Ian Bailey pleased to see review of Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case

The French filmmaker was found murdered near her holiday home in West Cork in 1996. No one has been charged with her murder in Ireland.

Ian Bailey on the pier in Schull, West Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

Ian Bailey has said he is pleased to see Gardaí announce that they are to conduct a full review into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork in 1996. 

Gardaí said on Wednesday the investigation into the French filmmaker's murder has "remained active and ongoing" and the review will be conducted by the Serious Crime Review Team. 

A spokesperson said that following a full review, recommendations to the local investigation team in West Cork will be made. 

A Garda spokesperson said: "The Garda investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has remained active and ongoing."

"Following a review by [the] Assistant Commissioner [for] Organised and Serious Crime, the Garda Serious Crime Review Team will now conduct a full review of this case.

"On the finalisation of this review, the Serious Crime Review Team will provide recommendations to the local investigation team.

"An Garda Síochána continues to appeal to anyone who may have any information on this crime to contact the Garda investigation team at Bantry Garda Station 027 20860 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.

"As this is an ongoing investigation, An Garda Síochána will be not commenting on the specifics of the investigation," they added. 

Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered in West Cork in 1996.

No one has been charged with her murder in Ireland, however, Mr Bailey was convicted in absentia in Paris in 2019 and received a 25-year sentence.

Mr Bailey has always denied any role in Du Plantier's death and was never charged in Ireland in relation to the killing. In 2020, the High Court in Ireland ruled that he cannot be extradited to France.

Mr Bailey said he wrote to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in March last year asking him to carry out a review of the case: 

I asked him to carry out a through review of the case as it had implicated my life for 25 years, it had been ruined and affected by a false allegation. 

He said he is “clearly pleased” at the announcement the Garda Serious Crime Review Team will carry out a review.

“Tonight [Wednesday] via the media, RTÉ, I heard that apparently a cold case review has been sanctioned,” he said last night. “In other words, Drew Harris has acceded to my request for a cold case review. 

"What form that will take I do not know. I have already said, and I will reiterate, that I am happy to. and prepared to, cooperate with any objective — and the key word here is objective — review of the case.” 

Mr Bailey said he is “clearly pleased” that the review is happening: “I am reserving any sense of emotional response until we see how it plays out,” he said. “If I am happy that it is objective, I will be cooperating with it.”

Earlier today, Mr Bailey's solicitor Frank Buttimer said as far as he is aware there are no firm indications that the review could yield new information.

A renewed interest in the case came about following the release of the West Cork Podcast, followed by two separate documentaries released in 2021; Jim Sheridan's Murder at the Cottage and the Netflix production Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.

Ms du Plantier’s son, Pierre Louis Baudey-Vignaud, who was just 15 when she died, appeared on the Late Late Show last year where he called for anyone with information on her murder to come forward.

“It’s been 25-years. The truth has not arrived yet. We must end this story, for me, for my mother, for Irish people,” he said.

“You have a murderer still living in Ireland,” he said.

Ms du Plantier was a television producer and filmmaker from France who frequently visited her holiday home in Schull in West Cork.

She was murdered on the night of December 23 1996, aged 39.