Sophie’s family has spent 14 years looking for answers
It’s more than 14 years since her body was found on a lane to her converted farmhouse holiday home in Co Cork.
Her grief-stricken and now elderly parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, still make a painful return every December, to a tranquil isolated spot near Schull to mark the anniversary.
Ian Bailey, the subject of the extradition hearings, became a suspect within weeks of the December 1996 murder.
But twice, within a year, he was arrested and released without charge.
He has, at times, insisted there was a sinister plot to frame him and strenuously denied any involvement in the killing.
A former newsman in Gloucester, he had resumed working as a freelance journalist in West Cork just weeks before Ms Toscan du Plantier’s death. He reported on the crime for a number of newspapers.
The law graduate still lives in Schull with his partner, artist Jules Thomas, who remained by his side over the years.
Now aged 53, he recently spoke of the trauma of being implicated in the murder case. “Events surrounding the arrest have caused me great personal damage and distress,” he said in an affidavit. “I was unable to live a normal life in the way I’d otherwise have done.”
Almost three years ago, the garda investigation into the murder effectively came to an end although gardaí asserted the file would “remain open”.
The DPP twice rejected garda recommendations that charges should be preferred. No forensic evidence was found linking Mr Bailey — or anyone else — to the crime.
With no criminal charges being brought in Ireland, officials in Paris appointed Patrick Gachon, an investigating magistrate, to re-examine the case.
The probe was prompted by lobbying by Sophie’s relatives and friends. They also helped set up the Association for the Truth about the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, which is also lobbying for the harmonisation of EU laws to allow victims’ families abroad greater access to information.
As far back as 1997, another magistrate Brigitte Pellegrini had been assigned to investigate the death after an action had been jointly brought by Sophie’s film producer husband Daniel and her parents against “persons unknown.” Ms Pellegrini’s inquiries hit a wall after several applications to the Irish authorities seeking information on the case were unsuccessful.
However, lobbyists within the 2008-formed association received a major boost when former Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, along with gardaí, finally agreed to share the murder file with the French magistrate.
As a result, Sophie’s body was exhumed in the south of France and following a preliminary investigation by magistrate Patrick Gachon, a European arrest warrant was issued.
