There were smears and splashes all over the rifle - tiny or not, they were visible. How did such splashes and smears get on the rifle while missing Sheila altogether? Someone clobbered Nevil with a force big enough to break a piece off the rifle stock. Venezis described wounds to Nevil's head and face (lacerations and brusing) to be consistent with having reeceived blunt force trauma. Someone beat the crap out of him Holly - if it were Sheila there is no way she could escape having some on Nevil on her person.
According to GH's TT blood staining = thickness and blood smearing = a light surface. GH refers to five areas. The illustration attached refers to 6 areas (is there a 7th? I can't make it out?). Anyway the 6 I can read are tiny:
3/8 x 3/8
1/8 x 1/16
5/8 x 3/8
1 1/4 x <1/4
1/4 x 1/16
1/4 x 1/16
The above stains/smears were too small to group:
71. The rifle bore blood smearing on the barrel in the region of the fore-sight and around the mechanism and there were splashes of blood to the left side of the weapon. The appearance of the blood staining was consistent with it having been used to strike somebody who was already bleeding.On analysis the blood was found to be human blood but tests to determine grouping were unsuccessful.The rifle sans silencer is 48" long. If the perp held the rifle by the barrel and wielded blows on NB, which seems likely hence the broken stock, that's some distance between NB and perp.
If any bloodstains transferred to perp (SC imo) during the beating or whilst she was holding the rifle thereafter or when it was resting across her body, these would be smaller than those found on rifle. And if those on rifle were too small to be typed how do we know what clues the nightdress might have yielded using DNA testing had it not been destroyed against police protocol? Only 2 areas of blood staining to the the nightdress were tested: under the arm and one of the marks which gives the appearance of finger. The tests were consistent with SC's blood group but what about all the other smaller stains on her nightdress?
There's no evidence where the blood on the rifle came from. It seems a racing cert NB was beaten with the rifle but he sustained 7 gsw's and lacerations from the beating. Did the blood on the rifle transfer from his gsw's during the beating?