I've been watching some Forensic Detectives episodes, some of the cases featured may have lessons for this one...
To those who make the case that "Bailey is the only suspect", see this miscarriage of justice involving Dr Sam Sheppard. Sheppard was exonerated in part because evidential objects were preserved and re-tested using modern techniques.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Sheppard
For an example of how difficult it is to catch a "stranger on stranger" murderer, see this case involving Gregory Kokal. Kokal and an accomplice picked up a drunken hitchhiker, mugged him for a trivial amount of money, brutally beat him and then delivered the coup de grace of a bullet to the head. The motive was not robbery, robbery did not necessitate such brutality. Only for a lucky break, despite painstaking police work, the perpetrators would not have been found.
https://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kokal-gregory-alan.htm
I'm Irish, bred and buttered. Haha....ha. We could have sent Bailey down for this murder with little 'proof'. It never cost the Brits a second thought to condemn an innocent Irishman to some awful consequence. So why didn't we do it and have done with it?
Dude, we're not revenging for the Black and Tans.
Oddly or historically the Irish legal system is influenced by the British. Innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
There is nothing on Bailey.
I ask what is the Brit system influenced by and this is what you tell me?
I am saying that the legal system in the Republic of Ireland is influenced by the same legal system from the UK. It certainly differs from the French system.
Judge Patrick Moran, a personification of Irish Justice. God love him.
Wasn’t there also a travel agent in Loughrea that said someone suspicious arrived in the day after Sophie’s murder inquiring about Cork b&bs and flights to France?
From the times.
'Maurice Sweeney, 62, a Loughrea travel agent, said that he told gardai that a man fitting Marie Farrell's original description had booked flights to France the day after du Plantier's murder. Although Sweeney passed this information to gardai several times, he says it was ignored.'
It was eventually looked into but the person Mr Sweeney identified had an alibi in that he was at a public exhibition on the day of the murder.
I believe it was the same man that had attacked Sophie on a previous occasion for not including his art on a TV show
Another lead not followed up upon. However the matter may be totally coincidental. Marie Farrell can't be trusted with her statements, thus it's hard to know what she had really observed that night or what not, or if she's been out at night at all?
Is it known when the flight to France would have been? At the earliest convenience? And who was he? He must have given a name for the flight booking?
I'd also say, that it's unlikely it's the murderer. If he was from France or had a connection to France he would have planned this more, and would have had a return flight. Nevertheless, it would have been worth investigating and following up upon.
Gardai said it was investigated twice and he had an alibi for the day of the killing in Paris. Yet he had been in a West Cork B&B prior to meeting the TA 4-5 hours later asking for tickets in Loughrea! Some doing.
'"This is all very clear in my mind and I am sure of what I am saying," he said.
Mr Sweeney said he contacted gardai on a number of occasions to pass on his information and has also been in contact with Sophie's uncle, Jean-Pierre Gazeau.
Mr Sweeney said the man came into his travel agent business at 2.30pm on December 23, 1996 -- four-and-a-half hours after Sophie's bludgeoned body was discovered outside her holiday home, near Schull, Co Cork.
The man was looking for a hotel near Dublin Airport and also for the numbers of bed and breakfasts in west Cork, as he had left one without paying.'
" If he was from France or had a connection to France he would have planned this more, and would have had a return flight.
Maybe he a return ticket for later but after things went wrong in west Cork he had to leave in a hurry?
He had previously attacked her?
On Reddit, one poster stated that a blood stained hire car had been returned to knock Airport the same day....by a French guy...
Paywall, but there's a post on reddit with text.
Not sure why the bottle of wine is now suddenly important to the Gardaí, and it wasn't exactly kept secret, it just wasn't investigated at the time and was subsequently "lost" with other evidence.
As for the neighbour, the prowler and Bill hogan making claims.... 🤦♀️🤦♀️
https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/sophie-toscan-du-plantier-murder-a-discarded-unopened-bottle-of-wine-re-examined-41001318.html
Bloody Hell! Have you a source? I would have thought all hire car companies would have been asked for any unusual activites at the time.
I've heard that rumour but there's no verifiable source that I'm aware of anyway.
Mind you I feel like at this stage local rumour/information is all we have unless that DNA on sophies boot ever gets identified.
Part 3 of Ian Bailey in his own words, is now available on the big issue website,
https://irelandsbigissuemagazine.com/
If the ex neighbour being questioned again is Shirley I'd say Bamboozle and Tinytobe will be orgasmic.
Open to correction but that alibi is not solid iirc
They had a receipt for a purchase at the exhibition rather than an independent witness confirming their presence?
I very much doubt she's got anything to add. Imagine hearing something and saying nothing for 25 years.
I'd only be interested if she heard/saw it was the garda from bantry otherwise she'd have no reason to keep that quiet for so long.
This is unlikely of course, since the "investigation" has only ever centred on one person.
Senan Maloney.
He's probably working on a book collaboration with Nick Foster.
Quite possible!! I'd say foster is his source anyway.
Are we talking about Bruno here?
This would point more into the direction of the French hitman theory. Was the blood ever examined? Was it just a small stain, or a bit more than that? Also Knock airport is a bit of a drive from Sophie's house. Is the make / model and colour of the car also known?
Would a hitman bring back a blood stained hire car to knock?? I mean, come on. I know we're culshies up here but someone would surely think that's a bit bloody off 😂😂
I didn't think I was but now I'm confuse ?!?!? Either way I'd question a receipt based alibi rather than confirmation of personal attendance \ presence.
In the early days of the investigation, detectives delved into Ms Toscan Du Plantier's personal life. They learnt that Carbonnet had stayed with Ms Du Plantier on a couple of occasions in West Cork. They tracked him down through the French authorities who interviewed him in the presence of gardai in January 1997. His alibi was watertight: at the time Ms Toscan Du Plantier was murdered he was at an art auction in the south of France. Gardai spent a week in France verifying his story.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-complex-and-secret-private-life-of-fragile-sophie-26805384.html
Artist Bruno Carbonnet was one of the original suspects identified by gardaí after Ms Toscan du Plantier unexpectedly ended their year-long relationship in 1993 and gardaí travelled to France to interview him in January 1997 - just weeks after Ms Toscan du Plantier’s murder in Co Cork in December 1996. Gardaí eliminated Mr Carbonnet from their list of suspects after French police established through a receipt which he signed for the installation of a telephone at his apartment that he was in Paris on December 23rd, 1996, the day Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered.
Edit - Indepedent article is confused. The artist (not Carbonnet) was attending an auction of his own work at the time so that alibi seems sound.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/toscan-du-plantier-suspect-was-ruled-out-1.13158
As much as I would love this to be true I don't think it is though. We would have definitely heard this before. I think the gardai couldn't have avoided investigating this - a hire company would have pursued this given how high profile the murder was.
Re looking at the wine bottle? Wasn't it lost?
which reddit, there are loads re Sophie
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