I know it is dodgy to disagree with Clarence Mitchell, but the timings on this are not all wrong. Only Kate and Gerry say they arrived at the restaurant at 8.30 that night, everyone else says 9 pm. So plenty of time to get back then....I recall earlier reports seemed to suggest it was David Payne, but heck David Payne and Robert Murat are like twins brothers, which is odd.
I suppose Kate and Gerry would be pretty clear on the "known chain of events".
This is a clear sighting of Maddie alive (although perhaps drugged given she did not speak), that night, and they just reject it? Surely they must have their private investigators look at this? Oh no hang on a minute, three men and a slim blond woman? Oh, I see, they don't like this chap at all.
All I can say is, this taxi driver would have to be a very sick and odd character to make this one up!
Madeleine McCann was in my taxi, man claims
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.
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.
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."
25 comments:
I sometimes wonder if Clarence actually works for Kate who regrets what happened and wants to get her back.
"They have taken her" "We have let her down".
Was Kate rather hysterical at the choices that had been made for her eldest daughter? Or was she just acting, because the taxi driver makes it sound like it was her in his taxi, or perhaps Murat's girlfriend?
I know we have looked at this on the blog before but ISAR raised this on MM which made me look it up once more and it is strange that the link to The Sun says oh we lost one or something like that!
Isar's post is good:
isar Today at 12:20 am
Robert Murat
I'm glad this name is not forgotten (or has not become one of the unmentionables in forumland)
local knowledge - check
access to properties in and around Luz - check
fluent English speaker - check
acc. to one of his many alibis - staying with his mum Jenny 120 yards from the OC when all hell broke loose at the OC that night - check
(as the above says plenty of other alibis were offered by Robert - that is always dodgy)
weird moves in obtaining a hire car - check
flights to and from the UK shortly before/after the disappearance of the child - check
Gerry being a tad confused as to whether he knew Murat - check:
and here's my personal favourite:
his mother Jenny setting up a stall on Luz's seafront, inviting folks to spill the beans about Madeleine's disappearance to her-if they didn't want to go to the cop shop
PULL THE OTHER ONE - IT'S GOT BELLS ON IT
and I haven't even mentioned Antonio Cardoso's statement - which kinda ties all this together
I could just add a few ISAR
Got a huge libel payout, a la McCann
Gave a talk at Oxbridge at around the same time Clarence Mitchell did
Has studiously kept his mouth shut in spite the propaganda he is supposedly suing Jane Tanner. Bit of a forum myth, I think, question is, why do people start them, sometimes it seems there is an intelligent reason, not just some thick poster.
Really the three arguidos, Murat, Gerry, Kate all in that taxi, it does make a lot of sense as another very possible theory.
But there are those who would rather trust a barking dog than a Spanish taxi driver.
It seems to me that those who seek to cash in usually have to face justice one way or another. I wonder if Grime traded on the famous Maddie case to get other (overpaid) work - talk of him finding nothing but a coconut shell must have knocked his income for six so I hope he invested that £93K carefully and did not go on a mad spending spree.
I wonder whose jurisdiction Murat would come under, Portugal, I would imagine, that would very much make it a joint case and add lots more layers of complexity as to how this is going to be dealt with. That is of course if Murat really was involved, there is clearly a lot to suggest he was. Gerry, "I am not going to answer that" - do you know Robert Murat. No, don't get incriminating yourself Gerry. I expect he learned that sometimes refusing to answer questions can be even more incriminating. He is good at research.
Hi Viv
If I remember correctly, the taxi drivers son was also in the police force, therefore you would not expect his father to lie.
There was also talk ages ago of a mole passing info to the McCanns keeping them one step ahead, I am not meaning the taxi driver's son, or did this turn out to be forum myth!
Hiya Di, This story broke in 2008 and I think a short while later Gerry stopped his blogs altogether, if memory serves a new webpage appeared.
Here, Mr Cardoso says that after 10 months of being ignored by the PJ a deputation from UK was going over to interview him.
I am extremely sad to think we have been subjected to the most massive spin from both sides about those dogs, just to sell books.
When Gerry was questioned last year about "sigtings", he referred to the Smith sighting and Jane Tanner, but he did not mention this one. I just get the most awful feeling this may well be perfectly true. Note also the expensive looking metallic jeep, something like a BMW, perhaps the sort of vehicle Kennedy would own.
I think there are certain bloggers and they know who they are, and have posted on here, many, many times who should really hang their heads in shame for keep on shouting at people Madeleine has been dead since 3 May 2007, I believe that is a wicked lie.
TAXI-DRIVER IS SURE THAT HE TOOK MADDIE IN HIS CAR IN THE NIGHT OF THE GIRL DISAPPEARANCE
“I transported that girl”
The driver remembers that he transported them in the night of the disappearance, in the 3rd of May, from the square of taxis of Monte Gordo for the Hotel Apolo, in em Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The passengers went then to a jeep. António contacted the PJ, but, as he says, no one took notice of his story.
A taxi-driver of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, in the Algarve, guarantees to have transported Maddie, Kate McCann and three men – one of them similar to Murat – in 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. He regrets that after having communicated the Judiciary Police of Portimão, he never received a follow up call to explain his statement. Taxi-driver, with 17 years in that profession, 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 sign that she had in one eye and the twitch that she was doing with the chin”, he remembered. In the beginning of that night, António was in the square of taxis of Monte Gordo, four kilometres of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, was ready to stop the cab service. “It was 20h10 and I like seeing the television news”, he remembers.
Man was similar to Murat
The clients approached and asked him to transport them to the Hotel Apolo, in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The driver did not refuse. On his side a man seated who was using “fine glasses”. “He was similar with the one that appears in the 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 to be Maddie sat down to 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 of the luggage car. “It was the same as what the couple usually uses”, he affirms. The customers asked him, in English language, 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.
Top-of-the-line Jeep
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. António returned to his house with the image of the girl in the head. It reminded him of his son, now with 37 years. “My son was operated to his eyes because he had a similar eye defect. He also did that twitch with the chin. They even looked like brothers”, he observed.
The next day, António was watching the television news besides his son and his granddaughter, with the same age of Maddie. With astonishment he saw that the blond girl of light eyes had disappeared. “I immediately told my son: ' I transported that girl yesterday! ’ ”.
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.
The inspector who answered then asked him if in the hotel there was a system of video vigilance. The taxi-driver did not know.
Up to today, António waits the police contact to give declarations personally. “I defend the girl as I would defend my granddaughter”, he affirms.
Some days later, out of curiosity, António still asked for informations to some of his acquaintances, at the service of the Hotel Apolo. He was told that there was not any reservation for that evening. They also told him that the Hotel had not been contacted by the Judiciary Police. Even worse. The system of video vigilance was damaged two years ago and was not catching any image. “Also I do not know if they did enter in the hotel”, says the taxi-driver.
Since then, António Castela has been accompanying the news on Maddie. When the telephone rings, he still thinks that it will be someone who investigates the case that want to speak with him. When he knew that a certain period of time was still to be explained in the investigation, António Castela immediately thought that this might be the explanation. “In two hours you can travel from Aldeia da Luz to Vila Real de Santo Antonio and return. Someone can be lying. They should establish if Kate did not go away during this period”, says António.
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.
Madeleine McCann disappeared mysteriously from the Ocean Club, in Aldeia da Luz, in the 3rd of May. 300 days already have passed since. The parents are still arguidos in the process, but up to now nobody managed to know what it went on that night.
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”.
Madeleine has no Twitches
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.”
Facial twitching can be a side effect of medication or extreme anxiety, among other causes. The little girl he describes would appear to be heavily drugged, I am sure Kate, being an anaesthetist, would know what to use.
If this is true what utter wickedness.
I hope, if there is the slightest change, that poor little Maddie can be recovered and given a happy home as she so much deserves.
The McCanns always speak as though they are quite certain she is alive and can be recovered, maybe that is one bit of the story where they actually speak the truth. It has always seemed odd to me how Gerry is so certain he can get her back, and yet, he has never been in any rush at all.
This couple are just beyond wicked whatever they did with her, but I do think this provides a very possible explanation.
Notice how we hear no more of Mr Cardoso since the UK Team spoke with him! UK are very good at telling important witnesses they just better be quiet now!
Gerry says in one of his final blogs there is far less in the disclosed files than they had been expecting ... ummm I am sure Gerry, keep on guessing mate and enjoy your lifestyle because it could be set for a very dramatic change, I just cannot wait until you are wher eyou belong and the rest of your "mates".
Wife too I would imagine.
IMO Gerry was always cynically setting the scene. Telling all and sundry, prior to Maddie disappearing, they left the kids alone. NO parent who was doing such a thing would actually go about telling people and bragging about it. The McCanns are intelligent people but apparently it did not occur to them how disastrously unsafe it would be to leave tiny tots alone with the door open, oh that is bad enough, but no, there is more, let us tell everyone they are there on their own. Do they mean to tell us it did not even occur to them that telling almost complete strangers such incredible information just might be dangerous?
Then, when the "alarm" has been raised, he is heard loudly shouting on his mobile, outside of his apartment, she has been abducted by a gang of Portuguese paedophiles. Gerry wanted word to get out that is what had happened. So why would he want people to think that? Because IMO that is what he and his mates actually are, and he was hedging his bets, just in case the Police were smart enough to actually find little Maddie. But of course he was leaving no stone unturned as he shot around on a private jet to make sure they did not.
I noticed on Jill Havern's blog earlier, a sharp eyed blogger had noted that British Police asked David Payne whether he had ever known the McCanns use a vehicle PRIOR to Madeleine going missing. Erm, no I have never erm I have not been, not seen... that was something like the response (Not verbatim) but changing midway through sentence and refusing to categorically answser the question is a sure sign the man was telling lies. He originally told police he saw Madeleine in the apartment at 7 pm, then we see an email exchange between Ricardo Paiva and DC Marshall where he is now saying well actually he saw her in the apt with kate and Gerry at about 5 pm.
I have always thought it was most likely Maddie was got rid of before they went out that night and the so called sightings of Tanner and Smith were for one simple reason, to support a stranger abducting her whilst the McCanns dined. Bullsh&t!
Hi Viv,
I agree that you would have to be pretty sick (or demented) to make this sighting up. But didn't the PJ look into it and dismissed it?
To me it's not credible for one reason: if K&G had planned to hand their daughter over that evening, would they really have used a taxi? How stupid would you have to be?
Surely you would hire a car or borrow one. You wouldn't use a taxi driver who would then be an independent witness to your actions.
Maddie's face (and eye defect) and K&G themselves were plastered all over the news and papers just the day after. It doesn't make any sense to me that they would use a taxi knowing that the very next day they would be instantly recognisable by anyone who may have come across them and their daughter during that holiday.
I agree that the sighting is intriguing, given what the taxi driver is actually claiming. But I really don't think there's anything in it.
Hiya Mar
We do not really know if the PJ looked into this and dismissed it because it is not in the disclosed evidence so far as I know.
However, Ricardo Paiva did say when giving evidence in January last year that Goncalo prevented other theories being investigated. I do think Goncalo was fixated on death in the apartment rather than keeping an open mind as to what the McCanns actually did with her.
What gives Mr CArdoso's story even greater credence is the rebuttals immediately coming from Clarence Mitchell, and pretty strong ones at that. He claims there are independent witnesses of the McCanns being in the restaurant at 8.35 that night, I am not aware of any. In my now pretty long experience of this case, Clarence only does public rebuttals for the McCanns when it is something that is really worrying them. Gerry himself has quite often denied being involved in the "disappearance" of Madeleine, he has also said "death or disappearance" and so it is clear to me he knows full well there are two sets of allegations against him as to what he may have done with Maddie.
If Mr Cardoso was just a time waster there is no way on earth, IMO, that "a team from UK" would come out to interview him. That suggests they were taking him very seriously.
I think this case had a period of being skewed in the wrong direction in 2007 until Amaral was removed from the case. The fact that Rebelo maintained them as arguidos for a lengthy period confirms the McCanns are considered as prime suspects in her disappearance, that may not necessarily be her death.
I think also Mr Cardoso gives a lot of detail and he is a policeman's son. I think it is unfortunate to disbelieve such a clear witness who just wanted to be heard. For all we know, he could the major witness for UK and the reason why they put out those alerts on CEOP etc, they know she was alive when they got rid of her. It certainly makes sense to me. FAr more sense in fact than people who just accuse CEOP of being corrupt and on the side ofthe McCanns which is ridiculous.
Hiya again Mar
I did miss the bit about hiring or borrowing a car.
I think that argument can work just the other way. If they had hired or borrowed a car at that time it would have been easily checkable by the police and they would have immediately have suspect the McCanns. That has always been a major plank of their defence, we did not hire a vehicle until the end of May.
I think when they hired this taxi they were quite some distance from PDL. Murat rushed back on 1 May and I believe just a few days later was arguing about how he desperately needed a hire car. I do think he and his girlfriend are very possibly involved in all of this. Look at his lifestyle now, just like the McCanns, rags to riches. For that sort of dosh he may think it was all very worthwhile, including the PJ organised confrontation between him and O'Brien, Fiona Payne and Rachel Oldfield.
Again, this is a vital and very interesting part of the case that has not been disclosed. I think UK have this very much under wraps and as the Ambassador suggested, it doesnot matter if they are blogging about that so long as we keep a lid on it (not verbatim). What he means is it is OK everyone barking up the wrong tree, whilst we get on with the real case, in confidence.
I think most bloggers left on this case are either paid for by Gerry McCann out of his fund, or paid for by Goncalo.
It is interesting that just lately, even the McCanns want to ditch the dogs now, their campaign has very much changed. Probably because they know London Met are watching them intently.
Gerry had milked the dogs for all they are worth, he thought they were worth another million in Portugal, but he came unstuck!
When Kate started writing that book nine or ten months ago, they already knew they had lost against Goncalo Amaral.
" DR " Martin Roberts appears to be on overtime at present churning out his incoherent essays like there was no tomorrow.
The latest one is mystically called The Clairvoyant.
In it he claims, with his wondrous powers of deduction that Kate McCann is a liar. Well yes, I am with him so far. But why does dear Dr Roberts come to this conclusion?
Because she says she took the last photo of Madeleine on her camera and was unable to use it again. I am thinking there is a simple explanation for that. If we look on the PJ files we can see that British Police took camera equipment away for analysis in UK just a few days later.
But ah, Dr Roberts has caught her out in a lie because she subsequently went to a marina and started taking photos, she says.
What this idiot does not seem to realise (although probably he does but he likes to confuse with his utter rubbish) is that Kate had scores of visitors turning up in the aftermath of Maddie disappearing. Maybe one of them had a camera for Kate to use? Maybe Kate even had a camera on her mobile and used that. To suggest she is a liar for this reason shows what an idiot Dr Roberts really is.
But whilst people are pondering his posts they are not talking about anything important, RESULT!
I think the actual mystery is Maddie does not look the same in this so called last picture as she does in the tennis balls pic, even her hair is a different colour and in the tennis balls pic she looks about a year older! Now that is what I find odd...
Just to be clear in the tennis balls pic her hair is undoubtedly brown, but in the last pic her hair is undoubtedly blond. A child with two brown haired parents may have blond hair as a young child but would grow out of that, it is not possible she would remain a blond. I have because although my mother has dark hair, my father was a true blond.
I am shocked to read on MM that Casey Anthony has been found not guilty in the murder of her daughter.
I just do not really understand that, they found the body, they bottled cadaver odour from the trunk of her car, she did not even report her missing for a couple of months and repeatedly lied as to her whereabouts, but she is not guilty?
Apparently she is guilty of lying and will be sentenced for that but is likely to walk as she has already served three years on remand.
This was a much more clear cut case than McCann and as in OJ does not say a lot for American justice.
and if that last picture was on Kate's camera why did it take a trip home from Gerry on 21 May to then produce it?
What of Alex Woolfall going through the pictures with them and what did British Police seize? I am willing to bet they would have taken her camera so how did Gerry go home and get this last picture? Come on Gerry, do tell! lol!!
Actually I think we all need to listen to Bren and read Kate's book, that way we can make sure we are completely confused with yet more versions of the, ahem, the facts. Or, of course, one can read Dr Martin Roberts. Between them this must surely be enough to make anyone just give up!
There are a lot of comments again concerning Gerry blogging he dumped the fridge from his rental home.
Some are astute IMO is suggesting this is one of Gerry's many red herrings. He does not say or do anything in the public domain without a good reason. I think he psyched the public up, think of me, dumping her body after Kate had killed her. That successfully keeps the public and the Portuguese Police off what he really did with Madeleine. But I think he is bricking it now!
Interesting how Gerry arranged for cadaver odour on Seans t shirt and a number of items of Kate's clothing but none on his own, particularly given the bloggers think a Mr Martin Smith saw Gerry carting Madeleine's dead body off that night, how absurd! Oh and he hid it on the beach or in a local apartment and then demanded the police bring in tracker dogs,,, ummm. Gerry is a wee bit cuter than that.
I am quite astounded to read that people could actually believe it is viable or possible to have stored Madeleine's body in the fridge for three weeks, kept at just minus 5 I believe and housing the milk for all those relatives who turned up to make the tea.
Some bloggers imaginations never cease to amaze me, but I think they better think again and seriously think what CEOP do.
When it finally gets to a showdown with the cops will Gerry sit there smirking and showing how athletic he is as he keeps slapping himself on the back? Oooh Gezzy you are so clever xxxx
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