Sophie Toscan du Plantier Murder - New Suspect
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Friday September 24, 2004 09:33
by Hilaal
The prime suspect in the murder of French film-maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork seven years ago will not face any criminal charges, according to gardai.
A new and previously overlooked suspect has emerged.
Sophie du Plantier was murdered on a remote lane near her West Cork home in Christmas 1996. Initially a local peeping-tom whose fingerprints were found all over the windows of her home and whose alibi did not check out was brought in for questioning. He was later released. Then a couple of weeks later a young "hippy" and his wife were reported as "prime suspects". The theory was that the young man who had worked for Ms Du Plantier previously and who had been doing fencing near her home at the time of her murder had been sexually involved with her and that he or his wife had killed her in a subsequent falling out.
Some seven weeks after the killing a much disliked part-time journalist of English origin who had been very critical of the local Garda bungling of the investigation became the "prime suspect".
In a flurry of hysteria and fear the insular local population were quick to agree with Gardai that Mr Bailey was "guilty", although no evidence existed to condemn him. Rumour upon rumour was circulated until, like Tony Blair with the weapons of mass destruction lies about Iraq, everyone "knew" Mr Bailey was guilty. They just "knew". Some locals who had themselves been previously ostracised by the herd came forward to say how Mr Bailey had "confessed to them". This solved their problems and eased their way in the community and with Gardai.
After Mr Baileys libel case last Christmas it emerged that a local man had not been interviewed, let alone suspected, was present in the immediate location of the murder on the night i question . A local Garda who was involved in the investigation "from the beginning" admitted he had never even heard of this man. He had visited the home of the mans family but did not know he existed!
This young man, a fluent French speaker who had been educated in private schools in France and Ireland was staying with his family a very short walk from the murder scene on the night of the murder. Why did Gardai not investigate him? Why did his family not mention his presence in the locality that night in December 1996? The man quickly left the area on a date unknown and now resides with his new wife in Britain.
Gardai are split over this case with the local gardai who bungled the initial investigation at odds with senior detectives from Dublin who are now investigating the previously overlooked man. One could suspect that local and regional Gardai who have for years built careers, promotions and houses on the commodity of Mr Baileys alleged guilt would look very stupid or worse for allowing the real killer to escape. They have been convincing Ms Du Plantiers family for years of Mr Baileys guilt and that it is only a matter of the lack of some forensic evidence that is stopping them arresting him. So they have solved the case - almost! We should just keep repeating the mantra "Bailey is guilty" and everthing will be fine.
As for local gangs of vigilantes who have been hounding Mr Bailey for their personal pleasure and to ingratiate themselves with local Gardai, well, they are what they are. Such gangs emerge from time to time, especially in remote areas and I suppose Mr Bailey and those who dare to point out there is in fact no evidence against him should be glad this is not Nazi Germany or Salem Massachusetts during the witch trials.
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Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1There seems to have been a fair amount of gossip about Sophie's private life flying locally which is par for the course in rural Ireland but why has nothing ever been derived from the DNA samples taken?
I notice that Hilal in this article never once refers to the fact that Bailey happens to be not only a thug who so violently battered his partner until her lip was left dangling from her mouth but also he never mentions the fact that in Cork University Hospital where Baileys partner was admitted, staff described the beating that she had received as being the worst case they had EVER dealt with in their ENTIRE history of dealing with domestic abuse. In fact it is very very strange that the history of domestic abuse for which the man was known was so violent and so horrific that the only similar case of it's kind within the whole of the munster region happened to be Sophie's murder.
He didn't actually kill his partner in his bashing rages but wrote about how he had almost done so in his diary... Hilal, the only conclusion I can come to is that you are probably Bailey or that you are deranged because who else would assume that an animal like him could be innocent? He just happens to live in the vicinity of a viciously murdered woman. He also just happens to be the MOST vicious assaulter of his partner that the hospital has ever dealt with. Coincidence?! The police have every reason to suspect this excuse of a man - this thug who terrorised his partner to such a degree that she must be a very weak human being to still reside with him. Even if Bailey didn't do this foul and terrible murder, then it's sweet justice that he should suffer through association and that all and sundry know the strength and force with which he battered his partner... a strength and force that is coincidentally quite similar to the brutality that Sophie experienced.
May God rest her soul and may justice prevail.
No, he is not French or Gay although he may have had some "experiences" in Clongowes Wood when younger , you would have to ask Stephen O Thief about that. He has since married and moved to London. He is presumably also not gay as he called up to Sophies house that night with a bottle of wine in pursuit of some casual sex with a woman his mother and other local gossips had branded and easy woman as she was , according to them, always turning up with different men to have affairs.
Lets clear things up....the new french middle class suspect is gay.
All those who think Baily did it drive with your lights on during the daytime when passing through Schull
Did anybody see the Prime Time the other night discussing drinking habits. A rep for the Gardai said in full seriousness that the day of arrested people getting duffed were well over. He said it with a straight face. You've got to laugh.
Well now, the gardai would never engage in such underhand tactics as spreading "baseless innuendo and
rumour", atall, atall, atall.
Would they?
Now who would have an interest in planting a false, or seemingly false story, on indymedia?
Along with other newspapers, the Evening Herald ran an article on this piece on Tuesday evening. The Herald article is more or less reproduced below
Bailey Linked to vicious new murder rumours
Murder suspect Ian Bailey was today linked with a vicious written attack
on murder hunt Gardai and the people of West Cork.
The twice arrested Enghlshman quizzed about the muder of Sophie Toscan
du Plantier was also thought to be behind reports that gardai had a new
suspect in the case. Today officers rubhised this and said there was no
additional suspect.A [anonymous - IMC addition] contributor to the indymedia website carries strong
allegations against gardai and locals in the Schull area over how Bailey
was first identified as a suspect in the murder probe. It also levelled
the clima that a key suspect in the hunt for the killer of the French
film producer on the night of December 23 1996 was never even
interviewed. The story is anonymous with the auther merely referred to
as "Hilal."
Today bailey was uncontactable for commment on the claims but West Cork
locals are adamant that one of his supporters must be behind the vile
claims. "This is pure poison this is a tightknit area filled with people
who care for each. To refer to West Cork people as 'the herd' is an
appalling insult" one angry Schull resident stormed.
West Cork gardai are also upset over the allegations and the manner in
which their detailed murder probe was subjected to baseless innuendo and
rumour. Today officers firmly ruled out any suggestions that they have
any new suspect in the eight-year old murder hunt. Senior officers
admitted to the Evening Herlad that they were "bewildered and
astonished" by a catalogue of claims and complaints listed in a story
this week on the IndyMedia website.
An inlaw of the above mentioned suspect leaked the information that, "It was _ _ _ _ _ who saw Bailey on the bridge that night"- (Kealfadda bridge, the night of the murder).
This seems harmless enough in itself because initial rumours and rumours that persisted in the locality until Mr Baileys libel trial against the media last winter was that a "courting couple" had been engaged in lovemaking in the vicinity of the Kealfadda bridge on the night of the murder and that they could identify Bailey as having been there, "washing blood from his boots". "Why don't they come forward then and give this evidence", people asked? "Because they were both married and they won't" , was the rumour. Sounds absurd that in such a high profile murder case two adulterers would not be forced by the Garda to speak up, but such was the story believed among locals and propagated by the media. And this was the most damning piece of "evidence" agaisnt Bailey!
However, in the libel case last winter Mrs Marie Farrell of Schull but originally from Longford gave evidence UNDER OATH that she had in fact been passing on the road above and some distance from the Kealfadda bridge when she saw the man she later found out was Ian Bailey "washing his boots". She was not parked or engaged in any adulterous behaviour at the bridge. So hence the other man , the "suspect",could not have been with her in her car. A man who would have been many years her junior and who although not married at the time was from a family that would like to think themselves above such bestial behaviour. She was passing on the road above alone, was the evidence she gave.
It was when the mans name was given to the Garda that it emerged they, "did not even know he existed". Strange enough, since the Guard in question had been to his family home to have a confidential talk regarding the spouse of his first cousin with his mother ! Strange enough since the Guard in question was one of the first to the scene of the crime!
However it may be pointless now, so many years later trying to interview this man as he lives in Britain and presumably would have little or nothing to say except that the family lawyer would be in touch.
Almost two thousand people were interviewed in this case , some who were up to 75 miles away on the night of the murder were interviewed twice, so why not this man who was only a short walk from the murder scene?
His family obviously covered for him , as gardai didn't even ,"know he existed". All the houses for miles around were canvassed and anyone present on the night was interviewed . So why was this man not known to have been in the area if people did not lie about his presence that night?
Many local men and some women had DNA samples taken even though they had never met Ms Du Plantier. The legion of local peeping toms had hair taken for analysis. A woman like Ms Du Plantier could be assured of many local men taking an interest in what she did at night as rumours had circulated that she often took men to her home.....wink .....wink! Former lovers in France were even interviewed about their wherabouts that night.
Despite claims/lies that Mr Bailey never gave a DNA sample to be compared with samples found under Du Plantiers nails, he in fact did give a sample immediately and without legal order at his first interview. The French press regularly claim that if Ireland had complusory DNA sample taking laws the case would be closed, thus giving the impression Bailey is escaping on this legal technicality. In fact it eventually emerged that no DNA was found under Ms Du Plantiers nails. Just another lie!
Another of the many lies/rumours circulated to paint Bailey as guilty was that he had gone to the scene of the murder before he had received a plone call from Eddie Cassidy of the Star, to do so as a proxy reporter for his paper. In the libel case that Bailey took last winter against newspapers this was proved false although Mr Cassidy then claimed he had never mentioned to Bailey on the phone it was a "murder" case.
Another nonesense is that if Bailey was to have been seen washing his boots at the bridge at Kealfadda where Mrs Marie Farrell said she saw him as she drove back from Goleen to Schull at 3.30am he would have been walking home approvimately four miles on a busy road by many houses whereas he could have walked home directly two miles on a deserted road by only a very few houses.
The Suspect that the Gardai "didn't know existed" lived a very short distance from the bridge at Kealfadda where Mrs Farrell said she saw a man she later claimed was Bailey washing his boots. This would have been on the Suspects direct route home. From there he could have walked to his house in fifteen minutes by road or in about eight minutes over the beach and rocks, thus not passing any houses. Mrs Farrell only seven weeks later identified Mr Bailey as the man on the bridge a mile from the murder scene AFTER the Gardai had settled on him as a "prime suspect". She could say that he was the man she had seen in the dead of a winters night washing his boots down in a river as she sped by on the road above. She claimed she had seen him outside her shop in Schull and walking on the road almost two months later and then went to Gardai ! Incredible!
But if you think there is no need to interview the "Suspect" then perhaps you are right. Sure, begorrah his family are "fine people" and we all know that "fine people" never do things like this. Well, there was Malcome McArthur..............
Of course to entertain the prospect the Gardai got it wrong would not only be embarassing to them but would also leave Bailey claiming hundreds of thousands in Libel damages against the very papers who tried so hard last winter, in cohoots with the Gardai to build a case against him out of rumour and oft repeated and exaggerated rumour .
You're comparing this to the 'justification for invading Iraq'? You need to read the instructions on that bottle more closely.
What possible justification would the police have to interview your new "suspect"? (He's not): Possession of knowledge of French? Being Middle Class (sorry, but the cops aren't made up of indymedia editorial board zealots). Maybe, knowledge of the inside of a private school?
Come to think of it - how do we know that YOU didn't do it. Where were you on the night? Have you ever been to a rugby match or drunk wine? Yes? You should be investigated IMMEDIATELY...
Some true detective work done by this poster, A French speaking, private schooled middle class person was in the area at the time, the cheese eating surrender monkey must have done it. Bailey who has a record of violent assaults on women...well he's just being blamed by a few cranks because he's English!
So who really shot JR?
but a lot of the people who are causing problems for bailey and gave evidence against him are themselves of english extraction ;) there is a large population of alternative (of varying degrees) life stylers in west cork from britain & the continent.
This story just shows the power of 'anglophobia' in Ireland today.