Bingo!

Www.standard.co.uk
London Evening Standard. Castela the Cabbie. Again.   

FFS!!!! He has already had his 5 minutes of fame, why doesn't he shut up!

We haven't had a drunken holidaymaker for a while, convinced he or she saw Madeleine somewhere in Europe.

Perhaps this will encourage them to regurgitate their own story.

Why doesn't he just contact the Met and request that they ask the PJ to interview him in their presence at some point during the SY Portugal trip?
No need to be whining in yet another UK newspaper at all.
Unless of course he has been dredged up once again to reinforce the fanciful notion that Madeleine is still alive.

"I had that Clarence Mitchell in the back of my cab once. And that big bloke from Lift Consulting ..."


 NEXT!!!

Nothing wrong with the PJ re-interviewing him again with SY looking on. He's still probably convinced of what he saw. I remember the original reports well. He said he had a young relative with a similar mark in the eye. He described there being three adults in his taxi, one woman and two men. He said the child sat on one of the adult's laps and was utterly silent throughout the trip. Maybe he does just want to be heard again. He may indeed be merely an attention seeker. Very unlikely to be significant, any more than digging up the Murat's drive... sigh... but no harm done.

Why are the press re hashing old story's?

This is from an article 28 Feb 2008

A taxi driver has claimed he gave missing Madeleine McCann a lift in his cab, along with suspect Robert Murat.
Antonio Cardoso, 67, has come forward nine months into the search to claim he drove the pair on the night Madeleine vanished.
And he insisted he was “sure” it was Murat alongside her, when he accepted the pair into his cab

He said he collected Madeleine, three men and a woman in Monte Gordo, near Portugal’s border with Spain, on the evening of May 3 last year.
He described the girl as wearing pink pyjamas and having the same distinctive eye-mark as Madeleine.
British expat Murat, 33, was named by Portuguese police as the first official “arguido”, or suspect, in the case – later joined in this status by Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann.
Mr Cardoso said he later recognised his front-seat passenger as Murat, who has always denied any wrongdoing.
The taxi driver said: “I later recognised him on the television. I am sure it was him.”
But the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “We are dismissing this, primarily because the timings are entirely wrong.”
Mr Cardoso says he picked up the group including Madeleine at about 8.10pm – though the McCanns have insisted she was still with them at this time.
The Praia da Luz resort where the McCanns were staying on holiday is about an hour’s drive from Monte Gordo

http://metro.co.uk/2008/02/28/i-had-madeleine-mccann-in-my-cab-11902/

_______________________________________________________________________

Mr Cardoso said he later recognised his front-seat passenger as Murat, who has always denied any wrongdoing.
The taxi driver said: “I later recognised him on the television. I am sure it was him.”
___________________________________________________________________

Slander/libel writs from Mr Murat winging their way to Mr Cardoso as we type?

___________________________________________________________________

But the McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “We are dismissing this, primarily because the timings are entirely wrong.”

YEP, YOU'RE RIGHT..............BINGO!

ETA: and it only took him NINE months LATER to come 'forward'
Still, a bit quicker than the usual "i saw Maddie" witnesses who come forward after a few years LATER!

The cabbie was checked out at the time by the PJ and his story found to have no relevance to the enquiry.

AnnaEsse wrote:The cabbie was checked out at the time by the PJ and his story found to have no relevance to the enquiry.

Perhaps that is the BEST lead Andy and Bernies 'elites' have found after £5million and 2 years 'trawling'?

A little thing like 'of no relevance' won't put off our Andy 'sniffer' Redwood!

Just a pity 'our' Kate 'missed it' during her £100.000 forensic examination of the 'files'.

I know that Annaesse. I suspect that will be true of many or most of the interviewees. 'Going through the motions', comes to mind. I wouldn't be averse to John Geraghty being re-interviewed, however. Maybe he has something extra to add to what is known for sure about the disappearance and its aftermath. I keep my own list of people I would specially like to see interviewed again. The taxi driver was not amongst them. Lots of Johns/Jons on my list, including John Buck now moved on and probably retired, and that rather rum chap Jon Corner.

Evening Standard accepting comments. I'm surprised they haven't deleted one from "kiko" which states the view "Maddie had died long before the day of the McCanns' "abduction" pantomime".

It's on the front page of tomorrow's Daily Express with the usual picture of Madeleine aged 3 in a red dress.

Bad news also for the miserable old gits like me who can't stand the sun - it's going to be naffing hot again for the rest of the month!

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/422662/Taxi-driver-tells-police-I-can-help-you-find-Madeleine-McCann

It was worth waiting for, wasn't it?!

No comments being allowed yet - maybe later.

What is interesting about this article is the change of timing from the original report. Antonio Castela now says he picked up three men, a woman and Madeleine on the 4 May, the night after she went missing.

From the Telegraph. ( I have the original webpage saved.)

By Natalie Paris
11:31AM GMT 28 Feb 2008
A taxi driver has reportedly claimed to have taken Madeleine McCann and Robert Murat for a ride in his cab on the night the toddler vanished.
All the latest on the Madeleine McCann investigation
Antonio Cardoso, 67, alleges that Madeleine was with three men and a woman who were waiting at a taxi rank in Monte Gordo near the Spanish border.

The Sun newspaper reports that he took them on a short journey to a hotel where the group transferred to a jeep with foreign number plates.
Mr Cardoso claimed the girl in the back of his taxi at 8.10pm on May 3 was wearing pink pyjamas and had a distinctive mark in her eye.
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He said he later recognised one of the men as Robert Murat after watching a television programme.
The claims have shocked Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who have rejected them for being incompatible with the known chain of events that night.
Murat was made an official suspect, or arguido, two weeks after the little girl disappeared but has always denied any involvement in the case.
Mr Cardoso said he drove the group in silence for about two miles from the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de Santo Antonio near Faro, with the man who he believed to be Murat sat beside him in the front passenger seat.
He claimed the girl he thought was Madeleine was awake but said nothing during the trip and stared straight ahead.
He told the Sun: "I noticed her eye because my son was born with a defect much the same. I saw her kind of twist her chin a few times in my rear-view mirror.
"I remember she was in pink pyjamas and wondered why they hadn't dressed her."
He described the adults as casually dressed and the woman as a slim blonde.
Mr Cardoso said he had informed the police of the apparent encounter but as well as Metodo 3, the private detective agency hired by the McCanns.
But the McCanns spokesman Clarence Mitchell told the newspaper: "We are dismissing this primarily because the timings are entirely wrong."

Accompanied by picture of Madeleine on her bike. Strange that it says the 3rd here, and now it's morphed into the 4th.

Yes, I was about to say that some reports say the 3rd and others the 4th.

If it is true that this man did not go to the police initially until February 2008, no wonder he couldn't remember the exact date; absolute nonsense!

Palmeras16 wrote:What is interesting about this article is the change of timing from the original report. Antonio Castela now says he picked up three men, a woman and Madeleine on the 4 May, the night after she went missing.

Hi Palmeras.

Jon Corner, the McCanns media friend, was contacted by the McCanns, or someone close to the McCanns, within a very short time of Madeleine's disappearance. He would have made sure the news was out in the open, not just in the UK but in Portugal. Because the taxi driver, picked up those people, the day after Madeleine went missing, he would have seen the news about Madeleine's disappearance along with a photograph of her. So when he discovered that she, along with 4 adults, were in his taxi, why didn't he radio the police?

In my opinion, this story was either concocted by the taxi driver, who wants his '5 minutes of fame' or it was concocted by someone within the McCanns circle, as a way of either putting the blame on Robert Murat or proving that Madeleine was abducted by others.

Dosen't EXPLAIN this though does it?

"How on earth at that time (4th May, 2007) did he KNOW what Madeleine's pyjamas looked like? "

HOW is THAT possible?

WE only knew and the WORLD only knew what the pyjamas, supposedly, looked like, for the FIRST time, when  Kate and Gerry, did a BBC crimewatch appeal on 5th June 2007 and then held them up in public went they to Berlin on 6th JUNE 2007.

A whole MONTH after Madeleine went 'missing'!

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/17-July8/timeline/7abc.JPG

So HOW Mr C 'knew' what Madeleine in pyjamas 'looked like' only a DAY after she went 'missing' is anybody's guess!

ETA: The McCanns hold up a set of pink pyjamas in the broadcast
Tuesday, 5 June 2007, 21:15 GMT 22:15 UK
Madeleine's parents in TV appeal
The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have appeared on BBC One's Crimewatch to urge anyone with information of her whereabouts to come forward.
In the Crimewatch appeal, Mrs McCann, 38, held up a light-pink pyjama top with capped sleeves and a picture on it of the cartoon character Eeyore, who is curled up with the words "Sleepy Eeyore" written underneath.
She also produced WHITE cotton pyjama bottoms covered with small flowers and carrying another Eeyore motif on the right leg.
The pyjamas are identical to those Madeleine was wearing and belong to her two-year-old sister Amelie.

WHITE cotton pyjama bottoms?
WHITE??????????
Seems like JT and Mr C suffer from COLOUR blindness
Both have said PINK pyjamas!

As J Tanner has told the world she ONLY saw the pyjama BOTTOMS, of a child being carried away, with the bare feet sticking out, why is she saying they were PINK when KM says they were WHITE?

Good liars have to be intelligent and have excellent memories. When they aren't and haven't, they just make fools out of themselves.

Well if he didn't approach the police to reprt what he thinks he saw till months later,he would know what colour the jammies were ? don't forget he didn't recall to report it for so long ? joyce1938

http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/11feb8/29_02_2008.htm

Has anyone been able to find a record of this story appearing in May 2007? If so, the reference to the pyjamas would be significant.

However, if we can believe the Daily Mail (of course we can!), the above link (near the end) quotes the taxi driver's wife as saying that, though her husband had been talking about the incident for 10 months, the story had only then come out. She makes no mention as to whether or not he told the police earlier.

Not Born Yesterday wrote:http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/11feb8/29_02_2008.htm

Has anyone been able to find a record of this story appearing in May 2007? If so, the reference to the pyjamas would be significant.

However, if we can believe the Daily Mail (of course we can!), the above link (near the end) quotes the taxi driver's wife as saying that, though her husband had been talking about the incident for 10 months, the story had only then come out. She makes no mention as to whether or not he told the police earlier.

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

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 pyjamas 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.

Yet the McCanns say WHITE bottoms, the only part of pyjamas JT could SEE.

WHY was Gerry McCann so INSISTANT that JT couldn't have known what Madeleines pyjamas looked like in interview after interview?
So it MUST of been Madeleine being 'carried off'
He repeats it over and over again.

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

The son, a police officer of the GNR, advised the father to phone to the Judiciary Police of Portimão. “ He (the son) dialled the number and I said what I am telling you (to the journalist of 24 Horas newspaper)”, he remembers to 24horas.

Shame that cabbies do not have CCTV of some sort. That would be worth looking at!

Pink pyjamas would be a brilliant guess for a small girl that age.

If the date was inaccurate - this is not the first time either. The witnessing of dancing with her father outside a beach front restaurant was inaccurate with dates if I remember correctly.

Was this cabbie set up by the group to frame Murat? Did he make a complete hash of it?

I thought it was the 3rd they were supposedly in the cab.