Did Phillip Edmonds - Nephew of Margaret Hodge, photograph Madeleine on May 3rd 2007?

Did Phillip Edmonds - Nephew of Margaret Hodge, photograph Madeleine on May 3rd 2007?

by sharonl 27.04.19 19:36

Did Phillip Edmonds - Nephew of Margaret Hodge, photograph Madeleine on May 3rd 2007?

I have been asked by email today, once again, about my brief exchange of letters with Philip Edmonds, a Mark Warner guest who was present in Praia da Luz the same week as the McCanns and the Tapas 7.

To settle some outstanding queries about my correspondence and the background to it, I will reproduce my letter to him dated 22 July 2011, which was sent by post to the offices of STEMCOR in London and Switzerland, and his email back to me dated 16 August 2011.

Here are the salient facts:

1 Philip Edmonds took his three sons, aged 6, 7 and 8 on holiday with him to Praia da Luz for the week 28 April to 5 May 207. I believe it was also booked via Mark Warner. It is thought he may have been separated or divorced from his wife at this time.

2 He is a member of the extremely wealthy Oppenheimer family, as is his aunt, the controversial Labour Party grandee Lady Margaret Hodge, who was the Chairman of the Islington Council Social Services Committee at the height of the Islington Children's Homes child abuse scandal.

3 Philip Edmonds is a member of the Oppenheimer family because his father married Hannah, the elders of five children of the Hans Oppeneimer.

4 At the time of his Praia da Luz holiday, Edmonds was (and I believe still is) a Director of one of the world's biggest steel companies, STEMCOR, and its Deputy Chairman.

5 He became of interest to Madeleine McCann forums because a newspaper report that said that Madeleine had been photographed with his three children in the play area of the Ocean Club on Thursday 3 May 2007, the day Madeleine was reported missing. It was one of the many alleged 'proofs' that Madeleine was alive that day.

6 We discussed it on the forum in early 2011. Nobody on the forum could explain why this alleged photograph of Madeleine had ever been produced, especially as we don't have any other photo of her definitely taken after Sunday 29 April. So I wrote to Philip Edmonds: here is my letter and his reply:

=========

Tony Bennett to Philip Edmonds

From: Anthony Bennett MA                 66 Chippingfield
Tel: 01279 635789                                  HARLOW
e-mail: ajsbennett@btinternet.com                 Essex
Mobile: 07835 716537                                     CM17 0DJ

Mr Philip Edmonds, BA                        Friday 22 July 2011
Deputy Chairman
Uldry Steel SA
BP 1203
Rte de Lavaux 29
CH - 1800 VEVEY 1
S W I T Z E R L A N D

Dear Mr Edmonds,

re: Madeleine McCann

I have been researching the Madeleine McCann case in depth since September 2007, from the point of view of someone who is sceptical about the parents’ account of events.

I have obtained your name and details simply by examining many of the thousands of documents about the case released by the Portuguese Police and made public during 2008, which include lists of guests staying at the Ocean Club and/or with Mark Warners during the week the McCanns were there, 28 April to 5 May 2007. There is also amongst the documents released by the police a statement by a Stephen Carpenter, who now lives in Stevenage, who says that he spoke to a man who had taken three young boys with him on the evening Madeleine disappeared, and by a process of elimination we believe that must be you, as you are the only guest with three boys recorded as being present that week.

One matter I have looked at especially, and have written about, is the controversial nature of many of the reported ‘sightings’ of Madeleine McCann on Thursday 3 May, the day she was reported missing. One of many curious features about the case is that only two photographs of Madeleine at Praia da Luz that week have ever surfaced. One was a photo of her playing tennis sometime earlier in the week, apparently taken by another parent. The other is the famous ‘last photo’ taken by Dr Kate McCann, one that was not produced for the public to see until after Dr Gerald McCann returned to England for a short visit in late May.

I have posted analyses on publicly-viewable forums querying the eight claimed 'sightings' of Madeleine on 3 May 2007. Clearly any photos of Madeleine alive on that day (or indeed on any other days of the week) would serve to dispel the doubts myself and others have entertained about the events of 3 May.

I am wondering therefore if you would kindly be able to tell me whether you or any member of your family had any contact with the McCanns and their children on Thursday 3 May, and also whether you have any photographs of Madeleine taken on that specific day.

I understand from the released files that you were living in Switzerland at the time Madeleine was reported missing but you may now be living in the U.K., hence I have sent this letter to Stemcor/Uldy Street SA both in Switzerland and in London.

I hope you may be able to help and look forward to hearing from you.

My contact details are above.

Yours sincerely,

Anthony Bennett

------

Philip Edmonds to Tony Bennett

Philip.edmonds@stemcor.com
To: ajsbennett@btinternet.com
16 Aug 2011
From: Philip Edmonds philip.edmonds@stemcor.com
Subject: Madeleine McCann
To: "ajsbennett@btinternet.com" ajsbennett@btinternet.com
Date: Tuesday, 16 August, 2011, 8:22

Dear Mr Bennett,

I am in receipt of your letter of 22 July regarding Madeleine McCann. I am sure you would appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to comment too much, as we do not know each other, and I have no idea what your connection to the case is. However, I would also not want further conspiracy theories to fester by simply ignoring your letter.

Therefore, I can confirm that whatever information I had (including some photos of my sons taken on the day Madeleine disappeared, which showed her in the background) was passed both to the police and to the McCanns at the time. Having been in Portugal at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance and seen all of the events first hand, there is not one shred of doubt in my mind that the events as reported were correct. In fact one of the most terrible parts of this tragedy is that there are people out there who are questioning this, just adding further to the nightmare that the McCann family have suffered. I cannot imagine anything crueller.

I’m afraid I won’t enter into further correspondence on this matter with you.

Yours sincerely,

Philip Edmonds