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 and police recovered it from the rear of Wood's home on Wednesday December 18th. The police took it to North Shields police station where it was forensically examined on Thursday l9th December. The police retained a large number of samples from this examination. Some days later it 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.
A great deal of importance was attached to this car during the trial. It was common ground, accepted by Wood, that he had stolen the car for Raffle, who had a buyer waiting for it. Wood pleaded guilty to the theft of the Sierra. It was also accepted that Frank knew beforehand that it was going to be stolen and that, knowing it to have been stolen, he handled the car on at least two occasions over the weekend.
Raffle had approached him earlier on the Friday and had asked him to supply registration plates for a blue Ford Sierra which he was expecting to arrive at his yard later that evening. Frank found that, while he had plenty of suitable numbers, the only made-up plates he had available were from a Ford Transit van. While these were not good enough to pass a police check should the car be stopped, for the time being they would be better than no plates at all.
After fitting the Sierra with the false plates that Friday night, Frank had no further contact with the car until the evening of Sunday I5th December - the evening Raffle is said to have disappeared. On the Sunday, Frank asked his son, William, to buy more suitable plates from a place called "Wheels and Custom" in New York, a garage repair and accessory business. Frank fitted the Sierra with these plates later that evening.
At least two other people saw the Sierra in Raffle's yard during that weekend and they gave evidence to that effect at the trial. They were Alexander McKenzie and Kevin Lowson. Kevin Lowson was 21 years old at the time and was an acquaintance of Raffle. Alexander McKenzie was the man who stole the trailer that caused so much trouble to Dodds and Raffle (Raffle having bought it from McKenzie and resold it to Dodds). (The trailer story.)
Lowson made two totally opposing statements to the police. ( Lowson's statements.)
Alexander McKenzie made three statements, all contradicting each other. ( McKenzie's statements.)
Elizabeth Sneap, the wife of the proprietor of "Wheels and Custom" gave statements to the police regarding the number plates. (Sneap's statements.)