Taxi driver's Madeleine McCann 'sighting' ignored

I haven't found that yet, but I know it was on either Duarte Levy's "Sos Madeleine McCann," or "Enfants Kidnappés." Will keep looking.

[[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-520929/Madeleine-police-come-Britain-interview-Tapas-Nine.html here]]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-520929/Madeleine-police-come-Britain-interview-Tapas-Nine.html

Madeleine police to come to Britain to re-interview Tapas Nine

Last updated at 13:55 28 February 2008



Portuguese police will arrive in Britain within the next ten days to reinterview friends of Kate and Gerry McCann over the disappearance of their four-year-old daughter, Madeleine.

David Payne, Jane Tanner and her partner Russell O'Brien are set to be quizzed first in a last-ditch attempt by cops to crack the mystery. Police will then decide whether to requestion other members of the so-called Tapas Nine, it was claimed.

The news came as a Portuguese taxi driver told how he picked up Madeleine McCann with a blonde woman who looked like Kate McCann and three men including one who looked like suspect Robert Murat the night of her disappearance.

Antonio Castela, 67, said he dropped off the missing girl and her English-speaking mystery companions at an Algarve hotel and watched them drive off in a blue jeep.

He insisted he was "100 per cent sure" his passengers included Madeleine, four, saying he even noticed her famous eye defect as his son had a similar defect.



Madeleine has been missing since May 3 last year

Antonio Castela insists he saw Madeleine on the night she disappeared

"She was with three men, one of whom looked like Robert Murat, and a blonde woman," he said.

"The blonde woman with them looked to me like Madeleine's mother but I couldn't say whether or not it was her," he added.

"I even noticed the girl's eye defect, as my son, who is a police officer, has a similar defect in his eye.

"When I saw the news on the television I was stunned and I turned to my wife and said: 'I had that little girl in my car!'

"I went back to the hotel and told them and asked if they had CCTV cameras. They said they did, but they were broken so there was no footage.

"I told the Judicial Police but they never took me seriously and told me I must have been mistaken.
Robert Murat

Robert Murat is one of the three suspects in the case

"But I know what I saw and I'm sure I saw Madeleine.

"I believe she must have been smuggled abroad. It has been on my mind ever since."

Castela, a taxi driver for the past 17 years, said he picked the group up at at a taxi rank in Monte Gordo an hour's drive east of Praia da Luz where Kate and Gerry McCann were holidaying with their three children on the evening of May 3. He was certain about the timing, he said, as it was approaching the end of his shift.

He claimed Madeleine was wearing a pair of pink pyjamas and sat on the lap of one of the two men.

They asked him to drive them to the Apolo Hotel in the nearby town of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, a 15 minute drive from Portugal's southern border with Spain.

And the only one words one of the men uttered at the end of the two and a half mile journey was "How Much?" in English when it was time to pay, Mr Castela told Jornal do Algarve in an exclusive interview.

He told the paper the jeep the group got into in the hotel car park had a yellow UK-style number plate.

He is thought to have informed police after being told they were not staying at the hotel and seeing news of Madeleine's disappearance on TV.

Mr Castela is said to have picked up the group just after 8pm local time.

Madeleine's parents - official police suspects - first raised the alarm around 10pm although the last public sighting of Madeleine is believed to have been at least four hours earlier.

Jane Tanner, one of the friends who was eating tapas with Madeleine's parents the night she disappeared, has told how she saw a man carrying a little girl in pink pijamas in his arms near the McCanns' Ocean Club apartment the night the youngster went missing. She told police she saw the man from behind but was able to give a description of what he and the child was wearing.

The 38-year-old marketing executive claims she saw the pair about 40 minutes before Madeleine's parents raised the alarm.

Portuguese police have said they believe there are inconsistencies in the statements of some of the so-called Tapas Nine and have asked for permission to interview some of them again in Britain.

Scroll down for more ...
kate gerry mccann arm around each other looking exhausted

Kate and Gerry McCann are also suspects in their daughter's disappearance

UK authorities are currently considering the request.

The McCanns and Robert Murat - the third official suspect or arguido in the Madeleine McCann case - all deny any wrongdoing.

GP Kate and heart specialist Gerry, both 39 and from Rothley, Leics, believe their daughter was abducted by paedophiles and may have been smuggled across Portugal's border with Spain before being taken to north Africa.

Portuguese police chief Alipio Ribeiro recently admitted officers had been "hasty" in making the McCanns suspects.

The taxi driver's wife Gloria said: "My husband has consistently said the same thing for the past ten months.

"A journalist from the local paper heard the story from someone who knows my husband.

"The reporter approached my husband and asked to do an interview.

"That is why the story has only just come out now."

Found it!


It was first published in Enfants Kidnappés, a blog that has since disappeared, somewhere around Feb 28th 2008. If anyone is good at finding archived web pages, maybe they could do a search because the blog isn't there any more.

Kate McCann, Robert Murat and Madeleine in the same taxi?

Ten months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the taxi driver's story hit the international press. It has been reported widely in the UK press, but I don't think I have seen reports that the story had been investigated and rejected after verification. Here is an article from the Belgian site, Enfants Kidnappés, dated February 28th.

Ten months after the fact, a taxi driver from Vila Real de Santo Antonio, went public with his witness statement to the PJ. According to reports in the Portuguese press, the taxi driver made his statement to the PJ two days after Maddie's disappearance. "I don't have a lot to say, but what I have to say, I can state with certainty. On the 3rd of May at 8.10pm, the evening of Madeleine's disappearance, three men, a woman and a little girl entered my taxi. Sitting beside me was seated a man who resembled Robert Murat and whom I recognised later in the press. There was also a little girl in pink pyjamas with that distinctive mark in her eye and her mother, of that there is no doubt."
I noticed her because there was a nervous tic to her chin and my son had the same tic when he was small. I asked myself why they had not dressed the little girl instead of leaving her in pyjamas. She was awake but she was not talking. The other men were aged between 40 and 50 years. The mother, who looked amazingly like Kate McCann, was dressed in a yellow coat and had her hair in a pony tail. She asked me to drive them to the Apolo Hotel five kilometres from there in a village close to Faro. They asked me in English how much the fare would be and I told them just over three Euros. The man next to me, the one who resembled Robert Murat, gave me a 5 Euro note. They did not take themselves towards the hotel, but to a 4x4, a big dark coloured car, which looked to me like a BMW, with a foreign registration.

Mr Castela, the taxi driver, is used to remembering people's faces. He is 67 years old and has been doing his job for 17 years. Fixing faces in one's mind allows better identification of people. And if he is sure about the time in his story it is, he says, because, "I know they got into my taxi at that time because I usually watch the television news. I was thinking at that moment to return home. I took that fare and I returned home for 8.30pm where I could carry on watching the television news.

"He did not place any importance on his clients until two days later when the media took up the case, "Then I spoke to my son who is an officer with the GNR and he decided to put me in contact with the PJ. I told them exactly what I have just said and the inspector asked me if I knew if the hotel had surveillance cameras. I told him that in theory, yes. Out of curiosity, two days later, I returned to the hotel and asked them if the PJ had contacted them. They told me no. I tried to find out if they had surveillance cameras but they told me that they had been out of order for two years."

The PJ confirmed having been contacted by the taxi driver and his witness statement taken at the time. But these claims had been rejected after verification.

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

The taxi driver is quoted as saying that he was interviewed by the PJ!

techniphobe

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!!!

This rather proves Clarrie just shoots from the hip with his sound-bites. He needs a decent database so he can at least be consistent.

he doesn't shoot from the hip....he LIES from the hip

AnnaEsse wrote:Found it!


It was first published in Enfants Kidnappés, a blog that has since disappeared, somewhere around Feb 28th 2008. If anyone is good at finding archived web pages, maybe they could do a search because the blog isn't there any more.

Kate McCann, Robert Murat and Madeleine in the same taxi?

Ten months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the taxi driver's story hit the international press. It has been reported widely in the UK press, but I don't think I have seen reports that the story had been investigated and rejected after verification. Here is an article from the Belgian site, Enfants Kidnappés, dated February 28th.

Ten months after the fact, a taxi driver from Vila Real de Santo Antonio, went public with his witness statement to the PJ. According to reports in the Portuguese press, the taxi driver made his statement to the PJ two days after Maddie's disappearance. "I don't have a lot to say, but what I have to say, I can state with certainty. On the 3rd of May at 8.10pm, the evening of Madeleine's disappearance, three men, a woman and a little girl entered my taxi. Sitting beside me was seated a man who resembled Robert Murat and whom I recognised later in the press. There was also a little girl in pink pyjamas with that distinctive mark in her eye and her mother, of that there is no doubt."
I noticed her because there was a nervous tic to her chin and my son had the same tic when he was small. I asked myself why they had not dressed the little girl instead of leaving her in pyjamas. She was awake but she was not talking. The other men were aged between 40 and 50 years. The mother, who looked amazingly like Kate McCann, was dressed in a yellow coat and had her hair in a pony tail. She asked me to drive them to the Apolo Hotel five kilometres from there in a village close to Faro. They asked me in English how much the fare would be and I told them just over three Euros. The man next to me, the one who resembled Robert Murat, gave me a 5 Euro note. They did not take themselves towards the hotel, but to a 4x4, a big dark coloured car, which looked to me like a BMW, with a foreign registration.

Mr Castela, the taxi driver, is used to remembering people's faces. He is 67 years old and has been doing his job for 17 years. Fixing faces in one's mind allows better identification of people. And if he is sure about the time in his story it is, he says, because, "I know they got into my taxi at that time because I usually watch the television news. I was thinking at that moment to return home. I took that fare and I returned home for 8.30pm where I could carry on watching the television news.

"He did not place any importance on his clients until two days later when the media took up the case, "Then I spoke to my son who is an officer with the GNR and he decided to put me in contact with the PJ. I told them exactly what I have just said and the inspector asked me if I knew if the hotel had surveillance cameras. I told him that in theory, yes. Out of curiosity, two days later, I returned to the hotel and asked them if the PJ had contacted them. They told me no. I tried to find out if they had surveillance cameras but they told me that they had been out of order for two years."

The PJ confirmed having been contacted by the taxi driver and his witness statement taken at the time. But these claims had been rejected after verification.

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

The taxi driver is quoted as saying that he was interviewed by the PJ!

AnnaEsse....This is important as it really proves the lies they are feeding and the covering up of the truth. I am so sure I read something in the PJ files about this before whilst searching for something else. I am sure it was when I searching up on Murat about some things

From this article here it sounds like DP with kate

http://thepottingshedder.blogspot.com/2012/05/spinning-memory-of-clarence-mitchell.html

TAXI-DRIVER IS SURE THAT HE TOOK MADDIE IN HIS CAR

A taxi-driver from Vila Real de Santo Antonio, in the Algarve, believes he transported Maddie, Kate McCann and three men on the night of the disappearance of the English girl, in the 3rd of May of last year. António Castela Cardoso, 67 years, does not forget the hour or the details of the passengers.

Having been a taxi-driver for 17 years, António Castela has the habit of memorizing the face of his clients. That one particularly, “She was a girl with very pretty eyes and she called my attention because of the mark that she had in one eye and the twitch that she was doing with the chin”, he remembered.

The clients approached and asked him to transport them to the Hotel Apolo, in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. On his side a man seated who was wearing “fine glasses”. “He was similar with the one that appears on television, like the third suspect”, says António, concerning Robert Murat – who is arguido in the case. In the seat behind, a woman “like Kate” sat down, between two men. The girl that the taxi-driver says was Maddie sat on the lap of one of them.

“She was wearing pink pyjamas. The mother had the hair tied and a yellow coat”, he remembers, with exactness. It was a silent journey. The passengers did not exchange one word; they did not show any emotions. On the arrival to the journey destiny, António pulled out the baby's chair (pram) of the luggage car. “It was the same as what the couple usually uses”, he affirms. The customers asked him, in English, how much the cab journey was. “I said that there were 3, 25 euros and they gave me five and then I thanked them”, he says.

The taxi-driver saw three men, the woman and the child move towards a metallic-blue, top-of-the-line Jeep “ I do not know if it would be a BMW, but I remember that the license plate was yellow and therefore was not a Portuguese one ”, he affirms. The vehicle was parked in the Hotel Apolo parking.

2008


Four years later, the sighting is again making current headline news in the British media. The McCanns 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.

However, way back in 2008, a source connected with the investigation guaranteed to Correio de Manha that the information given by António Castela were "investigated" and the “lead was proven false”.

At that time, Clarence Mitchell responded publicly on behalf of the McCanns to this particular sighting...

Clarence Mitchell, 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. 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.”
2008



Today, Clarence Mitchell seems to have wholly changed his mind about the doubtful intentions of Mr Castela, saying it was "deeply shocking" that detectives never interviewed Antonio Castela about his possible sighting of the missing child.

"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."
2012



Spot the difference? I reckon there's about two million quids worth there... and a lorra lorra spin.

All this free publicity the McCanns are getting is nauseous and the British Press should be fined for printing such rubbish and reported to the PCC.
When will the "Epilogue" be plugged by the McCanns one wonders. This really is sickening and I will not contribute any more to these threads.

So let me get this straight, they knew about this man saying that Madeleine had been in his taxi but because the times didn't match they discounted it. They have never had their detectives speak to him to make sure of the times or double check his story? But now 5 years on they think it should have been investigated?

ETA...was this man interviewed by the PJ?

Angelina wrote:So let me get this straight, they knew about this man saying that Madeleine had been in his taxi but because the times didn't match they discounted it. They have never had their detectives speak to him to make sure of the times or double check his story? But now 5 years on they think it should have been investigated?

ETA...was this man interviewed by the PJ?

yes

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

jd16 wrote:

Angelina wrote:So let me get this straight, they knew about this man saying that Madeleine had been in his taxi but because the times didn't match they discounted it. They have never had their detectives speak to him to make sure of the times or double check his story? But now 5 years on they think it should have been investigated?

ETA...was this man interviewed by the PJ?

yes

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

Thank you...but wasn't Levy (enfant-kidnappes) found to be somewhat economical with the truth?

Wonder why the PJ discounted his sighting.

I know I read this taxi driver's story at least two years ago. If it's been in the media (and the public eye) all this time why's it being mentioned again now? For most people this will seem like a new lead, but those of us who've kept up with this case will know that so far absolutely nothing new has come out in the media since the publicising of the SY review.

" 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."

Weird that this taxi driver said he saw Maddy at 8-10pm on May 3rd because, according to the McCanns and their pals, Madeleine was still 'safely' tucked up in bed then...

Angelina wrote:

jd16 wrote:

Angelina wrote:So let me get this straight, they knew about this man saying that Madeleine had been in his taxi but because the times didn't match they discounted it. They have never had their detectives speak to him to make sure of the times or double check his story? But now 5 years on they think it should have been investigated?

ETA...was this man interviewed by the PJ?

yes

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

Thank you...but wasn't Levy (enfant-kidnappes) found to be somewhat economical with the truth?

Wonder why the PJ discounted his sighting.

Enfants Kidnappés was not Duarte Levy's.

Former PJ inspector Paulo Pereira Cristóvão;

" the police are usually months ahead of the newspapers. Leads that were reported in June and July, or even later, had already been investigated and dismissed in the early days, as was the case of a certain sailboat, or the taxi driver in Vila Real de Santo António. “

ELI wrote:Former PJ inspector Paulo Pereira Cristóvão;

" the police are usually months ahead of the newspapers. Leads that were reported in June and July, or even later, had already been investigated and dismissed in the early days, as was the case of a certain sailboat, or the taxi driver in Vila Real de Santo António. “

There have been quite a few 'sightings,' reported in the UK press months after the PJ had investigated them and ruled them out.

My goodness, the huffington post are allowing comments....
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/02/madeleine-mccann-anniversary-taxi-driver-maddy_n_1470413.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk-ws-bb%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D106734

AnnaEsse wrote:

ELI wrote:Former PJ inspector Paulo Pereira Cristóvão;

" the police are usually months ahead of the newspapers. Leads that were reported in June and July, or even later, had already been investigated and dismissed in the early days, as was the case of a certain sailboat, or the taxi driver in Vila Real de Santo António. “

There have been quite a few 'sightings,' reported in the UK press months after the PJ had investigated them and ruled them out.

Exactly and sooner or later SY will catch up and there won't be anymore left for them to follow up.

AnnaEsse wrote:

Angelina wrote:

jd16 wrote:

Angelina wrote:So let me get this straight, they knew about this man saying that Madeleine had been in his taxi but because the times didn't match they discounted it. They have never had their detectives speak to him to make sure of the times or double check his story? But now 5 years on they think it should have been investigated?

ETA...was this man interviewed by the PJ?

yes

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

Thank you...but wasn't Levy (enfant-kidnappes) found to be somewhat economical with the truth?

Wonder why the PJ discounted his sighting.

Enfants Kidnappés was not Duarte Levy's.

Oh! Who's was it then?

Angelina wrote:

AnnaEsse wrote:

Angelina wrote:

jd16 wrote:

Angelina wrote:So let me get this straight, they knew about this man saying that Madeleine had been in his taxi but because the times didn't match they discounted it. They have never had their detectives speak to him to make sure of the times or double check his story? But now 5 years on they think it should have been investigated?

ETA...was this man interviewed by the PJ?

yes

http://frommybigdesk.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/enfants-kidnapps-kate-mccann-robert.html

Thank you...but wasn't Levy (enfant-kidnappes) found to be somewhat economical with the truth?

Wonder why the PJ discounted his sighting.

Enfants Kidnappés was not Duarte Levy's.

Oh! Who's was it then?

A Belgian ex-police officer, a very nice person.

It says much for the quality of newspaper reporting in this country that this story is being flaunted as another failure by the PJ to follow up matters and a significant new lead. Despite most papers reporting the story back in 2008 not one has questioned the change of date or the fact it ain't new.

Chris wrote:It says much for the quality of newspaper reporting in this country that this story is being flaunted as another failure by the PJ to follow up matters and a significant new lead. Despite most papers reporting the story back in 2008 not one has questioned the change of date or the fact it ain't new.

That just amazes me. All those newspapers and not one recalling that they covered this 4 years ago. And what of Clarence? Has he forgotten what he said 4 years ago? Why are all the papers bringing this up again? It just does not make sense. Next we'll have the child seen in a Belgian town by a security guard outside a bank with CCTV images reproduced in all the main dailies!