Police swamped by 'green car' calls

Police searching for missing school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman today defended themselves against accusations that they did not follow up swifty a report by a taxi driver who saw a man driving 'erractically' with two young passengers in his car.

Ian Webster, now the key witness in the hunt for the 10-year-olds, reported the sighting to police last Tuesday but it took detectives five days to interview him and six days to alert the public through the media.

Mr Webster, who works for Diamond Taxis in Cambridge, was on his way to South Wales on Sunday evening when he spotted the vehicle travelling along the A142 from Soham towards Newmarket.

"It was driving in a very, very erratic manner," said Mr Webster today. "The standard of driving could only be described as appalling. It was wavering all across the road, on both sides of the road, hitting the banks both sides of the road. There were two small children obscured from vision, one in the front seat, one in the back seat behind the passenger seat".

Initially, Mr Webster said he did not contact police at first because a reported sighting of the girls on Monday morning, the day after they disappeared, made him think what he had seen was not relevant.

It was only when that sighting was discounted that he realised the potential value of what he had seen.

On Tuesday 6 August, on a working trip in rural Brecon, South Wales, Mr Webster said he visited the local police station but was unable to find an officer to speak to.

He returned to the police station at 10am the following day and spoke briefly to a Welsh CID officer, who took basic details and said he would forward them to the Cambridgeshire police dealing with the inquiry.

By Friday night Mr Webster, by now back home, said he had still heard nothing from the police, so he visited Newmarket police station and asked to speak to a CID officer, but was told none was available. The following night he approached the driver of a police patrol car in the town who said he would get somebody to speak to Mr Webster.

It was not until 1pm the following day - Sunday 11 August - that, he said, two CID officers came and spent three hours taking a statement from him at his home.

But this afternoon, Cambridgeshire police again defended police handling of the inquiry at a televised news conference.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb told reporters: "All I can do is reiterate that every piece of the vast amount of information we have received is extremely important and treated seriously.

"Each and every piece of information is assessed and prioritised according to the current direction of the inquiry."

Resources at Cambridgeshire police are stretched - 1800 people called with information following yesterday's 'green car' appeal. The police website received 25,000 hits between 6pm and midnight last night.

"That may mean information may subsequently become more significant and vice versa when assessed against other new information", said Mr Hebb.

There are 320 officers working on the search team and and the Cambridgeshire force has been receiving help from several other forces. Some people were even working 24-hours a day, refusing to go home and cancelling holidays, he said.

"It is an incredibly time-consuming process but you can be assured that we have tapped into every available resource."

As yet the driver of the green car has not come forward.

Mr Hebb said: "Despite an exceptional number of calls to our incident room in the last 24 hours, the driver of that car has not yet come forward.

"We would reiterate our appeal to that driver."

Speaking earlier today Mr Webster spoke of his regret that he did not take a registration number for the green car, but said he feared for the safety of his passengers because of the way it was being driven.

He said he was "90 per cent certain it was a Vauxhall Vectra, 10 per cent a Peugeot 405". He first saw the car in Soham town centre at 7pm.

"I followed the man for four and a half miles and he was swerving all over the place, hitting the verge on the left and the right. The man was thrashing around, sometimes with both hands off the wheel, turning round to the children in the car.

"He was driving as if he was demented and at first I thought he was drunk but drunk drivers try to control their vehicles."

"It is the worst scenario of driving I have seen in 30 years and probably 10 million miles of driving."

Mr Webster, who said the man did not seem to notice the taxi behind him, then slowed down to widen the gap between the two cars from 30 yards to 200 yards because he was concerned about safety.

"I remarked on the driving to my passengers and I think it would be fair to say they were horrified too. But I do not know if they have contacted police."

He said he did not notice the age or registration number of the car, or try to stop the car or report it to police, because all he was thinking about was looking after his passengers.

"Like any taxi driver, my main concern was the safety of the people I was driving," he said.