The Ford Sierra
The car alleged to have been used to transport Raffle to the forest was an unregistered blue
Ford Sierra,
stolen from Davidson's Shiremoor garage by Wood for Raffle. It had been released by the Ford
factory in
Dagenham on October 24th l985 and arrived at Davidson's on November 7th.
Its theft was discovered on Monday December 16th 1985 (the day after the murder was alleged to
have been
committed) and the vehicle itself was discovered by police at the rear of Wood's home on
Wednesday December
18th.
The first examinations
The police examined the car at the scene and then took it to North Shields police station
where it was
forensically examined on Thursday l9th December. The police retained a number of items from
these
examinations. However, since the body was not to be discovered for another two months, the
focus of their
examination was the theft rather than anything more serious. Among the items retained were:
- A pick axe found in the rear nearside footwell
- A white sack also found in the rear nearside footwell and covering the pick axe - the
sack contained
a handbrace and three drill bits, three screwdrivers, three wheelbraces, a hand torch and
a pair of
pliers
- Some coins found between the side of the front passenger seat and the door - a one
pound, a ten
pence and two two pence pieces
- A piece of black insulating tape
As Raffle had been working under the dashboard of the car that weekend, the coins could well
have fallen
from his pocket while half lying over the seat. These coins should have been checked for
finger prints but
were not.
In court, two of Frank's sons said they thought they recognized some of the tools found in the
car as being
Frank's. Frank himself identified the tools as being his so far as he could tell, but was not
sure where the pick
axe had come from.
(Frank believes this pick-axe - JH125 - was one removed by police from
Wood's kitchen
shortly after they were arrested.) Along with the hammer, these tools had all been on loan
to Wood at the
time they were found.
A crow bar was exhibited in court as having been found in the car at this time, though none of
the three
police officers who conducted the original search makes any mention of it.
(Frank believes
this crow bar -
JH138 - was removed from Wood's kitchen shortly after they were both arrested.)
These officers reported that there was plenty of mud in the rear fotwells and on the front of
the car.
Intriguingly, this first forensic examination had been thorough enough to include fibre lifts,
though it is
not known what these lifts discovered or what happened to this evidence
The second forensic examination
Some days after this first examination, the car was returned to Davidson's garage. It was then
thoroughly
valeted, inside and out, to bring it up to sale condition. Repairs were made to various parts
of the car,
including the ignition lock and radio compartment in the dashboard. Davidson's sold the Sierra
as new on
January 22nd 1986 to a Mr Junni. After Raffle's body had been discovered, the police recovered
the vehicle
from Mr Junni on February 12th 1986 and gave it another forensic examination which was carried
out on
February 13th by Mr Falconer, the forensic expert for the Prosecution.
In the course of this second forensic examination, several items were found that had not been
found
previously:
- One bloodstained pine needle was found in the well of the driver's side of the car
- One twig from a pine tree under the driver's seat
- One pine needle in the boot
In the second examination, no fibres from Raffle's clothing were found in the car. Since it is
known that
Raffle had spent some time working on the inside of the car that weekend, it must be concluded
that the
commercial valeting removed any trace of these - and if the valeting were so thorough as to
remove these
fibres, it would certainly not have left the pine needles and twig. It also seems unlikely
that the
thoroughness of the first examination could have missed these comparatively obvious items. It
must be
accepted, then, that these items were from Mr Junni's use of the car and can have no bearing
on the murder
case.
No fibres from Frank's clothing were found in the Sierra.
As part of this second examination, the sack and tools found during the original search of the
vehicle two
months earlier were examined again. This is when the fibre evidence discussed above was found.
In court,
Frank said that he had probably been wearing his blue fingerless gloves when fitting the
number plates and
when he put the tools into the sack for Wood.
In addition, tyre casts, mud, soil and gravel samples were taken from the Sierra and the
forest but none
matched.