This wasnt proven nor disproven just like a lot of the so called evidence linking Bailey to the crime. Yes, and who carried out that little exercise, a man employed the gards. Plenty of other people would confirm it is absolutely possible to get scratches on your arms this way.
How would they replicate it. How could they cut it exactly the same way, get exqactly the same marks ?
I just read the GSOC report. It says a number of current and ex-guards, journalists and witnesses refused to sign their statements to GSOC without seeing what they had said in earlier statements, despite it being explained to them that was not the procedure.
Now if you want a conspiracy how did say 10 to 20 people all come to that same wrong conclusion and all presumably because they were aware there might be discrepancies? Liars need good memories.
There's no number given for the number of people who refused to sign statements, but you also need to remember there were high court proceedings going on at the same time about the same matters so I can kind of understand people being wary of not having 100% recall of events 15 years previous when they were due to testify under oath.
You climb a Sitka Spruce, cut the top off and climb back down. There are no thorns on a Sitka Spruce. If his hands were really scratched to the extent that the drawings portrayed, then he should have had the same type of scratches all over his face.
he could have kept his face back but his hands would be pulling the top through the cut off part down through the pines
Just on this, he filled petrol for a woman who looked like Sophie there's no proof it actually was her so we can't take that as fact. Should definitely have been followed up on more thoroughly though.
But you seem to be taking Bailey's word on this as gospel
Marks on his hands have been pointed out to you already came from cutting down xmas trees
Sorry, that's ridiculous. I don't know many gardeners who don't wear gloves when intentionally cutting anything prickly. And holding your face away from the branches while still being able to reach the trunk doesn't really seem feasible. But, by your estimation, maybe he wore a full face guard and no gloves.
Just make sure your tree is in not in the middle of a briary ditch and you are not inebriated at the time.
Replicate what marks exactly?
They have no photos of the originals.
Plus did they go through briars in the same bizarre 'exercise'?
The DPP thoroughly discredits the scratches both due to witness statements and the absence of hair fibres blood etc at the scene where Bailey is supposed to have received the cuts from briars.The scratches were gone 5 days after the murder based on witness statements - they were light scratches that healed quickly not briar cuts.
And imo it is telling that Bailey made no attempt to conceal the scratches which woùld have been easy to do in december.
Also if you have been scratched on the first day the scratches are less visible... just red marks. This is why they werent noticed before the murder except by members of the household imo.
So who was the dark-skinned man in the jeep? Why did the guards cut that evidence out of the Job Book?
Assuming it wasn't MF who gave that evidence it would corroborate her sighting of the sallow-skinned man outside the shop.
And if the female in the jeep was Sophie that would put a completely different spin on things.
Of course he could have been the plumber repairing her central heating.
He climbed to the top of the tree. He would have had to climb up at the spine of the tree because that`s the only way his weight could have been supported. Any damage to his hands would have been on his palms and not the backs. He wouldn`t have pulled the top down through the branches, he would have just let it fall to the ground. I don`t believe he could have that many scratches on the backs of his hands with none on his face. It doesn`t make sense. If he felt he needed face protection, then surely he would also have worn gloves.
I dont find the whole flying in before christmas to fix the plumbing believable at all given there was a local housekeeper better placed to sort it.
Read in some article quoting her, that the housekeeper had got it fixed by the time Sophie arranged to visit. Maybe she wanted to check it in prolonged use and ensure whole place ready again?
What jeep?
Maybe thats it more of a double check and tidyup although it kinda shows a lack of total trust / faith in the housekeeper.
By the time Sophie arrived there wasnt much time left to get a plumber out and get heating sorted before xmas holidays proper.
She didnt seem keen to go on her own - iirc had been asking around for any friends to accompany her, which is another reason to doubt that it was just a quick 'snag' trip.
Yes, that's correct.
The housekeeper could have checked it over prolonged use - turned it on - come back few hours later etc. No need for Sophie to come all the way from France to check the heating was ok. It is very strange for a mother of a young son to want to leave him just before christmas. She had only decided at the last minute that she would return to France for christmas - she had intended staying in West Cork until after Christmas. There was something more to her visit than to check if the heating was working.
it is more ridiculous to pull your face through needles
how do you know he didn't protect his face?
She didn't leave her son. He was spending Christmas with his father. I read reports the other reason she went is because she had only been able to visit her holiday house once that year and decided she really wanted to go. If this place was her spiritual refuge I see nothing odd or strange about that. The heating issue was secondary.
Strange then that the heating issue features so prominently as the declared reason for the trip.
And why was she so keen on inviting friends to join her if she just wanted a holiday and alone time in her cottage - could have just said that.
I definately read and I think it was mentioned in one of the documentaries that Pierre Louis was staying with his grandparents. His father arrived to tell him the news that his mother was murdered. I dont buy that anyone in a happy marraige,has a child and is very close to their parents wants to spend Christmas alone ( which is what she intened to do by all accounts). If the heating was an issue why visit a house with no heating in December!
Because he didn`t have too. The point I originally made was that I don`t believe the tree scratched the backs of his hands like that, nor his face. Sitka is prickly, but the needles would move with the back of the hand rather than dig in and scratch like briars If the tree was capable of scratching the backs of his hands to the extent of the drawings, then the palms would have had more damage because he would have gripped the branches as he climbed as he wouldn`t have been wearing gloves.
i thought she was intending to go home just before christmas the morning she was killed?
She changed her plans over the weekend and booked a flight to return to France before Christmas. Originally she had intended to stay in West Cork until after Christmas.
Does anyone have any reliable source for the ‘blue fiesta’ story? The only references I can find are a short article from 2014 which suggests this is ‘new information’ that should be followed up by Gardai, then the Gemma O’Doherty article which looks like its from 2018. The 2014 article seems to have disappeared from the internet except where it was captured here:
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/driver+%27sped+away+from+sophie+home%27.-a0369161052
Thanks didn't know that. She was going to stay alone? Maybe she had depression or mental problems. Might explain her fear of the white lady, perhaps a panic attack focused on the white lady
Her aunt & husband told Sheridan (quoted in DiD) that Sophie was tired from a film festival and finishing a documentary film. Husband says she learned of a problem with the heating, but it was also to "take a bit of time out, read and relax.’"
That's actually a very good point. If she was such a tough little cookie, and I don't doubt that she was, coming alone to stay in a dark cold cottage in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter, what is all this bullshit about being terrified by a gust of wind on the water?
I believe the story came from the Ungerers who she visited afterwards, the same day she was killed.
Perhaps they exagerated her fear, for reasons unknown. Or its not impossible that she exaggerated it herself in order to get closer to Mr Ungerer who by the way was exactly her type. Or perhaps she was using some substances which enhanced her experience.
Either way, I believe it would have an effect on her actions that night.
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