December 23, 2021 was the 25th anniversary of the brutal murder of the French mother of one Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) in west Cork.
the Paris-based film manager was killed shortly after 10am on December 23, 1996 in the driveway to her secluded holiday home at Toormore, near Schull.
She apparently fled from an intruder the previous evening while staying alone at the property, descended and partially ran across a field before being caught by her attacker near a gate at a bend in the lane. Her clothes seemed to be hooked to barbed wire, which delayed her just long enough for her killer to catch her.
She died as a result of a horrific attack in which she was hit almost 50 times with a stone and a concrete block.
In spite of one of the longest murder investigations in Irish history, no one has ever been charged with murder in Ireland. Gardaí insists that their investigation remains open and active.
Here are 25 key questions about the 25-year hunt for her killer.
1 Is there a cold case review going on by Gardaí?
The Garda decision to order a cold case review came after calls for such a review of the original Garda file and possibly new information submitted to Gardaí in recent weeks and months.
The appeals were made by campaigners for justice for the French mother of one and Ian Bailey (64) who was the focus of repeated extradition requests by the French authorities. Mr Bailey welcomed the development.
two Has new evidence come to light?
Gardaí is currently investigating a body of material that emerged in the wake of two high-profile TV documentaries on the issue, by Sky and Netflix, last summer. These range from allegations that blood-stained clothing was discarded in December 1996 to allegations of deathbed confessions, as well as theories of ‘armchair experts’ on the matter. Allegations of trophies being stolen from a dying Sophie and a verbal altercation over a bottle of expensive wine were privately described by detectives as imaginative.
3 Was the British freelance journalist and poet Ian Bailey (64) not found guilty of the murder in France?
And it is. Mr Bailey was convicted by a Paris criminal court in May 2019 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. However, I dismissed the French prosecution as “a show trial” and “a mockery of justice”. He has always protested his innocence.
4 How could the French set up a prosecution in Paris for a crime that happened in Ireland?
Under the French criminal code, which traces its roots back to 19th-century Napoleonic laws, a prosecution can be instituted in France for an alleged offense that took place in a foreign country as long as the individual concerned was French. The prosecution can even take place in absentia – and did so in May 2019 without Mr. Bailey was present.
5 Does this mean that the French did their own police investigation into what happened?
In essence, yes. In October 2007, French Magistrate Patrick Gachon opened an investigation into Sophie’s murder after pressure on the Paris authorities of Sophie’s family and friends.
Over the next decade, that investigation would allow French police to visit West Cork, conduct interviews in Ireland and have full access to the original Garda case file.
Sophie’s body was even exhumed for a second post – mortem examination. The French investigation began when it became clear that there was little likelihood of prosecution in Ireland.
6 Will the French move change the legal situation in Ireland?
On three separate occasions, French offers to Mr. Bailey extradited to France by rejecting the Irish courts, the first in March 2012 and the last in 2020. The Manchester-born law graduate has repeatedly protested his innocence, claiming that sinister efforts have been made. to convict him of the crime.
He said he could not leave Ireland for fear of French arrest warrants.
7 Has Ian Bailey ever been arrested here?
And it is. Mr Bailey was arrested on 10 February 1997 and 27 January 1998 by Gardaí for questioning in connection with the du Plantier investigation. He was released on both occasions without charge.
8 Were these his only arrests in Ireland?
No. Mr. Bailey was also arrested and convicted of assaulting his partner, Welsh artist Jules Thomas, on August 18, 2001. He was given a three-month suspended jail term after the Skibbereen District Court heard he had spent three weeks in jail. detention spent. . Mr. Bailey also has Ms. Thomas assaulted in 1996. He is also currently appealing against a conviction for drug driving.
9 Weren’t there reports that Mr Bailey had scratches on his face and hands in December 1996?
And it is. Gardaí spotted those marks while Mr. Bailey worked as a journalist covering the murder investigation for a number of Irish, British and French publications in December 1996 and January 1997. Mr. Bailey later said the marks were maintained while killing turkeys for Christmas and covering a pine tree to use as a festive decoration.
10 Were there any eyewitnesses to the aftermath of Sophie’s murder?
No, there were no eyewitnesses at the Toormore scene. Sophie ran downhill to escape her killer – and away from the only inhabited house nearby.
eleven But was there not something about a suspicious man who was seen walking at the Kealfadda bridge outside Schull, a route that would lead to Sophie’s house?
Local retailer Marie Farrell contacted gardaí in early 1997 – initially under the name Fiona – following a garda application for public information. She said she saw a man with an unusual gait and a dark coat in the early morning hours of December 23 at the Kealfadda bridge.
12 Has this man ever been tracked down?
In 2005, Ms. Farrell dramatically withdrew statements she made, claiming she made them just under expensive. She also retracted affidavits she gave during a high-profile Cork Circuit Civil Court defamation action in December 2003. She was now determined that the man she saw at the bridge was not Mr Bailey – and she had him publicly apologized in a TV3 / VirginMedia interview for any upset she caused him.
13 Has the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ever made a judgment on the Garda investigation file?
In 2000/2001, the DPP ruled that there was insufficient evidence to institute prosecution. On the face of it, an official in the DOV’s office raised reliability issues over the exact descriptions of the strange man at the bridge identified by a key witness in the garda file – Marie Farrell.
14 So why the ongoing Garda investigation and calls for a cold case review?
Gardaí still believes evidence can be obtained that would justify a prosecution and bring Sophie’s killer to justice.
Detectives are convinced that someone in West Cork outside of the killer knows who committed the horrific crime.
A cold case review would also bring the full arsenal of modern forensic tests to the evidence held from the scene in December 1996.
fifteen Is it not hard to believe that given the extreme violence of the assault that no forensic clues remained?
Gardaí initially believed the case would be quickly resolved by forensic evidence – DNA, fingerprints, hair samples or fiber traces. However, all such hope is ultimately frustrated for a variety of reasons, including accident and investigation errors.
Hair found in Sophie’s hand was her own – and the DNA material under her fingernails was also her own.
There was also a delay that the state pathologist reached the scene, which resulted in Sophie’s body being effectively left out for two nights.
16 Surely after 25 years some of the original witnesses must have died?
Not only did a number of the original Garda murder witnesses die, but a number of the original investigative team officers also died.
17 How was the crime first discovered?
Sophie’s neighbor, Shirley Foster, was driving down the avenue to do Christmas shopping at 10 a.m. on Dec. 23, 1996, when she spotted the body.
She initially thought it was a bundle of old clothes.
18 So Ian Bailey was never at Toormore on December 23rd?
In fact, he was. Mr Bailey said he went to the Toormore scene later that day after receiving a phone call from another journalist informing him of a body found by gardaí.
In the process of reviving his freelance career, Mr Bailey said he went to the scene to try to provide stories to any publications it might want.
19 Does Ian Bailey have an alibi for December 22/23?
Mr Bailey said he returned to her home at The Prairie on the evening of December 22 with his partner, Ms Thomas. She later went to bed and he said he kept writing a freelance story for a newspaper.
Mr Bailey is adamant that he never left the house that night. Ms Thomas said there was a completed story on the table the next morning.
twenty Are people who can be considered suspects never identified in public unless they are formally charged? So how did Mr Bailey enter the public domain?
Mr Bailey’s name and photo appeared in a tabloid newspaper after he was released after his first arrest in 1997. He later interviewed two other tabloid newspapers in which he argued his innocence.
On February 14, 1997 – four days after his release without charge – he gave a radio interview to Pat Kenny in which he again pleaded not guilty.
But Mr Bailey said it was probably reasonable for Gardaí to regard him as a suspect – and major elements of the media have since referred to him as “the self-confessed suspect”, something that Mr. Bailey vehemently disputed.
twenty one Is it fair to say Ian Bailey has been in the news on this issue for 25 years?
He did, however, for several reasons. His two-week libel action against eight Irish and British newspapers in 2003 was a sensation.
Mr Bailey appealed his defamation defeat and then filed a marathon high court case against the state for wrongful arrest in 2014. He also lodged a formal complaint with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. He was prosecuted for drug driving earlier this year. All the actions generated enormous publicity. He also opposed all three French extradition offers.
22 Is Ian Bailey still in West Cork?
Mr Bailey divorced his almost 30-year-old partner, Ms Thomas, last summer and has recently been living in rented accommodation in Glengarriff.
23 What about Sophie’s family and her Toormore cottage?
Sophie’s beloved Toormore cottage is now owned by her son, Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud, who named his eldest daughter Sophie in honor of her grandmother.
Sophie’s second husband, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, died in February 2003, just months before Mr Bailey’s defamation case.
24 Is it now the case that the Irish courts have rejected the French extradition requests?
Far from it. French President Emmanuel Macron specifically referred to the case during a recent visit to Ireland. Members of ASSOPH, the group founded by Sophie’s family and friends in France, also indicated that Ireland’s refusal to comply with French extradition requests could lead to a formal complaint to European judicial bodies.
25 How will Sophie’s family celebrate their 25th anniversary?
The family is going to hold a private memorial service in France. Sophie’s neighbors and friends lay a wreath at the stone Celtic cross that now marks the place where her body was found. A few will attend the Mass in Golden to pray for her. Sophie’s family is strongly in favor of a cold case review by gardaí of the original murder file.