Algarve Cabbie - 'Maddie Was In My Taxi'

greenink211 wrote:I have just seen it pointed out that there is no reference at all to this cab driver's story in the files. Is this true? If so it goes to prove that Isabel Duarte is absolutely right that the initial PJ investigation co-ordinated by Amaral was a complete shambles.

I can't find any statement in the files, Greenink. The story first seems to surface in the Portuguese press with the May 3rd date, which means it is just one of those odd coincidences, but not relevant.

However - if it actually happened on the 4th, it's a different story altogether.

I've noticed the forkers are in full cry because it was dismissed by Clarence Mitchell. Well yes, it would be, wouldn't it, if he and the McCanns had been given the wrong date.

And if they were given the wrong date then this has to have been deliberate.

It is looking once more like the PJ, the PT press and others may have something to answer for here.

Oh yes, and I can see exactly who is involved in this. In order to 'prove' something or other, Anna Esse posted a link to the story on her own blog.

Quote:

Here is an article from the Belgian site, Enfants Kidnappés, dated February 28th.

It ends:

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.

Bl**dy Levy again!

We have no way of finding the correct date - but I am pretty sure Scotland Yard will.

And why is there no statement in the files that anyone can find? There is all sorts of nonsense on record there, so why is this missing?

greenink211 wrote:It is looking once more like the PJ, the PT press and others may have something to answer for here.

It's looking like a bit more than that to me. But it will all come out. For a start, why wasn't it in The Files? Secondly, who decided that it wouldn't be? Thirdly, Why?

The version we know - and the McCanns and Clarence Mitchell were given - seems to have come from D. Levy and Portuguese tabloids.

I don't think any more needs said, does it?

bb1 wrote:The version we know - and the McCanns and Clarence Mitchell were given - seems to have come from D. Levy and Portuguese tabloids.

I don't think any more needs said, does it?

Where did they get it from?

That doesn't seem to be clear, Sabot.

Maybe the PJ told Levy they had been contacted, and Levy rewrote to suit? I don't know, I have no idea what is going on - besides something.

Same story:

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

Quote:

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

If today's reports are correct, and it was the day AFTER......

We know that Levy is a lying arsehole, but he wouldn't have made this up on his own.

The incident clearly happened, Sabot, the taxi driver's story is consistent - apart from the date.

Oh, who to believe? Levy and Portuguese tabloids? I really don't think so....

I am sure the very first thing Scotland Yard would do, whenever they became aware of this story, is

CHECK THE DATE IT HAPPENED ON.

ISAR was the expert on this, he always insisted it was important.

If the taxi driver's statement is missing then Scotland Yard need to find out why. This is likely to come down to someone's word against another. But why lose the statement unless someone has got something to hide?
And I am going to believe the taxi driver before I believe Levy or Amaral.

Just supposing that the taxi driver was mistaken about the date, that statement should still be in The Files as no one was sure of anything in those days, except Amaral, of course. So it was omitted for a purpose.

Found the one I was looking for.

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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

The whole thing is odd, Maggs. Obviously, it makes no sense if the taxi driver saw these people on the 3rd, as per the original version.

But if it was the 4th, it is another matter entirely. And no, I don't think Kate McCann was in the cab with Murat - that sounds to me like Levy adding inventions to suit.

I am pretty sure the Yard will know what night it really happened on.

Look at this:

bb1 wrote:Look at this:

What is that image, please? I can't see it. Just a question mark.

Should be fixed now, Sabot?

It's astounding that four years on, there are still people stupid enough to believe bullsh*t like:


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".

Especially when Levy has been involved.

What was A Source doing guaranteeing anything? That is well dodgy all by itself.

Anyway, not to worry. It is going to be investigated now. And it could turn up even more stuff they don't want to hear.

I don't know why it doesn't appear to be in the files in any shape or form. And you must excuse me if I don't believe anything put out by Morais, Levy, Sources in the PJ, and Portuguese tabloids.

Even if it was the 3rd, and therefore totally irrelevant, a well-meaning mistake - IT SHOULD BE IN THE FILES.

bb1 wrote:I don't know why it doesn't appear to be in the files in any shape or form. And you must excuse me if I don't believe anything put out by Morais, Levy, Sources in the PJ, and Portuguese tabloids.

Even if it was the 3rd, and therefore totally irrelevant, a well-meaning mistake - IT SHOULD BE IN THE FILES.

That's the really suspicious bit. Why isn't it in The Files? Because the taxi driver might have noticed the mistake about the date?

I have spent five years trying to believe that Amaral and The PJ were just incompetent, and I am going to be right royally pissed off if I find out that they deliberately covered up a Crime.

Here too, now - it's part of a long article, so I won't quote the whole thing:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138286/Madeleine-McCann-latest-news-Parents-speak-new-hope-thanks-Scotland-Yard-review.html?ITO=1490

A taxi driver who believes he picked up Madeleine McCann the night after she vanished has claimed Portuguese police ignored his report.
The McCanns' spokesman said it was 'deeply shocking' that detectives never interviewed Antonio Castela, above right, 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 the Algarve, about an hour's drive from Praia da Luz, where Maddie had vanished the night before.
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.
'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.'

Here's another taxi driver.

03-Processos Vol III Page 809
also APENSOS V, Vol I Page 47
03_VOLUME_IIIa_Page_809

Service Information

Date: 2007-05-09

To: The Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation

From: Inspector Peixoto

Subject: Information about the possible transport of the missing girl, Madeleine

I have the honour to bring to your knowledge the fact that today 09-05-2007 a phone call was received by this police station from the Porto DIC, from Inspector Pinto, who said the following:

That Inspector Texeira was contacted by a taxi driver called Alberto Almeida, saying that on Friday 04-05-2007 when he was at the Porto Campanha post, he was approached by a client, who had blond hair, with some grey bits and who spoke Portuguese with a British accent, who was carrying a blonde girl and who said he had just arrived from the Algarve and who asked to be taken to Rua Andre da Castro, in Santa Marinha, Vila Nova da Gaia, where he got out near to number 79.

Having followed the news, this taxi driver said that it was probably the missing girl, Madeleine.

For your information.
Signed, Inspector

Having followed the news, this taxi driver said that it was probably the missing girl, Madeleine.

And, well, what happened next?

Maggs wrote:Here's another taxi driver.

03-Processos Vol III Page 809
also APENSOS V, Vol I Page 47
03_VOLUME_IIIa_Page_809

Service Information

Date: 2007-05-09

To: The Coordinator of the Criminal Investigation

From: Inspector Peixoto

Subject: Information about the possible transport of the missing girl, Madeleine

I have the honour to bring to your knowledge the fact that today 09-05-2007 a phone call was received by this police station from the Porto DIC, from Inspector Pinto, who said the following:

That Inspector Texeira was contacted by a taxi driver called Alberto Almeida, saying that on Friday 04-05-2007 when he was at the Porto Campanha post, he was approached by a client, who had blond hair, with some grey bits and who spoke Portuguese with a British accent, who was carrying a blonde girl and who said he had just arrived from the Algarve and who asked to be taken to Rua Andre da Castro, in Santa Marinha, Vila Nova da Gaia, where he got out near to number 79.

Having followed the news, this taxi driver said that it was probably the missing girl, Madeleine.

For your information.
Signed, Inspector

Isn't that what Sadie said?