He died earlier from a heart attack, very curious guy whatever you think of him. If he didn’t kill Sophie Toscan du Plantier he certainly didn’t help himself by his attention seeking behaviour.
One thing I noticed in the documentary and podcast is that Bailey said Dermot Dwyer came to his house prior to his arrest and asked him if he played poker.
I wonder at that time was the theory that a poker was the missing murder weapon and it was a ploy on Dwyer's part to gauge Bailey's reaction...
It's interesting. Dwyer denies saying though.
I read somewhere over last few days that the local guard in charge also stopped the investigating officers down from Dublin from completing their work until Harbison arrived - these were specially trained scene investigators - again very strange - think it was the GSOC report but I might be wrong
Well tbh, I don't know if it was local Gardaí, but he was over ruled
Did we ever get an explanation as to why local Gardai were over-ruling Harbison? That doesn't seem like typical behaviour.
Ok, maybe if he got there earlier things might be different. But it would have been dark when he got there anyway. The body would have been out in the open for at least 12 hours at that stage. He did ask for the body be taken to Cork, but that was overruled by the local Gardaí and Sophie was left out in the open overnight, which was always hard for her family to come to terms with.
He was a patriot that must have suffered in silence.
He should have had a team working under his supervision.
Ah yeah I’ve been around for all of those - obituary here
https://m.independent.ie/news/obituary-dr-john-harbison/39881768.html
Yes, I think it took the murder of a young man in a field down in Tralee the following year for him to get a deputy.
I believe Marie Cassidy was appointed his deputy around that time. (Dr. Cassidy's Casebook on RTE player is a a good watch)
If you want, google the stuff he had to deal with on his own, The Kerry Babies, The Stardust fire, Grangegorman, all horrendus stuff.
Yes it was - it was an absolute crazy situation - not long before the murder:
6th July 1996
Prof Harbison's report said the State Pathology Office was under manned and overwhelmed. Its laboratory did not have the
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/harbison-report-stresses-lack-of-resources-1.64735
I don't think he had much of a budget available. We were still a relatively poor country at that stage. As for getting a garda to drive him, very doubtful this would have been provided and also i don';t think he really had colleagues but if he did, they would already have been stretched that they could head off down to West Cork for a day or two.
I think it was this case that started opening peoples eyes to the disadvantages the state coroner's office faced
👇
The posters comment
You've probably seen it above by now, but the poster claimed Sophie's lip was bitten during the attack, then when asked for a source for the claim scurried off.
Maybe helicopters unrealistic but there was flights from Dublin to Cork.
Alternatively, if he was after drink, he could've got a Garda or colleague to drive him.
She even had two children with him. He was in his late 50s by then.
He had a fine life riding young ones and attending film premieres.
Plane or helicopter? Harbison didn’t even have a driver. ffs
’
I'm not sure.
Maybe they could have ruled out the morning as time of death.
I still think it's unprofessional. Also they said he was out celebrating his birthday so couldn't contact him for a couple of hours. But why didn't he have a beeper or mobile phone. Mobiles were common by then.
He's entitled to time off from work but it's so important to be at the crime scene quickly.
By 11am they would've known it was a murder at the latest. So he could've been there at 5 or 6 pm easily.
Nice try at a bit of deflection there, Rosie
Well certainly the people who would benefit the most out of Sophie no longer living lived in France.
His Eastern European Mistress certainly won the lottery, poor Daniel didn't last too long with her either.
It's worth noting Irish detective went to France wanting to interview Daniel and Co.
They were basically put on a plane and told fúck off.
Daniel had the most powerful friends.
It took the forensic team over 7 hours to get there with Christmas traffic.
Interestingly they wanted to process the scene immediately and were told by the local Guard in charge under no circumstances are they to do that until Harbison gets there.
If Harbison did get there at 10 that night would a test to determine time of death even have been possible, given she was out in the elements at least a 12 hours at that stage?
Correct. It doesn't.
It would surely have DNA anyway.
There's plenty of info on the pathology report online.
Poor woman had a horrible ending.
Mud stains on the front of her PJ's shows she fell over a few times.
I know it's been said before, but Dr Harbison should've hopped on a plane or helicopter or train or even driven there directly. He was informed of her death at 2pm IIRC, so he should've been at the crime scene at 6 or 7pm easily.
An estimate of time of death is so important.
He made it up or imagined it.
Note as well that it's not at all clear that Sophie was struck ~50 times with a weapon, although this is regularly accepted as fact. My recollection is that her body had that number of injuries, but it's possible that this included cuts from briars etc - i.e. the number of blows may have been much smaller.
Cut yes but nowhere does it say anything about being bitten does it?
No mention of trying to match teeth marks in any report afaik.
Seems to be just peddling rumours.
The pathology report says Sophie's lip was cut. "Her upper lip was torn from the gum"
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/sophie-toscan-du-plantier-suffered-31936807
I think her face was mostly intact. Most of the damage was to the top and back of her head and around the ears and temple.
Nope. Literally said... Sophies lip.
Easy to be confused by nonsense.
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121685599#Comment_121685599
This was Jules' lip he's referring to, not Sophie's. And has caused a page of confused follow up comments ha
He bit Jules during an attack.
What's the question
Another anonymous internet user.
The more you avoid answering the question the more it looks like you're making it up.
Us?
Who are you?
Poor fella, Christmas on his own in a hovel.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/crime/ill-be-alone-i-often-am-these-days-in-the-end-we-are-all-alone-ian-baileys-final-words-in-our-last-phone-call/a2008531654.html
SO how it be determined what happened the lip, that it was bitten specifically and not from some other weapon or injury.
Where is 'bitten' mentioned in an actual autopsy report, and I don't mean rumours and lies being peddled by anonymous sources to the media.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w1.vanillicon.com/v2/106011ca5625d81dfb148c9c1e2df535.svg)
