London, Sept 19 : The case against the parents of Brit toddler Madeleine McCann is likely to be dropped, following new evidence.

Kate and Gerry McCann have admitted that their four year-old daughter’s DNA was found in a car they hired 25 days after she went missing in May this year during a holiday in Portugal.

However, it looks like Madeleine’s DNA was transferred into the car when the McCanns hastily left their apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

They were moving into a nearby apartment and did not want to reveal the location.

Some items were packed in suitcases and others were put in plastic bags or scattered across the back of the car.

The McCanns took out the back seat of the car to accommodate everything inside.

Apparently, another source of DNA could have come from dirty nappies of two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie. The DNA closely matches Madeleine’s.

This seems to explain why bodily fluids, suspected to be urine and excrement, were found in the spare tyre well in the boot.

The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell insisted the devoted parents were the “innocent victims of a heinous crime”. The former Government aide said the move by Portuguese police to name the McCanns as suspects was “ludicrous” and “nonsensical”.

“It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.” The Daily Express quoted Mitchell, as saying.

A source said that the DNA was transferred when the couple shifted to another villa.

“Who is to say what happened when Kate and Gerry moved to the new villa? The seats were taken out in the move and everything, including Made¬leine’s sandals and the twins’ nappies, were dumped in the car. They would have included traces of skin, sweat and bodily fluids. DNA could easily have been transferred in such circumstances.,” the source said.

Almost 30 people related to the McCanns, including relatives used the hired car before police seized it to gather samples.

“What people have got to ask themselves is just how many people were associated with that vehicle over a 10-week period,” the source added.

“How many family, friends and campaign workers, how many blood relatives, how many drivers.”

“I know of at least 30 people being associated with that vehicle in the relevant period. People also need to consider what was carried in that car for entirely innocent reasons.

“These are all areas that will provide the innocent explanations.

“When viewed as a whole by any rational person these reasons at best raise fundamental questions about the reliability of any so-called evidence and at worst render it totally useless.”

Lawyers working for the McCanns will bring in expert witnesses and their own crime scene specialists to prove they did not kill their daughter.

Mr Mitchell has been with the couple in Portugal after Madeleine went missing on May 3.

“Sometimes I was with them for up to 14 hours a day. During that time I never saw or heard anything that gave me cause for concern,” he said.

“All I witnessed was a loving family that had been plunged into the most dreadful situation,’ he added.

“Clearly, however, given the inter-Governmental sensitivities surrounding Kate and Gerry’s case, my position as an impartial civil servant working for the British Government became untenable from the moment I accepted the role.”

“To speak freely on their behalf, therefore, I have resigned from my role as Director of the Central Office of Information’s Media Monitoring Unit in Whitehall.”

“More importantly, I have done so simply because I feel so strongly that they are the innocent victims of a heinous crime that I am prepared to forego my career in Govern¬ment service to assist them.

“The focus must now move away from the rampant, unfounded and inaccurate speculation of recent days to return to the child at the very centre of this: Madeleine.

“The task is simply to find her. Kate and Gerry are again urging everyone to keep looking as they firmly believe she could still be alive.” (With inputs from ANI)