climate, the more rapid the spread of the black bands. There’s not a lot of research been done in this area because it is rare that it does becomes an issue in investigations.”
— While a hair itself contains no DNA, its follicle is rich in cells that give good profiles. A hair follicle is part of the skin that produces strands of hair by packing old cells together. Hair continues to grow for a period after death.
— If DNA found by forensic experts directly matches Madeleine’s, the chances of the profile having originated from someone else is approximately one in a billion.
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