if the alerts had any value they would be admissible as evidence ...grime has made it clear that the alerts themselves are of no value without corroboration. the dogs are used world wide to find evidence...if they never found any ...as in this case..they would not be used
According to the former head of the Portuguese police laboratory there would have been no point in trying to progress the case to court because of a lack of evidence.
Had any evidence ever existed it was rendered irretrievably corrupted and useless.
The people who have been most let down by these circumstances are Madeleine McCann and her parents ... if any evidence of an intruder had existed mismanagement of the scene ensured it was lost forever.
The investigation knew there was not sufficient evidence to charge the Drs McCann with any crime. Which is why they tried to railroad them by making them arguidos and putting them under intolerable pressure.
If Eddie and Keela were ever going to be of any use, it would have been in the early stages and not after a period when the apartment had been let out to other families ... and when the PJ had run out of ideas and other indicators of the guilt they attributed to Madeleine's parents.
Madeleine: Forensics expert says inquiry is 'complete waste' because of police blunders at apartmentBy VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 09:49 18 December 2007
Defence lawyers would demolish scientific evidence in the case because of the wholesale contamination of forensics samples, the former head of the Portuguese police laboratory claimed.
Jose Manuel Anes said the seven-month police inquiry amounted to a complete waste of time and money.
"Huge amounts of money were spent but if, in the first hours, the due precautions for the preservation of the crime scene were not taken, all this hard work goes down the drain," he said.
"We can spend rivers of money which will all go down the drain if the crime scene is not properly isolated."
Portuguese police failed to seal off the McCann family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz immediately after the parents reported her abduction, meaning up to 50 people were free to tramp through the flat, destroying potentially vital evidence.
Mr Anes's damning analysis of the investigation has inspired "alarm" in Kate and Gerry McCann who still hope to learn what happened to their daughter on the night of May 3.
Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "It is alarming to hear that Mr Anes has this view.
"All we want, and have done throughout, is to ensure the operational police side of this has been done in an effective and efficient manner as possible."
Microscopic traces of blood were missed for three months, until British sniffer dogs detected them, and police failed to don protective forensics suits, meaning their fingerprints and bootmarks contaminated the crime scene.
In an interview for the book The McCanns' Guilt, written by a Portuguese journalist, Mr Anes said state-of-the-art tests were rendered useless if they were performed on contaminated samples.
The 62-year-old added: "As the technology for lab analysis becomes increasingly sensitive, the need not to contaminate the crime scene also increases.
"Any evidence left behind by an investigator, whatever it may be, can irreparably contaminate a sample gathered at the crime scene."
Mr Anes said detectives were too influenced by the McCanns' insistence their daughter was abducted.
He also said Portuguese forces should learn lessons from the British police, who train all officers to seal off crime scenes.
"I am utterly convinced that - unless some new, concrete evidence suddenly emerges - I fear the case will never reach trial," he added.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-503113/Madeleine-Forensics-expert-says-inquiry-complete-waste-police-blunders-apartment.html#ixzz3h1y5YZis 
