A smell of
death on Kate's clothes.
Dog handler and
ex-PC Martin Grimes is seen working with the dogs,
named Keela and Eddie, while Portuguese detectives
look on.
He remarks on
camera that Keela will detect 'very old' blood. Yet
local cops quickly leapt on the findings.
Click below to see
more pictures of the sniffer dogs searching McCann's
property
See pictures of the
sniffer dogs investigating Madeleine McCann's
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Shortly after the dogs were drafted in, police made
Kate and Gerry, both 40, 'arguidos' . official
suspects.
Cleared
Although the
couple, from Rothley, Leics, were eventually
cleared, they went through ten months of added hell
as they led the search for Maddie, who has still not
been found.
Last night
ex-Flying Squad commander John O'Connor said: 'I
find it absolutely appalling the detectives can
treat the McCanns as official suspects on the back
of such flimsy evidence.'
The Sun's
never-before-seen footage gives the true picture of
how the investigation was conducted.
It shows the dogs
in the McCanns' Algarve holiday home ' apartment 5A
of the Ocean Club in Praia de Luz.
Eddie is first to
be taken into the two-bed apartment and spends
nearly 30 minutes sniffing around.
He barks twice '
once in a bedroom and once at a spot behind a sofa
underneath a living room window.
Martin says: 'As
soon as I came in the dog is very excited. From his
body language it would appear he has picked up a
scent that he recognises.
'There is enough
scent there for him to give me a bark indication.'
After Eddie leaves
the apartment, Martin takes in Keela. She can be
seen freezing ' a sign she has found something '
underneath the window where Eddie had earlier
barked.
Martin says on
camera: 'The crime scene dog has given me a positive
indication. That indicates to me there is some human
blood there. She will detect blood that is very old
and find anybody's blood.'
While Portuguese
cops carried out DNA tests on 'fluids' found in the
flat, it has never been revealed if any blood was
found.
Detectives also
asked Martin to use his dogs on the McCanns' hire
car.
Eddie is seen
barking at the driver's door before standing still
in the boot, then scrabbling in one corner.
Martin says: 'We
had a reaction from the dog. The scent is coming out
of the sealed door.'
The dogs also
sniffed items of clothing ' and the film shows Eddie
again picking up a scent on some of Kate's.
The family GP has
insisted she came into contact with at least SIX
dead bodies before going on holiday with her husband
and three children.
Martin and the
spaniels are then taken round the apartment hired by
the McCanns after Maddie vanished. No evidence is
uncovered there.
Portuguese police
used the findings as a basis for their theory that
Maddie had died in the family's apartment on the
night she went missing.
The scent in
the car convinced them the couple had hidden her
body and later disposed of it, despite the world's
media watching their every movement.
Police files
released last month showed that all DNA evidence
against the McCanns had proved inconclusive.
Mr O'Connor, with
more than 30 years' police experience, last night
blasted the 'ridiculous' Portuguese probe.
He said: 'This
clearly shows they were clutching at straws. It
seems to me they have used the dogs to reinforce
their own prejudices.
'As far as I am
concerned they suspected Kate and Gerry or their
party of being involved from day one.
'They made up
their mind so, when the dogs detected the scent, as
far as they were concerned that was it.
'But the dogs
found nothing that could be used as evidence in a
court of law. They are a tool to finding conclusive
evidence, nothing more.'
