Bob Darby, now 75, has revealed to The Sunday Mail he picked up Simone Vogel in his taxi on the afternoon she went missing in 1977 and took her to the Annerley Motor Inn on Ipswich Rd.

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“It’s always been on my mind,” Mr Darby said.

Vogel disappeared without a trace on Friday, September 16, 1977, after arranging a meeting with a contact that night.

She took cash and jewellery to that meeting.

Her abandoned car was found at Brisbane Airport.

Police immediately suspected foul play.

Vogel was a big player in the city vice scene and had been complaining about monthly payments to corrupt police.

Mr Darby said Vogel identified her “contact” leaning on a railing outside Room 40 of the motor inn, paid her fare and got out of the taxi.

But when Mr Darby saw her photograph on the front page of a local newspaper and read that she was missing and that grave fears were held for her safety, he went to the police.

He said he had tried to report his information twice, and was told to “keep your mouth shut, it’s too dangerous” and to “forget about it”.

Mr Darby had migrated from the United Kingdom a few years previously and, at 33, was still getting used to his adopted home.

He found Brisbane a violent and dangerous place.

“When you drove through Fortitude Valley in those days you sensed trouble and just turned your hail sign off and drove straight into the city,” Mr Darby said.

“I saw people being bashed. I saw police corruption.

“I was warned by a copper to keep my mouth shut.”

Investigating detectives at the time believed corrupt police were behind Vogel’s disappearance.

Vogel had come to Brisbane from Sydney and turned the local brothel scene from a cottage industry into a flourishing enterprise, opening themed “massage parlours” and serving food and alcohol.

After a few short years in business she became extremely wealthy.

But from the outset she was being tapped for monthly payments by corrupt police and soon tired of handing over a large percentage of her profits.

It was rumoured that at the time of her disappearance she was seeking to buy her way out of the corrupt system known as The Joke, and then get out of the brothel game for good.

She has never been seen since that meeting.