A FORENSIC science consultant told the Central Criminal Court yesterday that it was implausible to suggest that a fire which killed a woman and child involved a blow torch acting on a gas cylinder and a fire accelerant such as petrol.
Dr John Lloyd, a former senior scientific officer with the British Home Office, said he was an independent forensic consultant and his work included investigating fire raising and arson.
He told Mr Barry White SC, defending, he had examined extensive files relating to the case of Mr Francis McCann, who is charged with the murder of his wife, Esether (36), and an 18 month old baby girl, Jessica, at their home in Rathfarnham on September 4th 1992. Dr Lloyd was giving evidence on the 43rd day of the trial.
Dr Lloyd said he had examined the Department of Justice Forensic Science Laboratory file on the McCann case and said it was "almost non existent".
"As a scientific document, it is worthless," he said. Because of the lack of detail in the file he could not comment on the validity of forensic tests conducted. He said he could not agree with a contention that the Irish laboratory was on a par with other forensic science laboratories in the UK and Europe.
Dr Lloyd criticised as inadequate the notes of a Garda ballistic expert relating to the case. He said they were not sufficiently detailed and there was much in the Book of Evidence not reflected in the notes. He said the Garda had concluded the seat of the fire at the McCann home was located between the stairs and hall door but his notes gave no details of what he regarded as evidence regarding this.
Dr Lloyd said it was alleged the fire was caused by petrol in the hall and if that were the case a localised seat of fire would not have been obtained. It was inconsistent to say there was a localised seat and that this was caused by a large volume of petrol throughout the hall. He said if a blow torch was applied to a gas canister he would have expected to see corresponding damage on the canister but he saw no such reports.
He regarded a theory involving a blow torch acting on a gas canister as implausible. Anyone carrying out such activity in an atmosphere of petrol would never have got out of it, he said.
Dr Lloyd said the Garda had found a fire accelerant was used but no accelerant had been detected. He would have expected that samples collected from the scene and properly preserved would have shown traces of petrol but they did not.
The jury has heard that Jessica was a blood relative of the accused man but not a child of his marriage to Esther. The prosecution claims Mr McCann arranged the fire because he did not want to tell his wife why the Adoption Board had refused the couple's application to adopt Jessica.
The jury has also heard that Mr McCann, who owned the Cooperage Pub in Blessington, Co Wicklow, had complained to gardai that he had received threatening phone calls to the pub and his home.
In court yesterday, clinical psychologist Ms Sarah Henley said she had carried out tests on and interviewed the accused man on June 22nd last. She concluded Mr McCann was of high average intelligence and of normal suggestibility. She believed he was in a disturbed state at the time of his interviews with gardai in Tallaght Garda station between November 4th and 6th, 1992.
She said there was considerable research into the area of false confessions. Factors found to be significant in research and previous cases of false confessions included the person's mental and emotional state, the amount of anxiety being experienced by a person at the time, whether they were fatigued or deprived of sleep and whether they were put under psychological and coercive pressure.
She agreed many people make false confessions out of a desire for publicity. She said confessions could be retracted on the removal of pressures but some might never be retracted because of a person's mental state.
At the conclusion of his cross examination, Mr McCann said he had only a hazy recollection of making a statement to gardai which recorded his admitting to setting the fire at his home. He said he was confused and muddled during his 48 hours of detention in Tallaght Garda station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act between November 4th and 6th, 1992.
He said he did not recall signing notes of interviews or a statement made during that period. He agreed his signature was on a number of those interviews. He denied inventing allegations of misconduct on the part of some gardai or seeking to discredit certain gardai.
He agreed he had told gardai in an interview that he had made threatening phone calls to his pub and a neighbouring pub and had sent a threatening Mass Card to himself. What he had told gardai was not correct and he had not made the calls or sent the card.
He agreed he had signed notes of a statement on November 6th, 1992, which recorded him as saying: "I started the fire and was meant to go up along with Esther and Jessica.
He said his memory of that was hazy and while he knew the general content of the statement, he could not say how it was said, what was asked or when it was asked. He had no specific recollection of that interview.
He said all kinds of thoughts were going through his head, things he did with his wife and baby Jessica, "dreams and nightmares". "The frame of mind I was in at that stage, I would just expect if they'd given me further documents to sign, I would have signed them," he said.
He agreed the document was an account of a fire being started by the person describing it. He said he did not start the fire.
He denied he had orchestrated a series of events, including threats to his home and pub and another pub, in the week before the fire to sidetrack gardai and put them in a frame of mind to believe he was being pursued by a criminal.
He denied he had set fire to his, own home and hoped to get away with it by misleading gardai.
The trial continues before Mr Justice Carney and the jury.