Collection of evidence - ISA & Chain of Custody

The initial scene assessment is an assessment carried out by the investigation team of the crime scene. This assessment includes a detailed sketch of the crime scene, photographs of the crime scene, and detailed notes of the crime scene. These are used as evidence in court and to help the investigation team with the case because if they may have missed something out whilst they were at the crime scene, they have this assessment to refer back to. It is important that the initial assessment is done and it done correctly because small details of the crime scene can have a big impact on the case. This could be the weather that day or if the window was open or if the lights were turned on or not. If this procedure was not carried out, if the investigation team missed anything out, they would not have anything to look back on for example photos or sketches, and they would not be able to go back to the crime scene because it may have been cleaned up by that time.

This initial scene assessment was carried out by the crime scene officer who first arrived at the scene. This included images being took of the apartment which included the entrances and exits of the crime scene and the room of where Madeleine was last before she disappeared. There was no clear description of the crime or notes taken down of what took place other than the clear reporting of her disappearance. This was because the police was aware that she had disappeared but did not know why/how this happened. These images and sketches have been useful in the investigation because the case has been reopened for investigation which means that because they may not have the crime scene to physically work with now, they have these assessment images to refer back to when looking back at the case. In 2008, a year after Madeleine was reported missing; the case was closed due to no new evidence that gave the investigation team any leads. The case has now been reopened and therefore the investigation team can still look back and refer to the sketches and images taken of the scene because they no longer have the crime scene to work with due to other families staying in that apartment.
Whilst investigating the crime scene, there will be a chain of custody. This is a paper trial showing the custody, control, transfer and analysis of evidence. This chain of custody is to help the tractability of evidence and also see who has handled that evidence. This also allows us to see who has been present at the crime scene in order to collect evidence. Any individual who enters or leaves the crime scene will also sign a crime scene entry logs which allows the investigation team see who has had access to the crime scene. This procedure is important in keeping track of what has happened to evidence and who has handled that evidence. This would be important in evidence went missing, the team could look at who had it previously and who they may have handled it to, or if evidence has possibly been tampered with. This procedure can be used in court if the court wants to see the individuals who have contact with the evidence and why they would have. The entry log can be helpful in investigations because this allows the team to identify who has been present at the crime scene and identify if anyone there should have not been. This procedure also helps if evidence is contaminated. It allows the team to identify what officers have been to different crime scenes which could have encouraged

In the beginning stages of this investigation, there were only fingerprints taken by the officers which were then handed to the forensics scientists to analyse. For this evidence, there would have been a log of who the officers and forensic scientist who handled these fingerprints are. This procedure was carried out for this piece of evidence. Witness statements were a huge type of evidence in this case, a log was kept of the officers and investigators who took the statements from the witnesses. This involved the Portuguese police officers collecting these witness statements and handling them to British forensic scientist to analyse. If this procedure was not followed for these pieces of evidence, these pieces of evidence could have been mishandles, contaminated or even lost and there would be no record of who the last individual was who handled that evidence.

This procedure was a strong procedure carried out in the Madeleine McCann case because with there being a chain of custody, if witness statements were to go missing for example they would know the last person who had contact with that piece of evidence. With fingerprints from the apartment being collected in Portugal but analysed in Britain, it is important that there was a chain of custody kept because with the evidence having to be transported a long distance for it to be analysed, this distance makes it easier for the evidence be get lost or contaminated on the way.



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