Sophie’s parents: ‘Our despair will never end’

THEIR agonising 11-year quest for justice has taken its toll.

But as the ageing parents of murdered French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier stood yesterday at the rugged spot near Schull in west Cork where their daughter’s bloodied and battered body was found more than 11 years ago, they said a new group will continue their campaign for the truth.

The Association for the Truth about the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (ASSOPH) was founded before Christmas by Ms Bouniol’s brother, Professor Jean-Pierre Gazeau, and her cousin, Francis Lefevre, to help the family’s campaign for answers.

It also hopes to harmonise laws on victims’ rights across the European Union.

It has garnered support from several high-profile people in France — including some believed to be from the French film industry. Their names will be unveiled later.

News that the French authorities have lodged a renewed application with the Irish authorities for access to the postmortem files is proof the group plans to pursue this campaign with vigour.

A high turnover of French judges combined with delays and complications on the Irish side has delayed the process.

But the association is hopeful that a successful outcome could be secured soon. Flanked by her husband Georges, Mrs Bouniol said she felt her daughter’s spirit was behind the renewed campaign.

In an emotional address to the media, and speaking through translator, Françoise Letellier, the French consul in Cork, she said: “Our despair will never end.

“Be in our shoes. Can you imagine if your child had been murdered, not murdered, it was a massacre.

“Can you imagine if your child had been followed, running across the fields, followed by her murderer?

“And she arrives here, she is losing her blood, and you know what happened.

“Would you just go home and say, well that’s it, everything is finished, everything is over because you are not allowed to know what happened, because the law does not allow you to know what happened?

“That’s why our despair will never stop.”

She said Prof Gazeau and others could not live with that situation.

Mrs Bouniol said the family will never stop the quest for justice.

“We should always intervene so that the truth will come out,” she said.

The association’s vice-president Jean Marc Peyron said the time has come for “new elements and a new generation” to fight against “silence and the absence of a result and the lack of success in the judicial procedure”.

He said the family hopes that the renewed application for access to the files will be successful.

“Sophie’s parents are really angered and despaired by this continuing absence of results,” he said.

“We hope that this small new hope — because every year there is small new hope — will finally be a real result.”

After placing the bouquet, Mr and Mrs Bouniol walked back up the steep muddy laneway to their daughter’s former holiday home.

They attended Mass at St Patrick’s Star of the Sea Church in Goleen and remembered their daughter in their prayers.

They were accompanied yesterday morning by Superintendent Liam Horgan and will stay at the dormer bungalow at Toormore for the next few days.

The Garda investigation into Ms Toscan du Plantier’s killing is ongoing, with gardaí regularly reviewing the case.