内容摘要：The girls, Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia, died from apparent suffocation in a remote campground, earlier this week, according to police.

The girls, Paityn, Evelyn and Olivia, died from apparent suffocation in a remote campground, earlier this week, according to police.

Responding to the BBC's findings, Katie Kempen, chief executive at independent charity Victim Support, said: "Police forces must ensure crimes are thoroughly investigated and evidence is handled appropriately and sensitively."All victim-survivors deserve the opportunity to seek justice."

Former police officers have told the BBC they are not surprised by the findings."It's [evidence] chucked all over the place," said one former officer."The amount of it is overwhelming… it's unsurprising it gets lost or damaged," another told the BBC.

Professor Carole McCartney, a criminologist and expert in evidence retention believes the loss of the dedicated Forensic Science Service (FSS) in 2012 is one of the reasons behind the growing proportion of cases affected by unavailable evidence.Before 2012, all police forces could send exhibits that needed storing or analysing to the service, but the government-owned company was closed that year after making large losses.

Since then, police forces have had to make their own evidence storage arrangements and contract private providers for forensic services.

Prof McCartney said she had witnessed an officer pull out what he called a "box of horrors" from underneath a desk which contained various pieces of un-catalogued evidence including a plastic bag with a broken wine bottle in it and a car numberplate.However, after his most recent album Polari, released in February, reached number 17, Alexander announced his departure from his record label.

"They aren't dropping me, they just aren't renewing my contract,""It's OK and honestly for the best. I've been on a pretty terrible deal for 10 years. It's time I do something new. But I'll still make music in the future."

Reflecting on his first decade as a pop star, Alexander told the BBC: "With music, there's an intensity to the way I've been working and putting albums out, promoting and touring. I definitely want to take the foot off the gas in terms of that intensity."He still occasionally works on music, but has "not been putting pressure on myself... I just do what feels good and feel very lucky that I have this other strand of acting that I'm able to explore".