A key witness in the search for missing girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman has criticised the police for not interviewing him sooner.
Taxi-driver Mr Ian Webster claims he first rang police on Wednesday, August 7th, but had to make three follow-up calls before officers took a statement five days later.
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He saw a driver apparently struggling with two children near the spot in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where the two 10-year-old girls disappeared.
"I endeavoured to make this statement and get the facts over six days earlier than when the news was broken in the media," he said. "The inference is I'm at fault for not coming forward - that's not the case".
Police say the information was passed on to an eight-strong inquiry team on Saturday, along with about 30 other tasks and a full statement was taken the following afternoon.
Det Chief Insp Andy Hebb said: "The sheer size of the inquiry, the number of calls that we have, means there are many priorities. Even with the considerable resources we have we can only do so many tasks at one time".
The sighting took place outside Soham on Sunday, August 4th, the night the girls vanished.
"This man was driving in a very erratic manner - his standard of driving could only be described as appalling," Mr Webster said.
"There were two small children obscured from vision, one in the front and one in the back seat behind the front passenger seat".
PA