Ireland Ireland - Sophie Toscan du Plantier, 39, murdered, County Cork, 23 Dec 1996

[dotr]

Sept 21 2022

Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s family hope Garda cold case review will yield results

Family of Sophie Toscan du Planter hope garda review will unearth new evidence as they thank the organisers of a memorial concert for "mobilising for Sophie"

www.irishtimes.com

''The family of murdered French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier has expressed hope that a Garda cold case review will uncover new evidence.

Speaking ahead of a trip to west Cork for a concert to remember the 39-year-old mother of one, her uncle, Jean Pierre Gazeau, said he and Sophie’s parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, and her son Pierre Louis Baudey-Vignaud remain hopeful that they will see her killer brought to justice in Ireland.

“I would like here to repeat the appeal that Pierre Louis made on the Late Late Show in Ireland in 2021 when he urged anyone with information about Sophie’s murder to contact gardaí, not just for the sake of her family but ‘for all the women’ who are living in Ireland,” he said.''

''Mr Gazeau is due to travel for a tribute concert for Ms Toscan du Plantier at the Harbour View Hotel in Schull on Friday night. The line-up features traditional and classical musicians as well as some spoken word artists.''

 

[dotr]

Nov 27 2022 rbbm.

Jules Thomas says ex Ian Bailey couldn't have murdered Sophie as he's too messy

The West Cork resident and former partner of Bailey says she quizzed him herself on the shocking murder

www.corkbeo.ie

''The woman who has stood by Ian Bailey through decades of accusations, court cases and stress says she remains convinced that he could not have killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Artist Jules Thomas, who has been living in West Cork since the 1980s and was Bailey's partner for almost 3 decades before they finally split last year, says the man she knows could never have gotten away with carrying out such a crime because “he is so hopeless at covering his own tracks.”


''Thomas is herself now suing Netflix and the producers of the Sophie: A Murder In West Cork as she is deeply unhappy with how she was depicted in the documentary series.''

Jules said her life has been “completely destroyed” and said when she was first arrested it was the “beginning of the end”.

“It just makes me feel so sick. Sick in the stomach. All the publicity, first of all. The newspapers were desperate.

“When I was first arrested, that was the beginning of the end. It was horrendous."

“I'd never seen her. I'd never noticed her in Schull. I'm good at remembering faces, I'm a visual person. And I never remember seeing her, ever.

“My life has been absolutely destroyed by it''

 

[AcbMurders]

Gardaí say Sophie Tuscan Du Plantier’s family ‘deserve to know what happened’

Gardaí say the family of murdered woman Sophie Tuscan Du Plantier “deserves to know what happened”, as they made a public appeal today.

m.sundayworld.com

 

[missgreenbanks]

Apparently Sophie was very particular about the gate and liked it to be closed. I have always thought Sophie went out because she heard something and went to confront someone down at the gate. Now I’m wondering if she went down to shut the gate. Either that or she heard something at the outhouse and went out to investigate that. Would that make sense given that a block from the outhouse was used and that she was chased from there rather than someone going to the outhouse to retrieve the block and use it?

 

[missgreenbanks]

Was reading through the very earliest press reports after the murder and noted that several said there was a trail of droplets of blood leading from the house to the gate and therefore the attack must have started at the house. Given the blood on the door it’s possible the blood came from the hand of the killer who then transferred it to the door when they returned to the house. Why would the killer want back in to the house though? As an aside something about the bread and knife looked very staged but that could be just me.

 

[Lazare_Hoche]

The blood above the backdoor handle was Sophie's (as far as I can remember). It looked smudged, like a gloved hand had turned the handle. It was most likely the killer returning to the house, opening the door and checking that no-one else was there. Probably shouted hello or something. I doubt he entered the house.

 

[missgreenbanks]

The blood above the backdoor handle was Sophie's (as far as I can remember). It looked smudged, like a gloved hand had turned the handle. It was most likely the killer returning to the house, opening the door and checking that no-one else was there. Probably shouted hello or something. I doubt he entered the house.

Surely it would be a risk to go back if he/she thought someone might be in there. I have read that her neighbour Alfie’s first instinct after his partner found the body was to go up to the house to warn Sophie - is this a fact does anyone know?

 

[Lazare_Hoche]

Surely it would be a risk to go back if he/she thought someone might be in there. I have read that her neighbour Alfie’s first instinct after his partner found the body was to go up to the house to warn Sophie - is this a fact does anyone know?

Yeah, I heard that too. Yeah, it would be risky to return but I reckon the perp was familiar to the area so knew his surroundings. Unlikely to have been a French person so most likely a local. Bailey just ticks all the boxes for me. The scratches, the bonfire at the outhouse on the 26th. I think 'murder at roaringwater' got near the truth. Went up for sex, got rejected and flipped. Got lucky with sloppy job by police. In fairness, there hadn't been a murder in that area in 100 years. Nor since, so not much experience with local cops.

 

[Lazare_Hoche]

Surely it would be a risk to go back if he/she thought someone might be in there. I have read that her neighbour Alfie’s first instinct after his partner found the body was to go up to the house to warn Sophie - is this a fact does anyone know?

 

[missgreenbanks]

Yeah, I heard that too. Yeah, it would be risky to return but I reckon the perp was familiar to the area so knew his surroundings. Unlikely to have been a French person so most likely a local. Bailey just ticks all the boxes for me. The scratches, the bonfire at the outhouse on the 26th. I think 'murder at roaringwater' got near the truth. Went up for sex, got rejected and flipped. Got lucky with sloppy job by police. In fairness, there hadn't been a murder in that area in 100 years. Nor since, so not much experience with local cops.

I always say to myself most murders come down to money, land or sex. In this one I just don’t know. I’d rule out money so that leaves sex or land/property. It’s amazing how many people are killed over land/property disputes here in Ireland though. It wouldn’t surprise me if more than one person was involved.

 

[missgreenbanks]

Yeah, I heard that too. Yeah, it would be risky to return but I reckon the perp was familiar to the area so knew his surroundings. Unlikely to have been a French person so most likely a local. Bailey just ticks all the boxes for me. The scratches, the bonfire at the outhouse on the 26th. I think 'murder at roaringwater' got near the truth. Went up for sex, got rejected and flipped. Got lucky with sloppy job by police. In fairness, there hadn't been a murder in that area in 100 years. Nor since, so not much experience with local cops.

Re the cops, incompetence or corruption masquerading as incompetence? Something else I’ve thought of is someone hiding something in the pump house and being disturbed when they went to collect it.

 

[Lazare_Hoche]

Re the cops, incompetence or corruption masquerading as incompetence? Something else I’ve thought of is someone hiding something in the pump house and being disturbed when they went to collect it.

There is a theory that it was a cop who did it. A violent drunk. he's dead now but I reckon this case can still be cracked. Breakthroughs in dna etc. Hopefully!

 

[missgreenbanks]

There is a theory that it was a cop who did it. A violent drunk. he's dead now but I reckon this case can still be cracked. Breakthroughs in dna etc. Hopefully!

Yea I agree hopefully DNA will crack this. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for her family.

 

[Seamusosul]

Here's a thing I've never seen suggested anywhere but it might be relevant to the story in its widest sense. Every cop involved, most notably the very senior ones, had worked for a very long time in an environment characterised by events in the North. If I can put it this way, there were an awful lot of killers around Cork County in those days, but almost all had done all their killing in the North. The government policy at the time was not to help the British with murder inquiries re: the North, and certainly not to extradite suspects. There was a lot of gangsterism too, then as now, and of course the gangsters were often in league with IRA soldiers in the North. With murder, the cops had to work in this very politically and socially complex context. It was normal to ignore some murders and killers while pursuing others which might have fewer political or personal security implications. There is every likelihood, then, that other people who'd murdered folk in the North lived in West Cork too and with a serious murder inquiry you really cannot tell what you might turn up. This is why people are often reluctant to talk to the cops in a serious inquiry - they have other skeletons in the closet unrelated to the inquiry at hand. You might ask someone who lives in the area where they were that night, be given the brush of and then look more closely at them only to discover the British suspected they'd were in the North that night before shooting and scooting south, or robbing a bank/dealing drugs for the cause (I'm not saying it was necessarily a bad cause, by the way). That would likely be something you, as a regular cop, really didn't want knowledge of (people have died for a lot less). I suspect that in this case, just a few years after the ceasefire, looking too closely at a high-priority murder case in West Cork may well have been discouraged. I think that might be behind the ostensibly strange behaviour of the cops at the time.

 

[dotr]

'Ian Bailey: His Own Word' is set to be released before the end of February, with the Englishman eager to give his side of the story. Pic: Hells Kitchen/Barbara McCarthy via Sky Studios

Ian Bailey Set To Release Tell-All Podcast

Ian Bailey has revealed he is releasing his 'much anticipated' audio biography, describing it as 'long awaited and keenly anticipated'.

extra.ie

Feb 7 2023
''Ian Bailey has revealed he is releasing his 'much anticipated' audio biography, describing it as 'long awaited and keenly anticipated'.

'Ian Bailey: In His Own Words' is set to be released before the end of February, with the former journalist taking to social media to promote it.''

''The notorious case has been the subject of two recent documentaries -- Jim Sheridan’s Murder At The Cottage, which was made for Sky, and Netflix’s Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.


Taking to Twitter to announce the upcoming podcast, Mr Bailey wrote: 'Coming Soon....My long awaited and keenly anticipated audio biography.'

 

[Seamusosul]

Amidst the tragedy of the murder, two others are regularly overlooked; those of the Bailey's blameless former partner Jules Thomas, and Bailey himself. There is literally not a single piece of substantive evidence which connects Bailey to the murder. The only person who ever claimed to have seen Bailey in the area on the night retracted her evidence; and even then the sighting was only allegedly of Bailey on the main road quite some distance from the murder site. The notion that anyone could be prosecuted in this case is absurd, which is why the nation's prosecuting authorities did not take things any further. Of course, France's political trials ARE an absurdity (which is why the rest of the EU doesn't active the EU arrest warrant in such cases). They bear no relationship to justice and are a stain on France's otherwise perfectly decent justice system. For my own part, the victim's family have behaved disgracefully. Demanding, and achieving from a Politically compliant legal system, a life sentence based upon no evidence is a thoroughly shocking thing to do. Bailey is an idiosyncratic fellow without doubt, and of course he has committed terrible domestic violence when drunk, which he has paid the personal price for, but he has human gifts and the suspicion (and French conviction) has blighted his life and that of Jules Thomas. Jules Thomas herself is a talented and decent artist. If you ever go to Schull, you will find her selling her very nice watercolours of the area at the market there; they are not terribly expensive and I hope you will consider buying something from her.

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder: New witness statements and DNA technology lie behind full cold-case review​

• Full-scale reassessment of the case will be undertaken
• Detectives have examined potential new evidence over the past 12 months and also interviewed a number of potential witnesses
• Many witnesses were a result of two true-crime documentaries that aired about the death of Sophie

Improvements in DNA testing and new witness statements have prompted a dramatic Garda statement last night that keeps alive the prospect of a trial in the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

A review of the file formerly submitted to the DPP has found clear new avenues for investigation – with the result that a full-scale reassessment will be undertaken.

Detectives have examined potential new evidence over the past 12 months and also interviewed a number of potential witnesses, many in the wake of two high-profile documentaries on the case screened by Sky TV and Netflix.

Now, gardaí are about to conduct a full review of the case file – the third time such a review has been conducted in 20 years.

One area seen as promising is the development of M-Vac technology that has proved adept at extracting DNA lying deep in rock surfaces that cannot be detected through the ordinary swabbing technology that was in place 25 years ago.

Gardaí still possess the bagged and bloody rock and concrete block that were used to bludgeon the 39-year-old filmmaker to death on the night of December 23, 1996, at her holiday home in Toormore, near Schull in Co Cork.

(...)

Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder: Son says family have ‘big expectations’ as gardaí open cold-case review

The son of murdered French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier has said the family have “big expectations” after the dramatic Garda statement last night confirming a review of the case file.

m.independent.ie

Thank you for adding details of possible new techniques. After watching the three part Netflix series it is quite confusing to me. Apparently the gate and any evidence from it are gone? And little was said in that series about the concrete or block supposedly used to bludgeon the victim. (Although perhaps I dozed while it was given.)

It is surely hoped that there would be some evidence that could help arrive at some conclusion or direction, And some possibly from that block or cast stone? Quite sad and perplexing that there isn’t a lead or something somewhere. Unless evidence was also not collected or stored adequately.
MOO.

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

An Oscar-nominated filmmaker has revealed he is working on a new film about the unsolved murder of French documentary-maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Sophie, 39, who was married to celebrated French film producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, a friend of former French President Jacques Chirac, was beaten to death two days before Christmas in 1996, with her body found outside her remote holiday cottage near the village of Schull in West Cork.

In 2019, British journalist Ian Bailey was tried and convicted in absentia of her murder in a French court. But following a three-day hearing in 2020, Ireland's High Court rejected an attempt by French authorities to have him extradited to serve his 25-year jail term.

Jim Sheridan, 74, told The Irish Sun that he hopes his documentary will help solve the case - with 'new information' pointing to a largely 'unheard of German suspect', according to the publication.

It is thought the film will look at musician Karl Heinz Wolney; he reportedly had a long history of violence and lived around 1.5km from Sophie's holiday home.

Wolney, who has since died, was playing in nearby Crookhaven on the evening of her death and had no alibi, according to the publication.

Filmmaker Jim - who made Murder At The Cottage for Sky about Sophie's murder - said he's 'happy that the police opened the cold case review'.

[...]

Filmmaker is working on documentary about Sophie Toscan Du Plantier

Jim Sheridan, 74, told The Irish Sun that he hopes his new film will help solve the case. British journalist Ian Bailey was convicted of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in absentia in 2019.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[dotr]

2022

Developments in Sophie Toscan du Plantier case | The Irish Post

Sophie Toscan du PlantierGARDAÍ continue to consider new evidence in the case of Sophie Toscan ...

www.irishpost.com

''According to reports, the guards are looking at details of ‘people of interest’, including one French-speaking person, seen in a Kerry pub the night after the killing. He reportedly had scratches on his face, and his description matches one given independently by another witness.

According to The Irish Mirror, gardaí are also following up details of two French men who may have had a connection with Mme du Plantier in West Cork.

A German musician named Karl Heinz Wolney, a heavy-drinking man with a history of violence, was also one of the early suspects. He lived a mile from Sophie’s home, and was playing in Crookhaven on the evening that Sophie was killed. He had no alibi.

Wolney died by suicide in February 1997, according to the podcast West Cork, produced by respected investigative journalists Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde.''

 

[altojack]

Odd that Wolney took his own life just a couple of months after Sophie was murdered.