Gardaí examining Ian Bailey's writings for link to du Plantier murder
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Gardaí re-examining the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier say they are examining extensive material from the writings of Ian Bailey in a bid to see if they can find anything to link him to the killing.
It comes as the family of the French woman believe that there will not be a resolution in the case in her parents’ lifetime.
It is almost 28 years since the 39-year-old film producer was found battered to death outside her holiday home in Toormore, Schull, on December 23, 1996.
Mr Bailey, who died suddenly in January, was questioned twice by gardaí about the murder but was never charged in Ireland. He became a suspect in the case while covering the murder as a freelance reporter based in West Cork.
In 2019, Mr Bailey was found guilty in his absence, and without legal representation, of the murder in a trial in France.
A 25-year sentence was imposed, but his extradition to France was blocked by an Irish High Court decision in October 2020.
He died in January, after becoming ill on the street in Bantry, as the cold case review into her murder set up in 2022 continued. He was cremated privately and his ashes were returned to Britain.
Following his death, gardaí searched his rented home in Bantry and seized several items — including vast amounts of written material.
They have been poring over it to establish if Mr Bailey left any indicators relating to whether or not he had killed the French woman, including looking for anything that would contradict what he had told gardaí when arrested.
A source told the : “We are still reviewing it [the case] and it is still being investigated.
"Every bit of information we have is being reviewed and is being followed up. We are going through stuff belonging to Bailey.
“We are interviewing people so, if anyone has anything to offer, come forward. We are going to keep at it, we are going to follow it out to the very end.
"We are going to keep at it until we have it totally exhausted and if anyone has anything to say, don’t assume that we know it or assume because of other accounts that it is being dismissed. We will take it all on board and weigh it all up.”
Mr Bailey was a prolific writer and a self-published author who penned poems about the murder and its impact on his own life.
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle, Jean-Pierre Gazeau, says her family are not expecting justice for her murder in the lifetimes of her elderly parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol.
He said it is almost a year since the death of Mr Bailey, but there has been no concrete development since in the cold case review.
In October, Tánaiste Micheál Martin commented at the launch of a book on the murder by journalist Senan Molony that the State had failed in its duty “to find and convict a bloody murderer, and our system blocked alternative routes when others were not willing to accept our failures”.