Latest news with #SophieToscanduPlantier
The Irish Sun
4 days ago
- The Irish Sun
‘She thinks about her every day' – Sophie Toscan du Plantier mum in fresh DNA test hope for end of 29-yr murder mystery
THE heartbroken mum of murdered Sophie Toscan du Plantier is hoping new DNA testing methods can solve the 29-year mystery. Marguerite Bouniol, who is in her 90s, is battling 5 The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has been a mystery for 29 years 5 Marguerite Bouniol, mother of murdered French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier is battling Parkinson's disease Credit: PA:Press Association 5 The murder took place on December 23, 1996, at this house near Schull in Cork Credit: AFP - Getty She lost her husband Georges, 98, who passed away in Newly advanced DNA testing methods may lead to answers as to who killed A team from the They are understood to have focused tests on a bloodstained flat rock and a concrete block used in the shocking READ MORE IN IRISH NEWS Sophie's uncle Jean-Pierre Gazeau told The Irish Sun on Sunday that not a day goes by without Sophie crossing her mother's mind. Jean Pierre said: 'Sophie's mother is now very old. She has Parkinson's and is fragile, but she is good mentally and she is still fighting. She thinks about Sophie every day, all the time, you know? 'She has a very close Sophie, a mum of one, was battered and left to die at the gateway to her holiday home on December 23, 1996, near Schull in Co Most read in Irish News Although self-proclaimed suspect Ian Bailey was arrested, he was never charged and always denied any involvement. Bailey died last year. It is understood Mr Bradley's team carried out extensive new testing with members of Forensic Science Ireland after travelling from its headquarters in Their new M-Vac system works using wet vacuum principles to release and capture cells. A substance is sprayed directly onto the surface while vacuum pressure is simultaneously applied around the pattern, to collect the buffer and suspended particles in a collection bottle. Before travelling over to 'If what I believe will happen actually does, it will be massive for us in a host of ways. 'Please pray for us.' VALUE OF THE EQUIPMENT They include the killing of teenager Krystal Beslanowitch in Utah 28 years ago which was similar in detail to that of the savage and brutal Both local gardai and the cold case unit have been working on the case since 2022. 5 They are understood to have focused tests on a bloodstained flat rock and a concrete block used in the attack 5 Self-proclaimed suspect Ian Bailey died last year Credit: AFP or licensors
Times
6 days ago
- Times
DNA experts visit west Cork to solve Toscan du Plantier cold case
A team of forensic experts from the US has travelled to Ireland to examine evidence from the murder of the French film-maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier with groundbreaking new DNA testing methods. The group, headed up by Jared Bradley, chief executive of M-Vac Systems, flew from company headquarters in Sandy, Utah to Dublin this month to test samples preserved from the crime scene in west Cork. It is understood the tests focused on a heavily bloodstained flat rock and concrete block believed to have been used to batter the mother of one to death near the entrance to her isolated holiday home outside Schull before her body was found on the morning of December 23, 1996. Samples from a blood-smeared metal gate, briar bushes and a barbed wire fence near where the body was found were also analysed, as were the night clothes that the victim wore on the night she died. The testing was carried out by Bradley's team alongside Forensic Science Ireland personnel, utilising one of the most effective instruments in modern forensic technology. The M-Vac is a wet-vacuum DNA collection system which involves spraying a solution on a surface while simultaneously vacuuming it off. An FBI study found it was capable of collecting multiple times the yield of DNA compared with typical swabbing techniques. It also works on surfaces that present difficult challenges for collection. On his way to Dublin, Bradley expressed hopes that his work could lead to a breakthrough in the case. 'Praying for a fantastic outcome from this trip. If what I believe will happen actually does, it will be massive for us in a host of ways. Please pray for us,' he said. Detective Superintendent Desmond McTiernan, head of the serious crime review team, recently discussed the international scope of the investigation. • Sophie Toscan du Plantier: DNA opens door to solving murder 'We are trying to develop new leads. I would say that it is going very well and we are being extremely comprehensive,' he said. 'From the forensic perspective we are trying to develop it more. There are advancements there on a worldwide scale. We have gone abroad. We have close links with the FBI, and that is working quite well.' Claire Glynn, an Irish-born professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, voiced her support for the technology and its use in the Toscan du Plantier murder probe. 'I always recommend the M-Vac machine because it is such a power tool to recover trace amounts of DNA from very difficult surfaces such as bricks and old pieces of leather. It is able to get great results,' she said. 'The efficacy of the instrument for this case is proved by comparison to the murder in December 1995 of 17-year-old Krystal Beslanowitch in Utah. 'Based on the articles I have read and seen and the assumption that swabbing [was tried] on the flat rock and the concrete block used to murder Sophie, it is difficult to say any other collection method would be appropriate,' Glynn added. 'I say that based on the murder of Krystal in Utah in 1995, where granite rocks were swabbed multiple times between 1996 and 2013 with no interpretable results, but when the M-Vac was brought in the investigators were able to collect 42 times the previous DNA material and provide a profile of the killer leading to conviction. The similarities between that case and Sophie's is uncanny.' No one has ever been charged or convicted over the murder of Toscan du Plantier, one of Ireland's most notorious unsolved crimes. Ian Bailey, an English journalist, was the self-confessed prime suspect in the case but consistently denied any involvement in the murder. He was arrested twice for questioning but never charged, because of insufficient evidence. • Jules Thomas: My leukaemia was caused by Sophie Toscan du Plantier stress The High Court in Dublin denied French efforts to extradite Bailey, but a French court convicted him in absentia in 2019, sentencing him to 25 years in prison. Bailey died in January last year at the age of 66. His ashes were scattered off the coast of west Cork, where he had lived, following a memorial service last month. The case remains a source of ongoing public interest, spawning podcasts, documentaries and films exploring the circumstances around the killing. The garda's serious crime review team, with bases in Cork and Dublin, is understood to have put much of its investigative efforts into seeking advances in forensic science, but it has also re-examined the original investigation and subsequent reviews, leading to it checking more than 1,600 witness statements over the last three years. A team of seven detectives operating out of Bantry garda station has interviewed more than 300 witnesses in Ireland, Europe, the US and Australia as part of the comprehensive probe.
Irish Post
18-07-2025
- Irish Post
Lawyer's bid to prosecute journalist over Sophie Toscan du Plantier case dismissed
A FORMER State solicitor who was involved in the case against Ian Bailey has failed in a legal bid to privately prosecute a journalist who wrote a book about the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Robert Sheehan, who worked with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2001, sought to bring a case against journalist and author Senan Molony, alleging professional vilification through comments made in Sophie: The Final Verdict , a book published in 2024. Mr Sheehan also alleged that comments made by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the book's launch had damaged his reputation. During the event, Mr Martin reportedly questioned aspects of the Irish justice system's handling of the Bailey case. This week, Judge Ann Watkin of the Dún Laoghaire District Court declined to issue a summons against Mr Molony. The judge found that the journalist's criticisms were directed at the legal process more broadly and did not provide grounds for a criminal prosecution. The DPP had previously determined that the material submitted by Mr Sheehan did not disclose any offence that could be prosecuted in the courts. Mr Sheehan has indicated that he may appeal the decision to the Circuit Court or to the European Court of Human Rights. His complaint centred on remarks in the book and at the launch event that he believes called into question his actions and conclusions while working on the Bailey case. Speaking at the launch in September 2023, Mr Martin is understood to have expressed concern at how the case was handled, saying it was difficult to understand why authorities had not pursued a prosecution. Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French film producer who was found dead outside her holiday home in West Cork in December 1996. Ian Bailey, a journalist who was long considered the main suspect by gardaí, was never charged in Ireland despite being arrested and questioned twice. In 2019, a French court convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. The Irish State declined to extradite him. Mr Bailey died in January 2024 in Co. Cork, at the age of 66. He always totally denied any involvement in the case. More recently, director Jim Sheridan premiered a dramatised film based on the case— Re-Creation —at the Tribeca Film Festival. Mr Sheridan has publicly expressed supreme doubt over Mr Bailey's guilt, describing the situation as a 'double injustice' in which both families had suffered. While acknowledging Mr Bailey's history of domestic violence, Mr Sheridan maintained that this should not be conflated with responsibility for the murder. The murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French film producer found bludgeoned outside her holiday home in West Cork in December 1996, remains one of Ireland's most infamous unsolved crimes.
Sunday World
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Sunday World
Episode 1079: What was Ian Bailey really like?
Did the journalist's mask fall once the cameras stopped rolling? He was the self-professed chief suspect in the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier and the subject of a fascinating film, Murder at the Cottage, which was directed by Jim Sheridan and produced by Donald MacIntyre before his death. A larger than life, dramatic, and overwhelming character who courted the media and wore his role as a suspect like a badge of honour. But what was Ian Bailey really like and did his mask fall once the cameras stopped rolling? Nicola speaks to journalist and former colleague Donal MacIntyre, who spent countles s hours in his company and who attended a private ceremony near his home in Schull where his ashes were spread. MORE EPISODES
Extra.ie
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 'fully respect' Bailey ceremony
The family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier said they do not believe it would be appropriate to comment on the scattering of Ian Bailey's ashes during a ceremony in west Cork on Friday. The French filmmaker's uncle, Jean Pierre Gazeau, told 'We want to fully respect the ceremony, so we don't have any comment to make. 'It's a private thing. We respect fully the kind of event and ceremony.' Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Pic: REX/Shutterstock Ms Toscan du Plantier's family had called for Mr Bailey to be extradited to France, where a court found he was guilty of her murder in May 2019. They recently criticised a new film by Jim Sheridan, Re-Creation, which focuses on what may have happened if an Irish jury had to deliberate on the case. Jim Sheridan. Pic: Juan) Ms Toscan du Plantier's family described the movie as 'ethically questionable'. Mr Gazeau said while they 'fully acknowledge' Mr Sheridan's reputation as a gifted and accomplished filmmaker, they 'regret he has chosen to apply his talent to a project based on questionable evidence'. The six-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker defended his film, stating that it was not intended to cause distress to the family.
