Cold Case Review of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier murder to proceed (Threadbans in OP)

The back story is that they had tried to re-home a dog in the preceding days leading up to the murder, but it wasn't settling and they had to give it back. Alfie brought it up a couple of times to say that it was unfortunate timing as it would have barked probably if it had been there.

I am very familiar with perpetrators of domestic violence, and will not defend the indefensible. Bailey might have been a partner beating scumbag, but it doesn't mean he was a murderer.

I'm not accusing anyone else, just pointing out similar circumstances for others, which you claim iron clad evidence against Bailey. When you, in your own words, choose what to believe, obviously you'll think nothing else is possible. I can happily admit Bailey could have done it, but I think based on the preponderance of evidence the case is extremely weak. Some of the guards thought so too, as well as the DPP.

It is undisputable three witnesses claim that Bailey met Sophie, it is NOT undisputable that he actually met Sophie.

Thought I'd correct that for you.

Steady now Seth. You have been his chief defender for years and it is all well documented on these threads. You have been the cheerleader of a collection of your outraged fellow travellers who come charging on every time someone puts their head above the parapet and says he did it. It wouldn`t be so bad if you stuck to debating the evidence, but you have positioned yourself so that you can`t do that because you`re regular mantra has been that there is no evidence.

Poster warned

Anyone have the information around just how hard is it to get a match for a DNA profile and what data bases are the Gardai allowed to use in order to do this work? Ie are they prohibited from using commercial online services such as Ancestry.com?

I assume from the newspaper reports, that because they’ve gone international with this search, that the DNA isn’t Irish in origin begin with.

Also, I do wonder if they have asked for voluntary DNA from the families of the numerous “suspects” often mentioned here on the thread- and if they have ruled out those people at this stage (from the perspective of matching with the DNA)

A family member did the ancestry test and no sooner had they uploaded the results , they matched with some distant cousin. You would think it’s somewhat straightforward but I wonder what the constraints are that might frustrate this aspect of the investigation

“People can send in their DNA samples, but who's to say whose DNA was actually sent, so it likely wouldn't stand up in a court of law in any case.”

To clarify I wasn’t suggesting it would- more that it would give the Gardai a lead to pursue.

Sounds like we won’t be hearing much for a while yet.

Pretty sure there was a relative of some sort who had voluntarily submitted a sample as part of a gardai canvas initiative and it was a partial match, so the gardai then honed in then on the parents through probably fairly straightforward investigative work.

I'm just wondering now whether the person submitted the sample on purpose, having some knowledge or suspicion, or just indifferently as part of a broad group. Would be a very discreet way to point to the perpetrator(s) if you didn't want to be caught out.

There was a door to door search in a particular area of the county asking for voluntary DNA samples- this particular geographic area which included areas around Valencia island if memory serves- influenced by the DNA profile they had ie- from the DNA sample they had they could tell that it likely originated from a very specific area of Ireland

Reading through the legislation the law enforcement directive only applies in cases where the data controller is a ‘competent authority’, and the processing is done for ‘law enforcement purposes’.

I wouldn't think ancestry would be a competent authority or acting on behalf of a competent authority i.e. engaged in law enforcement and therefore would not be subject to the law enforcement directive.

But the Gardai are a competent body under LED and are able to request this data.

E.g. When the Gardai ask business owners for CCTV footage they are requesting it under LED as the competent body - the business owner can supply it even though the business is not under LED.

In the instance of An Garda Síochána requesting CCTV footage to investigate a crime, the footage would often be provided voluntarily though an access request to the CCTV data controller might be required to identify exactly what footage is requested.

The data controller (CCTV owner) can provide the requested footage as the Data Protection Act 2018 (Section 41(b)) allows organisations and individuals to disclose personal data (including CCTV footage) to An Garda Síochána where it is deemed "necessary and proportionate" for the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of criminal offences.

If the requested footage was not provided voluntarily it can be requested by warrant or by court order or under the Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Act 2023.

The law enforcement directive would not be applicable as the data controller (CCTV owner) is neither a competent authority nor does it process the data for law enforcement purposes (both criteria must be met for the LED to apply).

Ancestry would not be a competent authority within the meaning in the LED nor would it process it's data for law enforcement purposes so the LED would not apply.

As Ancestry analyses samples and stores it's data in the USA jurisdiction could be problematic for a court order or warrant as could the "necessary and proportionate" requirement under gdpr for any request - it would not be permissible to submit DNA or a DNA profile, which may or may not be connected to the murderer, in the vague hope that it may have a match or close familial match against one or more of millions of records.

It may be possible to compare DNA found at the crime scene against profiles held by law enforcement (in this and other jurisdictions) or by other entities where the subject has given permission for their data to be shared with law enforcement.

Or, as in the case of the Kerry babies, an Garda Síochána (competent authority) may have to collect it's own samples / DNA profiles (for law enforcement purposes) and search that for a match or near match.

The DNA found on one of Sophie's shoes will remain problematic unless it is identified and either eliminated or found to be significant. As far as I have read there's nothing to indicate any other potentially significant DNA has been found.