Du Plantier: French forensics team arrive
The team sent by investigating Judge Patrick Gachon is composed of three detectives from the Office Central pour la Répression des Violences Aux Personnes and two scientists from the Laboratoire de Police Technique et Scientifique.
They are expected to stay in Ireland for between eight and 10 days during which time they will also be given access to forensic evidence gathered by gardaí in relation to the investigation.
The forensic scientists will travel to Dublin where they will examine bloodstained clothing and other materials gathered at the murder scene.
Throughout their stay, the French investigators will be assisted by members of the gardaí from the West Cork Garda division under the direction of Chief Superintendent Tom Hayes. This was arranged after a request from the French authorities through the Central Authority for Mutual Assistance at the Department of Justice.
The detectives will be based at Bandon Garda station and will gather statements from witnesses. Among them will be Marie Farrell, a key witness in the Garda investigation into the murder. She will meet the French detectives, but is expected to stand over her statement made in 2005 that she did not see English-born journalist Ian Bailey near the home of Ms du Plantier on the night of the murder.
Family and friends of Sophie Toscan du Plantier have welcomed the decision by the French authorities to send the investigators to Ireland. The du Plantiers’ Paris-based lawyer, Alain Spilliaert, said: “For the family this is very important because they have waited for this moment a long, long time.”
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s father, Georges Bouniol, said: “We are very encouraged by this development. We have known of it for some time obviously and we don’t know what possibilities it will yield, but we are pleased that now we have such close co-operation between the Irish and French police and we are hopeful.”
President of the Association for the Truth about the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Jean Pierre Gazeau, said the development offered the family great hope.
“This co-operation where the French police are working with the Irish police should have happened in 1997. We have lost almost 15 years, but it’s better late than never, and we remain hopeful that this Irish-French investigation will uncover some new clues.”
Mr Bailey has always denied any involvement in the death of Ms du Plantier, 39, whose badly beaten body was found near the entrance to her holiday home at Dreenane outside Schull on the morning of December 23, 1996.
