Michael Bolton
Gardaí investigating the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier have seized items from the flat of chief suspect Ian Bailey.
The body of Ms Toscan du Plantier, a 39-year-old French producer, was found badly beaten outside her holiday home in Schull, Co Cork, in December 1996.
Mr Bailey died from a suspected heart attack last Sunday in Cork. His remains were cremated on Tuesday in a private ceremony.
A team of 10 officers, made up of detectives based in Bantry, assisted by officers from the Serious Crime Review Team from Dublin, began searching Mr Bailey’s rented ground floor flat on Barrack Street in Bantry on Friday morning.
Gardaí seized a large quantity of personal items, including several notebooks with his writings, as well as his mobile phone, laptop, hard drives and memory sticks and other electronic storage devices.
In a statement, a Garda spokesman said: “As part of the ongoing investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996, gardaí conducted a search under warrant of a residential property in Bantry, County Cork earlier today.”
Gardaí left items they felt would be of no evidential value in their investigation, including Mr Bailey’s clothing, his large collection of CDs and his wooden carvings.
Mr Bailey had been living in a flat in Glengarriff after he separated from his partner of 30 years, Jules Thomas, in March 2021.
He had been convicted of her murder in his absence by a Paris court in May 2019, which imposed a 25-year sentence.
Mr Bailey had always vehemently denied any involvement in Ms Toscan du Plantier’s death.
Her son, Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud, said his family is continuing efforts for “truth and justice”.
Earlier this week, he said: “An investigation is still under way in Ireland and we are confident that the discovery of new evidence, the hearing of new witnesses, and the revelation of possible complicity will enable Irish police to close the case, finally, 27 years after my mother’s murder.”
