VIDEO FOOTAGE of a dog howling next to a Renault Megane car in a car park in Portugal allegedly shows the moment British police dogs found the scent of a body in the search for Madeleine McCann.
Part of a two-and-a-half hour video has been posted on British national newspaper The Sun’s website and shows one of the police dogs stopping at the door of the hire car and howling in what is indicated by dog handler Martin Grimes as “a reaction to the detection of the smell of death”.
The video then moves to show the dogs in apartment 5A, where Martin Grimes speaks to the camera and says: “As a handler I can pick up on the body language of the dogs and I could tell that the dogs were excited as soon as they entered the apartment.”
The dogs were both specifically focused on the area below the window in the sitting room but Martin Grimes says: “Keela (the dog that detects human blood) has passively indicated human blood but this could be historical, it is important everyone knows this. She is very, very good and when she indicates there is human blood, there always is.”
No evidence
Kate and Gerry spoke about the findings of the dogs to Portuguese newspaper Expresso in the first interview with Portuguese press since they were made arguidos.
When asked about the blood found in the apartment, Gerry said: “No blood was found! This evidence does not have any value without being corroborated by forensic information and it was not.”
He also told reporters that on examining the police files it became clear that the only reason the couple were made arguidos was because of the evidence found by the dogs.
“Now, reading the process, there is no evidence to justify the suspicion, unless you take the evidence of the dogs. The fragility of these dogs has been proven in a US study…dogs make mistakes in two thirds of attempts of finding evidence,” he said.
In the interview, which was conducted in Rothley and printed in Expresso newspaper on September 5, Gerry and Kate McCann opposed claims by the paper that most crimes against children are committed by the parents.
“This is not the case when referring to abducted children. This is a case of child kidnapping and it is an exceptional case,” said Gerry McCann.
When asked if they feel they were negligent in leaving Madeleine and the twins alone while on holiday in Praia da Luz, he responded: “We have not been negligent, I did what any reasonable father would do but we do deeply regret what happened. I am an optimistic person and I never thought that something like this could ever happen.”
He added that he and Kate had altered as parents following the disappearance of Madeleine: “Now we are more protective and less confident as parents. We will not leave our children alone again and because of us nether will many other families.”
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