Traffic police who found missing nurse Magdeline Makola left her tied up in her car boot for nearly half an hour. Magdeline, 38, who was freezing and terrified, was left helpless as they waited for back-up-despite paramedics being on hand nearby to treat her.
A police source said last night: "It is just beyond belief that these two traffic cops did not think to get her off to hospital as soon as the ambulance arrived."
The Lothian and Borders traffic officers found South African-born Magdeline 11 days after she was last seen leaving work at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. They found her Vauxhall Astra parked in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, and forced the boot after hearing noises. After they radioed back to their Edinburgh HQ, an ambulance was dispatched to the scene, near the town's Drumgelloch railway station.
But the paramedics were unable to treat her until detectives arrived more than 20 minutes later. And the Strathclyde detectives called to the scene were horrified to find Magdeline still in the boot.
The police source said: "The first rule is to save a life, then secure a potential crime scene - not the other way around. The detective sergeant who attended the scene first couldn't believe what happened. Magdeline was still tied up in the boot.
"The first thing he did was order the ambulance guys in to start treating Magdeline, who was obviously deeply traumatised and in a very bad way. It's been the talk of the office how these cops decided to wait for CID back-up rather than getting this poor woman to hospital. Imagine if she had died in the boot as they waited for detectives with an ambulance sitting round the corner. It is horrendous."
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