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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