Yet more old news rehashed as the Cabbie story is retold.

[John]

Breakthrough hope as taxi driver says, "I picked up men with Maddie".

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




Here is the same story in the same newspaper on 3rd May 2012.


Madeleine McCann was in my taxi but police ignored me.

A TAXI driver who claims he picked up Madelebutk McCann the night after she vanished has accused Portuguese police of dismissing his evidence.

Antonio Castela, 72, says he is ­certain the little girl in pink pyjamas travelling with four adults was three-year-old Madeleine.

Madeleine was wearing a pink T-shirt with the character Eeyore and white trousers with a small floral ­pattern when she was snatched.

The cabbie described how the girl in the taxi even had the same distinctive mark in her eye as Madeleine does.

He went to Portugal’s CID, the ­Policia Judiciaria, soon after discovering Madeleine had gone missing and gave a statement.

But Mr Castela said: “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.”

Mr Castela, a cab driver for 23 years, said he picked up the girl on the evening of May 4, 2007, in Monte Gordo in the Algarve. The spot was about an hour’s drive from Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished the night before.

She was with three men and a woman and they were driven to the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, near Faro. Once there, they got into a blue 4x4 and drove off.

Mr Castela said: “The little girl, who looked like Madeleine was sat on the lap of a man sitting in 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?’” He said the girl in his cab did not speak but was “staring ahead” as though she had been doped.

Read more...

[faithlilly]

Breakthrough hope as taxi driver says, "I picked up men with Maddie".




Here is the same story in the same newspaper on 3rd May 2012.

Madeleine McCann was in my taxi but police ignored me.

Even my Miele washing machine would baulk at that rate of spins !! 

[faithlilly]

The original story 5 years ago :


Algarve 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.

www.algarveresident.com/25031-18003/algarve/taxi-driver-i-carried-madeleine-on-night-she-disappeared

[John]

The Daily Express must really struggle to find front page news these days.  Rehashing old Madeleine stores from 5 years ago really does smack of desperation.

According to the cabbie the girl he picked up with the four adults was wearing pyjamas.  I find it very hard to believe that any abductors would be running around in a public taxi with an abductee still clad in pyjamas some 24 hours later.  No wonder the PJ ignored this crank. 

If this is the sort of quality leads that SY are pursuing then they might as well stay in London.

[faithlilly]

The Daily Express must really struggle to find front page news these days.  Rehashing old Madeleine stores from 5 years ago really does smack of desperation.

According to the cabbie the girl he picked up with the four adults was wearing pyjamas.  I find it very hard to believe that any abductors would be running around in a public taxi with an abductee still clad in pyjamas some 24 hours later.  No wonder the PJ ignored this crank. 

If this is the sort of quality leads that SY are pursuing then they might as well stay in London.

Worrying, isn't it John.

[Lyall]

I think this recycling of stories may remain the pattern while the press regulation issue stays unresolved, but once it is the stories may well get more daring.

Certainly Desmond's papers aren't going to forget the case are they - or stop putting it on the front pages.

[Rachel Granada]

Hi folks. 

It does seem that this was not properly investigated by the PJ?

[faithlilly]

Hi folks. 

It does seem that this was not properly investigated by the PJ?

Seems even the McCanns didn't believe Castela's story back in 2008 :

'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.'

[Rachel Granada]

Seems even the McCanns didn't believe Castela's story back in 2008 :

'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.'

Fair do's, Faithlilly - I hadn't seen that quote from Clarence.  However, the cabbie is saying that he saw Madeleine in his taxi the day after her disappearance?

[faithlilly]

Fair do's, Faithlilly - I hadn't seen that quote from Clarence.  However, the cabbie is saying that he saw Madeleine in his taxi the day after her disappearance?

See the first article posted above about the sighting which was published in the Algarve Resident Rachel.

[Rachel Granada]

See the first article posted above about the sighting which was published in the Algarve Resident Rachel.

OK fair enough, I will read back.  But I get the sense that the cabbie was talking about the day after Madeleine went missing.

[DCI]

Seems even the McCanns didn't believe Castela's story back in 2008 :

'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.'

He seems to be talking about a twitch, and Kate being in the taxi, no wonder they didn't believe him.

Madeleine has no Twitches

From Correio da Manhã: A source connected with the investigation guaranteed that the facts told by António Castela were "investigated" and the “lead was proven false”.

[John]

It never ceases to amaze me how many people pop up months after the event and claim to have seen something.  Are they after fame or fortune I wonder?   8-)(--)

[AnneGuedes]

The 15 minutes of fame of Andy Warhol ?

[puglove]

The 15 minutes of fame of Andy Warhol ?

Actually, it was 5 minutes of fame.