Garda Commissioner: du Plantier cold-case review aims to 'identify a suspected perpetrator'
Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
The Garda Commissioner has said that the intention of the review into Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder case will be to “identify a suspected perpetrator”, and that the investigation will be fully resourced.
The cold-case review into the December 1996 murder was announced earlier this week.
Speaking after a meeting with the Policing Authority, Commissioner Drew Harris said: “It’s not a futile exercise.
"We’ve already been through a process and decided that this is worth doing, and it’s worth applying resources to this.”
He added that the intention of the review is to “bring an outcome that identifies a suspected perpetrator and identify them to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"This is an investigation, and we are approaching it that way, with an open and inquiring, investigative mind.”
Gardaí are taking on the case again 26 years on. They will be reviewing all of the evidence that has been gathered since Ms du Plantier was murdered in West Cork on December 23, 1996.
The French woman’s family has welcomed the review. Ms du Plantier’s son Pierre Louis Baudley-Vignaud has said that his family has “big expectations” for the outcome of this investigation, and that he hopes that the case will now “move in the same direction as the French investigation”.
“It’s a good day for my mother, and for people living in West Cork,” he added, speaking on RTÉ's .
Ian Bailey, who was found guilty in absentia of Ms du Plantier’s murder by a French court but has always denied any involvement in her death, has also welcomed the review of the case.
"My prayer has always been from day one that the truth comes out,” he told the .
