Scientists ‘found wife’s blood on trainers of policeman’
THE trial of a police inspector accused of strangling his detective wife has heard how analysts found her blood on his trainers.
Darren McKie is said to have thrown his New Balance trainers in a bin around 100 yards from his house after allegedly dumping her body in a fishing pond.
Forensics experts told his trial that the blood found on the footwear contained traces of his wife’s DNA and that soil found on them is likely to have come from beside the lake where he is alleged to have dumped her body.
Insp McKie, 43, of Burford Close in Wilmslow, denies murdering wife Leanne, 39, a detective constable. He also denies manslaughter.
The father-of-three is accused of leaving work at Stretford police station early on September 28 last year to strangle his wife after she is said to have discovered he had applied for a £54,000 loan behind her back.
His murder trial has heard how the couple, who both worked for GMP, had amassed £103,000 in debt with loan firms and builders renovating their Cheshire home, including granite worktops and under-floor heating.
The prosecution say the officer strangled her after she found out about the loan application as the family’s dire financial situation worsened.
He is said to have used her Mini Countryman car to move her body from their home in Wilmslow to Poynton where he allegedly dragged her body into a lake.
Two police officers on patrol earlier told the trial they saw Insp McKie twice during the early hours of September 29, and on the second occasion they noted he had no shoes on.
The fifth day of his trial at Chester Crown Court heard from forensic scientist Lisa Johnston, who said DNA matching Leanne McKie was found in blood-staining discovered on the defendant’s left trainer, which was recovered from the bin.
The blood-staining was ‘obviously visible’ while analysis revealed it had both ‘contact’ blood and ‘airborne’ staining, the jurors were told.
Ms Johnston said airborne blood could be caused by a ‘forceful kick or a punch,’ but also by moving an item.
The court heard the defendant’s DNA was also found on the handbrake and steering wheel in his wife’s Mini.
Under cross-examination from Trevor Burke QC, defending, Ms Johnston confirmed she was unable to identify a third DNA trace found on the steering wheel and handbrake.
Prof Lorna Dawson, an expert in forensically-examining soil, said she had found ‘strong support’ that soil she had found in the deep tread of the trainers was from the spot where the body was found at Poynton Lake, rather than from the garden of the family home.
In her conclusions, the witness said she could exclude the garden of Burford Close as the source of ‘the bulk’ of the soil found on the trainers. Adding a caveat, the professor told the jurors soil analysis could not provide a ‘100 per cent match,’ but that there was a ‘high degree of comparability.’
She said it was ‘very unlikely’ somewhere else would have the same characteristics as the soil she examined on the trainers and at the deposition site.
Proceeding