Driver of 'missing girls' green car has not come forward

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A motorist seen struggling with two children in a car near where schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were last seen has still not been traced, police said today.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Hebb said there had been a surge in numbers of people offering information since the sighting was publicised – around 1,800 in 24 hours.

But he added: "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."

Mr Hebb again defended police handling of the inquiry after criticism from a taxi driver who claims he saw the motorist struggling with two children in the green car near where the schoolgirls were last seen.

Describing for the first time what could prove a vital breakthrough in the hunt, Ian Webster said he initially contacted police five days before his sighting was made public.

He spoke to police three times before a detective from the search team finally interviewed him.

Mr Hebb told reporters at a news conference this afternoon: "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."

He went on: "That may mean information may subsequently become more significant

and vice versa when assessed against other new information."

Mr Hebb said there were 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.

Mr Hebb said: "It is an incredibly time–consuming process but you can be assured that we have tapped into every available resource."

Earlier Newmarket–based Mr Webster, 56, 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.

Mr Webster, who had just picked up a fare from nearby Ely, first spotted the car – believed to be a Peugeot 405 or Vauxhall Vectra – near a Q8 garage on a roundabout on the A142, south of the girls' home town of Soham, Cambs, on Sunday evening. There was an earlier unconfirmed sighting of the girls near the garage at the time.

He said: "It was driving in a very, very erratic manner.

"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."

Mr Webster said: "At first I thought the driver was drunk or a father driving with children, but he was demented."

He added: "I only wish I had gone up to take notice of the registration but my immediate response when I saw the nature the driving was to back off. It was suicidal."

A dark green car similar to the one driven by the man police want to trace was seen in Soham shortly before the suspected abduction, fuelling fears the driver was an opportunistic abductor on the prowl who now has the schoolgirls captive.

Once he realised the significance of what he had seen Mr Webster, who was on a working break in Wales, first considered speaking to police in Brecon on Tuesday – two days after the ten–year–olds were last seen.

He said he was told by a member of the public to contact them the next day as he would need a CID officer and that none would be there.

He spoke to a detective on the Wednesday, leaving his mobile phone number so he could be contacted. He was told about an hour later that the Cambridgeshire police team searching for the girls had been informed.

Mr Webster, returned to Newmarket on the Friday, where he again contacted police. He spoke to a mobile police team on Saturday and was then woken by a telephone call from the search team on Sunday morning.

He said: "I was cross I didn't get a response after the second prompting and even more cross after the third.

"The response to it – my views are that in something of this nature time would be of an essence and time was a priority."

Mr Webster added: "I don't want an explanation for it. I think that the parents of the children concerned might have to seek an explanation for it."

Police were today scouring CCTV footage and speed camera films from along the route for any sign of the car.

The driver – a white man aged between 38 and 45 with black, wiry, unkempt hair and Mediterranean, tanned skin, dressed in dark clothing – was said to have been driving at speeds of 30 to 55mph as he left the town and drove towards Newmarket, just over the Suffolk border.

Mr Webster followed him from the roundabout until the green car turned into Studlands Park Avenue in Newmarket about six or seven minutes later.

The road leads to a residential area and an industrial estate before hitting a vast swathe of open countryside.

Mr Hebb has also appealed for information about Jessica's blue Nokia 5110, her hair braid and the matching Manchester United tops, dark trousers and white Nike trainers the girls were wearing.

Anyone finding any of the items should alert police but not touch them as they will need DNA testing.