I agree - the taxi journey would have taken 5 minutes. There is no way the journey would have taken 29 minutes. The time of her friends putting her in a taxi is sketchy at 'around 11', could it be that she had tried to get into the club at 11. If they have traced the taxi driver which I think they have, if the meter/computer can confirm the time she got out of the taxi I would also expect it to be able to confirm the time that the journey began. Have any of the friends who put her in a taxi said anything or was it bouncers who put her in the taxi. How drunk would she have had to been before they refused entry to the club. Why didn't she go into her house (assuming she didn't) - no key is the logical explanation but there could be other reasons - went for a takeaway, went down there hoping to meet someone etc. I think it's highly likely the house is a shared HMO for students. So that's basically one large house with multiple bedrooms and shared kitchen and living room and they all have their own bedrooms. Some can be full en-suite or only with a basin and some have shared bathrooms. I had a look online and there are HMO properties in the street that she lives on.
I have been a taxi driver for 26 years so I suppose I am qualified to answer some of the points raised.
The first thing that needs confirming is whether the taxi was a private hire car or a hackney. Hackney carriages can pick up off the street or taxi rank without a booking behind made but a private hire car would require to be booked by phone or app.
The private hire option is much safer as all bookings must be recorded by the taxi company by law.
I am a private hire driver and in the town where I work there are approximately 700 private hire cars as opposed to 20 Hackney vehicles.
From experience young people tend to book private hire cars as this is both more convenient and also cheaper.
As it is alleged that LS did not have her phone it is most likely a friend or someone from the club would have did this on her behalf. If in fact a phv was booked, which I feel is most likely then a certain amount of information is required to be recorded by the operator but in truth much more information is actually recorded than is legally required.
When booking is made the time of the call is logged to the 10th of a second as is the time the booking is despatched to the car. The record will then show what vehicle is given the job and which driver is driving the car. The telephone number that booked the car is also recorded or the user details if booked by app. To use the app the customer is required to pre register with their personal details including phone number and email address.
Now let’s consider what happened the night LS went missing.
Allegedly she got the taxi “ around 11 “. This probably means the taxi was booked at this time. The driver issued with the job may have been a few minutes away from the pick up location so may not have arrived there until a few minutes later,say 11.10. By the time he located LS and she got in the car could have added another few minutes. When the driver dropped her off he would then press the computer in the car to tell the office he had dropped off and this time would have been recorded by the office computer.
This probably accounts for the rough time of the pick up and accurate time of the drop off.
