Taxi driver's Madeleine McCann 'sighting' ignored

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/taxi-drivers-madeleine-mccann-sighting-ignored-7706974.html

Kate and Gerry McCann talking to media this morningPA
Suggested Topics Portugal

A taxi driver who believes he picked up Madeleine McCann the night after she vanished has claimed that Portuguese police ignored his report.

Click here to read the full story at the London Evening Standard

Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman said it was "deeply shocking" that detectives never interviewed Antonio Castela about his possible sighting of the missing child.

Mr Castela, 72, went to the Policia Judiciaria (PJ), Portugal's CID, after three men, a woman and a young girl resembling Madeleine got into his cab on the evening of May 4 2007 in Monte Gordo in the Algarve.

This is about an hour's drive from Praia da Luz, where the British child had vanished from her family's holiday apartment the previous night.

The taxi driver drove the group two miles to the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where they drove away in a blue jeep.

Mr Castela told the Evening Standard: "After I went to the police, I never heard anything from them again.

"They did not seem to take me seriously and never questioned me. They simply took down the details and that was it.

"I am amazed that it has been five years and nobody has ever asked me what I saw that night. I am absolutely certain it was her."

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Mr Castela did absolutely the right thing at the time by reporting his sighting to the PJ.

"It is clearly deeply shocking that he now tells us he has not been interviewed once by a detective in five years.

"This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be looked at in the investigative review now being carried out by the Metropolitan Police.

"Kate and Gerry remain very happy that the Met are performing their role as efficiently as they can."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/uk/madeleine-mccann-got-into-the-back-of-my-cab-the-night-after-she-vanished-7706355.html

Madeleine McCann got into the back of my cab the night after she vanished

02 May 2012

A taxi driver who could help solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance has been ignored by Portuguese police, it was revealed today.

A lawyer for her parents told how the man, who says he saw the toddler a day after she vanished, is a crucial witness who could provide vital clues in the case.

Today, on the eve of the fifth anniversary into her disappearance, the cab driver told the Standard, how he has never been interviewed by detectives.

Antonio Castela says a young girl, who looked like Madeleine, got into the back of his taxi with four adults near the Spanish border in the Algarve, the night after she went missing.

Despite telling the Policia Judiciaria, the Portuguese police's investigative unit, what he saw, he has never been questioned.

The 72-year-old said he picked up three men, a woman and a child at 7:50pm on the May 4 2007, from Monte Gordo, about an hour's drive from Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished the night before.

He drove them two miles to the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de Santo Antonio near Faro, where they got into a blue jeep and drove away.

He said: "The little girl, who looked like Madeleine was sat on the lap of a man sitting at the back of the cab. I remember thinking it was odd because they did not speak a word during the entire journey apart from at the end when the man sat in the passenger seat said to me; how much?"

Speaking from his home in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, he added: "Only when I heard about Madeleine going missing and seeing her picture on the TV did I contact the police as the little girl in the back of my taxi had that same distinct mark in her eye as Madeleine does."

Mr Castela, who has been a taxi driver for 23 years, said the girl, who was dressed in pink pyjamas, was awake, but did not speak and was just "staring ahead" as though she had been doped.

"After I went to the police, I never heard anything from them again" he said. "They did not seem to take me seriously and never questioned me. They simply took down the details and that was it. I am amazed that it has been five years and nobody has ever asked me what I saw that night. I am absolutely certain it was her."

Kate and Gerry McCann's lawyer in Portugal, Isabel Duarte, said Mr Castela's account is one of several important leads that the Portuguese police have failed to follow up.

Scotland Yard, which last year launched a £2million review of all known evidence in the case, says there are 195 new leads in the case adding they believe she is still alive.

A team of detectives, based in Oporto in northern Portugal, has been appointed to re-examine the case but so far say there are no credible new facts to justify re-opening the investigation.

Kate and Gerry McCann said today they have "no doubt" that the Portuguese authorities will eventually re-open the investigation into their daughter Madeleine's disappearance.

Police in Portugal said last week they had found "no new element" to justify re-launching their inquiry into how the little girl vanished on a family holiday to the Algarve in May 2007. But the McCanns, speaking on the eve of the fifth anniversary of Madeleine going missing, added their voice to calls from Scotland Yard for the case to be re-opened.

Mr McCann, 43, said: “I think the most important thing is that a lot of the investigation opportunities are in Portugal.

“I think it’s fairly clear that the case will have to be re-opened for those to be pursued adequately.

“We weren’t expecting a knee-jerk reaction by any means. This is an ongoing dialogue, and I am sure the investigation will get opened again in due course.

“I have no doubt about that. It will get re-opened.”

His wife, 44, added: “It’s certainly the best way that we’re going to find Madeleine, and who took her. If people want to find Madeleine, and want to find the person who took her, then we need the case to be re-opened.”

The officer leading Scotland Yard’s review of the original investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance spoke last week of his belief that the case can still be solved and said there is evidence she could still be alive.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said the Metropolitan Police would like the case to be re-opened, but stressed that the decision was one for Portugal.

Mr McCann said: “The only way everyone will be able to move on is for the case to be solved, and that is for Madeleine to be found and the perpetrators brought to justice. Until then it’s not going to go away. It can’t go away.”

Isn't this the taxi driver who believed the woman was Kate McCann???

Was this the man who's son was a member of the pj? The same man who thought it was KM in the car with Madeleine.

pennylane wrote:Isn't this the taxi driver who believed the woman was Kate McCann???

Yes I think so.

welshy wrote: Was this the man who's son was a member of the pj? The same man who thought it was KM in the car with Madeleine.

Snap!!!

pennylane wrote:

welshy wrote: Was this the man who's son was a member of the pj? The same man who thought it was KM in the car with Madeleine.

Snap!!!

Great Minds pennylane .!

pennylane wrote:Isn't this the taxi driver who believed the woman was Kate McCann???

Didn't he also mention Maddie's eye?

Yes, he thought he saw Maddie with KM and three blokes.
Son was in GNR, I think.

This is a real oldie that has come up a few times. The taxi driver was interviewed and ruled out. I'll try to find the info later!

mumbles wrote:

pennylane wrote:Isn't this the taxi driver who believed the woman was Kate McCann???

Didn't he also mention Maddie's eye?

He mentioned the little girl had a coloboma, and I recall he said her chin was quivering and she was just staring straight ahead.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/106917-i-had-madeleine-mccann-in-my-cab#ixzz1NfRRq9fg

But the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We are dismissing this, primarily because the timings are entirely wrong."

Change of tune now Clarrie?

chrissie wrote:http://www.metro.co.uk/news/106917-i-had-madeleine-mccann-in-my-cab#ixzz1NfRRq9fg

But the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We are dismissing this, primarily because the timings are entirely wrong."

Change of tune now Clarrie?

Who the hell's 'we?'

http://www.algarveresident.com/0-18003/algarve/taxi-driver-i-carried-madeleine-on-night-she-disappearedAlgarve Resident

Taxi driver: "I carried Madeleine on night she disappeared"

Updated: 29-Feb-2008


“The girl had a darker spot in one of her eyes,” says Monte Gordo taxi driver António José Castela Cardoso. Photo: SOLARPIX

A TAXI DRIVER from Monte Gordo has claimed that he transported Madeleine McCann and four adults to a local hotel on the night the little girl disappeared last May.

António José Castela Cardoso said his sighting was reported to the Polícia Judiciária at the time but that he has not been contacted by investigators since then.

He told a Portuguese daily newspaper yesterday (Thursday) that the group, one woman and three men plus the girl he says was Madeleine, approached his taxi at around 8:10pm at the casino taxi rank and asked to be taken to the Hotel Apolo, which is a few kilometres away in Vila Real de Santo António city centre, close to the Spanish border.

When they reached the hotel, António Cardoso said the group did not go in but instead got into a jeep with a yellow foreign licence plate.

Only after newspapers started reporting the disappearance of Madeleine over the weekend following May 3 did he connect the case with that group.

The reason, he said, was because “the girl had a darker spot in one of her eyes” and that attracted his attention.

António Cardoso also says that the man who was in the front passenger seat was very similar to Robert Murat and the woman looked a lot like Madeleine’s mother.

The episode, as recounted by António Cardoso, happened several hours before the alarm was raised about Madeleine’s disappearance, which was after 10pm on May 3.

While the secrecy of justice law continues to constrain any official clarification about the Madeleine Case, unofficial PJ sources were quoted by the Portuguese-language press as confirming the existence of António Cardoso’s report in the case files.

Meanwhile, according to police sources quoted in another Portuguese daily newspaper, the British police have confirmed and agreed with the enquiry letters sent by their Portuguese counterparts and a British police representative is now expected to travel to the Algarve in the coming weeks.

Police forces from the two countries are now planning the questioning sessions to be held in the UK, as requested by the PJ, of Gerry and Kate McCann and three of their friends who stayed with them at Praia da Luz, JaneTanner, Russell O’Brien and David Payne.

AnnaEsse wrote:This is a real oldie that has come up a few times. The taxi driver was interviewed and ruled out. I'll try to find the info later!

Im sure Ive seen this in the PJ files too...and they dismissed it

This puts Clarence in a pickle. He obviously was culpable in placing this story in the paper as he is clearly quoted.

He seems to have completely forgotten it is an old story he previously rubbished because it pointed the finger at his client.

jd16 wrote:

AnnaEsse wrote:This is a real oldie that has come up a few times. The taxi driver was interviewed and ruled out. I'll try to find the info later!

Im sure Ive seen this in the PJ files too...and they dismissed it

I wonder was it ruled out on the basis of timing though ? Around 8pm, at that time according to the McCanns they were still all together, so it would not fit that story.

However, we have no idea where they were that evening or night or indeed what was happening at all during that holiday.

Robert murat/David Payne

mossman wrote:

jd16 wrote:

AnnaEsse wrote:This is a real oldie that has come up a few times. The taxi driver was interviewed and ruled out. I'll try to find the info later!

Im sure Ive seen this in the PJ files too...and they dismissed it

I wonder was it ruled out on the basis of timing though ? Around 8pm, at that time according to the McCanns they were still all together, so it would not fit that story.

However, we have no idea where they were that evening or night or indeed what was happening at all during that holiday.

The above article has forwarded the event to the evening of 4th May. You've got to love our pathetic UK journalists...... they never let the facts get in the way of their stories do they?

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/02/taxi-driver-story-and-rogatory-letter.html

The taxi-driver has been telling this history in public establishments and to clients whom he transports. Only this week a journalist of the “Jornal do Algarve” contacted him to publish what the driver affirms to have seen. “Now they do not leave me alone. Tomorrow [today] there is a team coming from England on purpose to interview me”, he says.

4 years ago.....Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, reacted yesterday with amazement at the declarations of the taxi-driver. “The declarations of Mr. Castela are false. They are a perfect nonsense. He can only be mistaken when he says that at that time he transported Kate and Madeleine with three men”, he said, underlining the fact of being several independent witnesses who place Madeleine's parents in a completely different place. “How is that possible, if at 20h35 several witnesses say that Kate and Gerry were sitting down on a table of the Tapas restaurant”, he questioned. Clarence doubts of the intentions of the taxi-driver. “It astonishes me that only now, ten months later, he talks about this. These are declarations that only cause pain to Kate and Gerry", he said, advancing that that the McCann's daughter has no facial twitches.
“The only sign to report is the one she has in the eye.”

Also 4 years ago in The Telegraph.....But the McCanns spokesman Clarence Mitchell told the newspaper: "We are dismissing this primarily because the timings are entirely wrong."

Roll forward 4 years to May 2nd 2012......McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "It is clearly deeply shocking that [Mr Castela] now tells us he has not been interviewed once by a detective.
"This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be looked at in the investigative review now being carried out by the Metropolitan Police

I think everyone can see very clearly from the facts!!!

kitti wrote:Robert murat/David Payne

"They have taken her".

jd16 wrote:4 years ago.....Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, reacted yesterday with amazement at the declarations of the taxi-driver. “The declarations of Mr. Castela are false. They are a perfect nonsense. He can only be mistaken when he says that at that time he transported Kate and Madeleine with three men”, he said, underlining the fact of being several independent witnesses who place Madeleine's parents in a completely different place. “How is that possible, if at 20h35 several witnesses say that Kate and Gerry were sitting down on a table of the Tapas restaurant”, he questioned. Clarence doubts of the intentions of the taxi-driver. “It astonishes me that only now, ten months later, he talks about this. These are declarations that only cause pain to Kate and Gerry", he said, advancing that that the McCann's daughter has no facial twitches.
“The only sign to report is the one she has in the eye.”

Also 4 years ago in The Telegraph.....But the McCanns spokesman Clarence Mitchell told the newspaper: "We are dismissing this primarily because the timings are entirely wrong."

Roll forward 4 years to May 2nd 2012......McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "It is clearly deeply shocking that [Mr Castela] now tells us he has not been interviewed once by a detective.
"This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be looked at in the investigative review now being carried out by the Metropolitan Police

I think everyone can see very clearly from the facts!!!

Thanks jd16

Indeed - and it gets clearer with each passing day.

Anyone got some handcuffs?