Treatment of Sophie’s body was ‘scandalous’

The mother of murdered French documentary producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier has described as scandalous the way her daughter’s body was treated in the hours after her death.

Marguerite Bouniol makes her comments in a rare interview for a television documentary on her daughter’s murder, due to be screened on TV3 tonight.

Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered outside her holiday home in West Cork in Dec 1996, two days before Christmas.

Her body lay at the scene for over 24 hours before a former state pathologist arrived from Dublin.

In an emotional interview, Ms Bouniol says: “It’s scandalous that Sophie’s body was left outside under a tarp. It’s scandalous. We don’t even do that with a dog.

“We would bring the body somewhere, not leave it on the ground like that for so long.”

John O’Donoghue, the former justice minister, said he regretted the body was not examined sooner.

“As a matter of common humanity, as a matter of common sense and, perhaps, it would have helped the investigation itself, if a state pathologist, or any pathologist, had examined the body far earlier but that did not happen and obviously I regret that.”

He said he was “amazed” at claims in a file prepared by the DPP in 2001 that a senior garda tried to put pressure on the state solicitor for West Cork in order to secure the conviction of Ian Bailey.

The review showed there was no evidence against Mr Bailey, who always insisted he never met Sophie but “saw her once from a distance”.

However, the documentary reveals that French investigators have secured testimony from several people in West Cork which contradicts Mr Bailey’s claim that he never met Ms Toscan du Plantier.

French lawyers say they have seen the contents of two internal Garda reviews of the case, which, they claim, provide further evidence that Mr Bailey met Sophie on more than one occasion.

Carpenter Leo Bolger, who worked for Sophie for several years after she bought her house in Toormore near Schull, said he was present when Sophie was introduced to Mr Bailey by her neighbour Alfie Lyons, who engaged Mr Bailey as a gardener.

Alain Spilliaert, the Paris-based lawyer working for Sophie’s family, says there is another witness who saw Mr Bailey and Sophie speaking at an event in Cape Clear.

The programme also includes an interview with key witness Marie Farrell, who retracted her evidence that she had seen Mr Bailey near Sophie’s house on the night of the murder, and with Mr Bailey’s solicitor Frank Buttimer, who criticises the Garda handling of the case, accuses certain gardaí of “corrupt” behaviour, and criticises the French authorities for continuing to pursue a case against Mr Bailey.

* The Search for Sophie’s Killer will be broadcast on TV3 at 9pm tonight.