Old thread seems to be permanently locked. It will be interesting if anything can come of this at last.
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Is this the same man who left a B+B in west Cork without paying?
Which podcast is this, please? I'd like to check it out.
They know his name but have never been able to locate or interview him
There was a BBC podcast a couple of years back which spoke about a "sallow" skin individual who was spotted in schull acting strangely across the road from a shop which Sophie was in at the time (I'm guessing the fact he had "sallow" skin stood out in 1996 Ireland).
If I recall correctly he was strangely interested in her. This occurred the day or more correctly multiple hours before she died. The next day the same individual made his way to Galway where he paid a travel agent for a flight to Paris from Dublin in cash (a cash payment being totally normal back then then but why travel from schull to Galway to book a last minute flight to Paris from Dublin???). He somehow made his way to Dublin and presumably took the flight. This fella has never been identified and the podcast says the Gardai never followed up on the lead.
Ok, per Wikipedia, the road was built between 06 and 10, so this is a factor in terms of journey time, but should not rule out checking flight records from Dublin. Surely that was done.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M8_motorway_(Ireland)#:~:text=The%20M8%20motorway%20(Irish%3A%20M%C3%B3tarbhealach,capital%20Dublin%20to%20Cork%20city.
Evidence that was not included in the original DPP submissions? Given that much of the evidence we do know about was either destroyed or has gone AWOL, I wouldn't hold out too much hope that any other evidence was fully preserved.
True, still all ports and airports should have had their records checked or copied for further examination at some later date.
A bit more than 2 hours in 1996. Double it and then some.
The husband has never been in the spotlight, a very wealthy/powerful man whose wife was living abroad and having multiple affairs, how much would he lose in a divorce. Then there his associate that was spotted following Sophie the day before her murder
"The police have his name but no address. He was spotted following Sophie in Schull, Co Cork by shopkeeper Marie Farrell, on the day before she was murdered on December 23, 1996"
Two years later he was remarried
Dublin airport was too much for them? It's a 2 hour drive from Dublin to Cork city. The major inboard port of entry. That's nothing.
There is plenty of evidence that hasn't been released, the new pairs of eyes could potentially see something with it.
Well, that's a possibility, but there are many, many, possibilities. However, if we focus on liklihood, then it is more likely that Sophie donned the boots to go outside. That is what most people would do. Sophie had a pair of white moccasin slippers in the kitchen and they would have been more likely, to be her regular indoor footwear. Also, there is no evidence of a struggle at the door - apart from the blood smear on the door itself, which, given its shape and position, is probably linked to the opening, closing or trying of the door handle.
I'm also dubious about her fleeing from an attacker at the door and running down to the gate. It seems to me that it would be more rational to retreat inside the house in such circumstances.
The boots may have been her usual choice of footwear indoors, instead of slippers or whatever. That might suggest she encountered the visitor at the front door and he forcibly entered the house or was invited in. An incident of some sort took place which prompted her to run for her life. How prescient that transpired to be.
The "fresh pair of eyes" doesn't really help, if there is no new evidence. It's still the same lack of any evidence pointing to anybody.
They most certainly didn't even know whom to look for in the first place. If somebody did travel over from France, it would have been a name unknown to the police.
I would also suggest that the data on passengers travelled to and from Ireland is no longer available, it's too long back. Anybody wishing to hide the trip, could have easily done so, a connecting flight via another city, a forged passport and no biometrics back then and the police would have been in the dark forever.
Yes, they did. But it was pretty hard to identify any "persons of interest"
I believe they looked into flights to France from Cork Airport. Her family had NOT travelled and there weren't really any other names to look for. The locals all seem to have stayed local!
I presume the Gardai would have scoured logs of flights to and from Ireland for persons of interest around the time of the murder?
Yes, but there are two important assumptions in that scenario. Firstly, that it was the middle of the night. It may have been, of course, but to my mind the evidence points to the incident occurring in the morning…in daylight.
Secondly, that it was a stranger. If Sophie recognised the person at the gate, or the door, she would probably be less cautious .
I do agree though, that she probably put on the boots with the intention of going outside.
Sophie's clothing when her body was found was nightwear and boots. It would suggest that she had been in her home, probably in bed, but put footwear on to go outside.
I think that if I were a woman, residing alone in an isolated holiday home and I heard a strange man's voice calling out to me or rapping on my front door in the middle of the night, I'd probably be a tad apprehensive about going out to meet them. In fact, I'd probably not respond at all. It's possible Sophie was a different kind of person, though, who didn't think the worst of people.
So then, she goes out and her murderer beats her to death with a breeze block. I suppose if one thinks this was Bailey, this occurred after she rebuffed him romantically. Pretty bad way to handle rejection.
Well, we can't be sure that nobody got told off for the godawful wreck they made of the investigation. Maybe words were had in some private office - they were certainly deserved.
So "words" would suffice for AGS members yet again stitching up someone for a high-profile murder (and no, I'm not some nutjob conspiracy theorist!)?
We've had far too many scum members of AGS such as O'Carroll allow innocent members of the public get stitched up for murders they didn't commit (obviously a few slaps helped them get a confession)!
A "Cold case review" does kind of imply that a new pair of eyes, a fresh pair of hands may see some insights on this case that were overlooked or ignored on the first round. I really hope so.
Bailey to a certain extent was meant to be a useful idiot to go down for this - a drunk, a woman beater, an oddball, a blow-in, someone perfect to fit up for this murder.
However, despite their apparent confidence, those investigating the murder have absolutely nothing to link him to it - no DNA, no association between them, no evidence, no witnesses, nothing! In fact it is the opposite - the woman he did beat to a pulp insists on his innocence. The fact that no DNA exists from the murderer that we know of shows that it was unlikely to have been the drunkard Bailey - the man the gardai alleged was covered in scratches but who didn't think it would be necessary to take a single photo of those scratches (sure a simple crayon drawing is good enough 🙄)
That people are still mentioning Bailey would make you wonder how much they know about the case and shows how much people have been fed by a biased investigation along with a biased media.
That nobody on the force has been reprimanded for how the original investigation was carried out, including telling locals that he did it, is criminal - it would make you wonder if any new investigation would be any different: one hopes it will, even just to get justice for Sophie!
I think it will always be a difference of opinion.
If Bailey really did it, he would have behaved differently.
He would have given a different statement, something like never having left the house that night, never been to the studio at all. Not having an alibi would have been the same for everyone or mostly everyone else that night. He would have stayed quiet, probably not even reported on the murder, and even if asked made up some excuse, something like lack of access to real credible information.
He would have gone quiet for a few weeks, stayed out of the public light, no or fewer pub visits, maybe answered some general questions the police asked everyone, and quietly slipped away. A trip to England, a story about a family member with health issues, and maybe stayed there.
And as there were nothing in evidence linking him to the scene of the crime the matter would have been over done for him, even if say the Irish police asked for DNA evidence which he may have submitted to the police in the UK.
That's a very possible scenario. One I posted about earlier strange that others haven't come to this also.
He may have struck Sophie into submission initially, not fatally , but upon realising she could identify him he decided to finish her off.
It's probably going to be a mystery that endures.
Ian Bailey will always be the one most suspected, but despite his history of drunken fights with Jules Thomas, it's just hard to envisage him going up to that house to batter someone to death who he either didn't know, or barely knew. Like, if he was capable of that type of violence to that type of person, Jules Thomas probably would have died a long time ago by his hand, given that he was also capable of being violent towards her to begin with.
It goes like this; if Sophie was killed by a stranger why are there no unidentified fingerprints?
But if she was killed by somebody known to her, then their fingerprints are quite naturally found in her house or around the premises, and attract no comment at all.
Such as….family members, former guests, the neighbours, the postman, anyone who did any work in or on the cottage, or on any of the other houses in the little group. Anyone who had land in the area so naturally had to use the gate. Etc etc.
It's possible she didn't know the attacker at all, but that represents the statistical least likely scenario, as mentioned previously statistically the victim not knowing the attacker happens only around 10% of the time. If we are certain it wasn't a close family member then it rises to about 20%.
The question becomes how were the people who did know her ruled out, we don't know the answer to that.
I don't accept either the logic or the statistical evidence that the killer here must have had an association of some sort with Sophie. Knowing who she was, where she lived, when she was home would be enough. A brief introduction may have occurred previously but Sophie was not expecting any company that evening and the killer arrived uninvited. I don't think any relationship or association existed between them previously - except in the mind of the culprit.
I guess whatever happened to them it must have been in or around the time of the murder, perhaps no more than a few days before. Somebody, or many, in the vicinity would have known what happened to those briars, and should be able to offer an explanation up. Similar to the pump house damage. Perhaps it was declared to the gardai, but we never hear about it as it didn't point to Bailey.
The Dublin forensics team did not arrive until 10 pm, so it couldn’t be them. But Pat Joy had crime scene forensic training and was there around noon.
Also the photos don’t prove that the briars were cut before Sophie landed where she was found. All the cuts including the briar under the body could have been cut any time after the murder but before 12:30. It could still have been the killer of course, but I don’t buy it. Also where are the cut-off briers?
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