McKenzie's First Statement (dated February 4th 1986)

McKenzie stated, among other things, that he was unemployed, worked in scrap iron a lot, was a hawker, owned horses, went to horse sales and to Appleby fair every year. He stated that Raffle was a loner with a lot of friends. He talked of 'dodgy' dealing and stated that Frank had never assaulted or threatened Raffle as far as he knew. He then stated that on the morning of Sunday December 15th 1985, the day Raffle allegedly disappeared, he saw Frank and Eddie Wood in a red Sierra that looked new. (At that time Frank was the owner of a red Volvo.) This was, he said, the last time he saw either Frank or Eddie Wood. McKenzie stated that Raffle tried to sell him a radio cassette player and that the time was 1l am.
McKenzie said he then left the yard but returned at about 5 pm the same day. He said there was nobody else there apart from Raffle and that Raffle showed him £l000 in cash. McKenzie stayed talking to Raffle for about an hour and then went home.
He went on to state that a few days after Raffle disappeared, he went to Raffle's caravan with the intention of removing what he knew was stolen property; he did not give a reason for doing this. He said that Raffle had no connection with the Kielder area* and he also stated that Raffle never lent large sums of cash to anyone.
*It is a well-established fact that Raffle sold Christmas trees each year, acquired from the Kielder area.

Three days after making this first statement, McKenzie was arrested in connection with the non-payment of a fine. Whilst in police custody, he then made his second statement.

McKenzie's Second Statement

He stated that on the morning of Sunday l5th December 1985 he was at Raffle's yard at l0 am for 15 minutes. As he was leaving the yard he saw a blue Ford Sierra entering the yard but he could not see who was driving. He said he returned to the yard at 5 pm that day and again saw the Sierra drive into the yard with Frank and Eddie Wood. He said he saw the two men doing something to the boot area of the car. He then left, leaving Raffle and the two men alone in the yard.

McKenzie's Third Statement (dated Wednesday March 12th 1986)

In this statement, McKenzie explains that he had said the Sierra was red but after talking to Lowson he changed it to blue. He said that he had been confused between red and blue because John Jobson had a red Sierra. He stated that he first saw the car on the evening of Friday l3th December 1985 at 6.30pm. He stated that he saw the car again at 2 pm the next day (Saturday l4th) and that it was parked next to Raffle's caravan and that nobody was in attendance. It was on this occasion, he said, that he realized that the car was blue and not red.
In this statement, he said that when he visited the yard on the Sunday evening, he could see that one of the men in Raffle's yard with the car was Frank but was unable to identify the other because it was dark. He said that he did not actually see the registration plate. He said he spoke to Raffle about the car and that Raffle had told him that it could not be traced as it had come from a warehouse.