‘Many of us around here are worried that there is some psychopath at large’ – Sunday World, 29 December 1996
Why boots? Why no lights? These baffling ‘head-scratching’ clues might have bothered the famous TV detective Columbo had he been called to the murder scene of Sophie Toscan du Plantier at Dunmanus, West Cork on Monday 23 December 1996.[1] Sophie’s badly battered body was discovered at the end of the long driveway of her holiday home at about 10am that morning, where she was lying on her back[2] clad in nightwear but wearing brown laced-up boots.[3] Sophie had been struck on her head from behind, her skull crushed by a concrete block rendering her almost unrecognisable.
An early report of the murder alluded to the boots she was wearing, and questioned events in the cottage:
Perhaps it was when she heard the knock that she put on socks and boots, taking time to lace them up. She had on the familiar blue dressing gown that she kept at the house[4] … If it was a male acquaintance from France who had driven from the car ferry or the airport, she had not been planning to entertain him … It’s likely that Sophie knew her caller. There is no way that a streetwise Paris TV producer, who has travelled widely, would let a casual acquaintance, let alone a total stranger, into her home at that time of night in such a remote area. Sophie and her visitor may have talked in the kitchen, as the fire in the sitting room having died down. We can only guess at what then occurred. Did the caller make advances to the attractive 38-year-old which were rejected, and was it this that caused him to fly into an uncontrollable rage?[5]
Sophie had travelled from France to Ireland alone on Friday 20 December 1996 on one of her usual four to five trips a year to her West Cork retreat, usually accompanied by family or friends.[7] This was the travel pattern of the 39-year-old mother-of-one during the short years she had owned her remote cottage at Dreenane, Dunmanus.[8] Sophie appeared preoccupied during this trip[9] and was alarmed when on Sunday 22 December 1996 she encountered a vision of ‘the white lady’ at Three Castle Head, which in legend is said to herald death.[10]
A Night of Horror
‘One of her last telephone calls from Ireland was to her gardener at Ambax ordering a linden tree as a Christmas gift for her husband’ – Evening Herald, 8 December 2003
At about 11pm on Sunday 22 December 1996, some eleven hours before the discovery of her body, Sophie was at home. She spoke to her husband Daniel on the telephone, and seems to have been in bed.[11] It has been suggested she was reading the poetry of W B Yeats in one of the warmer bedrooms.[12] This is the last known contact with Sophie before her body was found the next morning at about 10am.
In between those hours, something caused Sophie, dressed in her nightwear, to put on her boots and leave her house by the rear door.[13] Clues and speculation must reach towards an answer about what happened.
There has been much debate about whether the killer was inside the cottage with Sophie, someone she knew or with whom she may have been acquainted.[14] In the early stages of the investigation, the murder weapon was reported to be a poker found missing from Sophie’s fireplace.[15] This suggested that her assailant, whether invited or uninvited, was inside her home when she put on her boots to leave at an unknown hour on Sunday 22 or Monday 23 December 1996.[16]
Given this scenario, that Sophie had asked the caller to leave or had decided to leave herself – for which reason she put on boots – it might be wondered if this act enraged her assailant to take up a poker or other instrument, follow her and strike her.[17] Sophie’s car was closest to the front door but she left by the back. Was the front door obstructed? Did she exit the back door and pull it closed behind her in an effort to distance herself by a few seconds from her attacker, leaving a streak of blood on and near the handle?
Given the undisturbed state of the interior of the cottage and lack of forensic evidence inside, it seems unlikely.[18] The Garda concluded that something happened outside, and the door closed.[19]
The front and back doors were found locked and the lights off when Sophie’s body was discovered.[20] Sophie’s footwear showed intention to go outside.[21] Michael Sheridan’s research of the case in Death in December (2002) indicates that the rear door led into an area ‘dark as a dungeon’ and was an impractical way to leave the house.[22]
Did Sophie slip out this way to investigate a disturbance at the front of the house?[23] Did she disturb a prowler? Did she, armed or unarmed, confront the transgressor, unwittingly locking herself out of the house in the process? Was she overpowered and struck and unable to get back inside, leaving a smear of blood on and by the handle?
Or did someone knock at the back door? Callers could be seen from the window by the back door. Did Sophie look out into the darkness and see someone she knew, someone she knew quite well, well enough to open the door and step outside to them in her nightwear without even turning on the light? Did she ask herself, What brings them here? What could be wrong?[24]
Whatever caused Sophie to go outside, she was taken by surprise, or she took someone by surprise, because her means of aid – her car keys and cordless phone – were inside the house. She was chased and attacked as she fled across the field towards the gate, as blood evidence leading there showed.[25] Her blood was visible too on the gate at the end of the path which she grasped in a desperate attempt to escape the maniac who pursued her.[26]
Discovery
‘My wife would not hide from any noise outside but would rather go out to investigate’ – Daniel Toscan du Plantier[27]
On Monday morning, 23 December 1996, Sophie’s body was discovered by Shirley Foster, who occupied a property behind Sophie’s cottage, as she travelled by car towards the end of the shared driveway.[28] The gate was open, which was unusual, and Sophie’s body was seen by Shirley Foster lying to the left side of it.[29] Shirley Foster alerted her partner Alfie Lyons and he alerted the Garda.[30]
Death was pronounced at 11.05am by Dr Larry O’Connor, a local doctor from Schull, and at 11.20am, Fr Denis Cashman, parish priest of Goleen (1995-1999), administered the Last Rites with two Garda present.[31] At 12.40pm, the body was identified by Finbar (or Finbarr) Hellen, husband of Josephine Hellen.[32] It was supposed that Sophie met her death where her body was found.[33]
Josephine (Josie) Hellen, who lived ‘only a mile away from the crime scene,’ acted as caretaker of Sophie’s cottage.[34] Inside the cottage, there was little or no sign of disturbance and no sign of forced entry.[35] Josie had knowledge of the interior, and went there with detectives where she observed that the poker from the fire was missing, that two freshly washed wine glasses were on a sideboard, and two chairs were pulled close to the radiator.[36] There was also a wine glass in the sitting room on the mantelpiece. The bed showed that only Sophie had slept there, yet Josie formed the opinion that someone had been in the cottage with Sophie.[37]
Josie mentioned that Sophie had sounded ‘hurried’ when they spoke on the telephone about 10pm the evening before the murder.[38] Josie wondered if the killer was someone with a crush on Sophie.[39] Josie had made an arrangement to meet Sophie the next day ‘to pay a man who had done some work to Sophie’s house.’[40]
The following day, Tuesday 24 December (Christmas Eve), Dr John Frederick Austin Harbison, State Pathologist, arrived at the scene.[41] He made observations about curious circular blobs of blood on Sophie’s ‘long johns’ that appeared to have fallen on her.[42] A radio bulletin revealed that a post mortem was to be carried out on the Frenchwoman who had been murdered in West Cork.[43] She was identified in the broadcast as 38-year-old Sophie Toscan du Plantier from ‘Ambrax near Paris.’[44]
On the same day, a report of the murder was published in the Manchester Evening News and the Birmingham Mail.[45] Both journals identified Sophie Toscan du Plantier as a woman from ‘Ambrax near Paris’ though neither report carried news of the post mortem.[46] The location of ‘Ambrax’ in Paris is unknown, but Castle Ambax (Château de Lamezan) at Haute Garonne, owned by Daniel Toscan du Plantier, lies 75 kilometres from Toulouse.[47]
Motive
‘Gardai are expected to shortly wrap up their inquiry’ – Irish Examiner, 17 April 1997[48]
There was no obvious motive (and there remains no known motive) for the murder of Sophie: her passport, car keys and wallet containing cash and cards were found in the house, and she had not been sexually assaulted.[49] The caretaker’s husband, Finbar Hellen, had grazing of the land.[50] There were no evident land issues though there was a record of violent behaviour in Hellen family history.[51] Drug-related crime appears not to have been a factor though it is worth noting that in 2007, after the biggest drugs haul in the history of the Irish State, it was said that during the winter months in West Cork ‘there is considerable traffic’ passing in the night and ‘you can be certain it is not tourists.’[52]
Detectives realised that Sophie, who was hardly known in the area and kept very much to herself, had simply not spent sufficient time in West Cork to make enemies or give anyone an obvious reason to attack her, especially in such savage and frenzied manner.[53]
Murder Weapon
‘Sophie was murdered by a man who knew the area intimately’ – Michael Sheridan[54]
At the outset of the investigation, the murder weapon was reported to be ‘a poker or large stone … or possibly a concrete stone.’[55] A small red-handled axe was later suggested.[56] The search for the murder weapon included the use of metal detectors.[57] Two weeks into the investigation, on Tuesday 7 January 1997, a press conference was called by Chief Superintendent Noel Smith at West Cork Garda headquarters in Bandon in an attempt to clear up ‘media conjecture.’[58] Within days of this, Garda in Bantry confirmed that they had recovered ‘a huge blood-drenched stone’ which the attacker had lifted from Sophie’s garden wall to bludgeon her to death:
They believe that the 38-year-old television producer’s attacker first beat her several times with a sharp steel object, probably a poker, inside her West Cork holiday home and then carried out the final assault near the gate of the house as she tried to escape.[59]
It is not known if the stone, the supply of which was plentiful near the house and near the gate where the body was found, was a weapon of opportunity or something with which the killer was already armed.[60] A woman subsequently came forward with information about a stalker who had a ‘fixation with stones,’ who would throw them at her and ‘make noises with them outside her house.’ She said he behaved ‘in a terrifying and disturbing manner’ and would make ‘an assortment of frightening noises outside my home in the middle of the night.’[61]
The report of this incident was overshadowed by another concerning RTE’s Crimeline programme, in which an anonymous caller (subsequently identified as Marie Farrell) who had seen a man late at night at Kealfadda Bridge (in the vicinity of the crime scene) was urged to make contact again.[62] This became a rigorous line of enquiry. It is not known if the ‘stone stalker’ was on the suspect list; he does not seem to have been mentioned in the media again.[63]
Investigation
‘We are hoping the preliminary results will indicate the direction in which we should go’ – Irish Independent, 31 December 1996
In the initial stages of the investigation, Garda had more than fifty lines of enquiry.[64] Two of those questioned, Pecout and Wollny, who lived close to Sophie, took their own lives within three months of the murder.[65] An unopened bottle of French wine found by John Hellen about four months after the murder was said to be in the vicinity of Wollny’s home.[66] John Hellen made it clear that his fingerprints and those of his parents may be on the bottle, as indeed fingerprints of the Hellen family were found inside the cottage.[67]
Ian Bailey, a Manchester-born journalist and one-time bouncer, living locally with his partner Catherine Jules Thomas at Lissacaha, Schull, emerged very quickly as prime (and, it appears, only) suspect.[68]
In July 1997, Bailey was interviewed over the course of a few days by Sunday Independent journalist Brighid McLaughlin who had travelled to Cork from Dublin.[69] During the interview, Bailey said that he had questions for the Garda, including the whereabouts of Sophie’s laptop computer.[70] Brighid described an occasion in which Bailey had given her a lift, how he had stopped suddenly on an isolated stretch of road and retrieved a ball of twine from the boot of his car. Her fear, embedded between the lines of her report, was palpable.[71]
Ian Bailey remained prime suspect until his sudden death on 21 January 2024 at (strangely) Barrack Street in Bantry. He had been convicted of voluntary homicide in France in 2019, but always proclaimed and maintained his innocence.[72]
After Bailey died, Brighid McLaughlin recalled her interview with him twenty-seven years earlier, and described openly how she felt the day Bailey stopped his car in the middle of nowhere:
You know that rare feeling of uncomfortableness you get when you are in the company of someone you don’t want to be with? That’s exactly how I felt. After a long five minutes, he opened the door and bolted out towards the back of the car. I could hear his feet on dry rock. My heart dropped when I saw him return with a roll of blue nylon baling twine … We all know how hard it is to find land without some kind of house or bungalow perched on it; I could see nothing around me. Absolutely nothing. There was nowhere to run to. This is it, I thought. He’s going to kill me, for sure … I have never felt terror like it.[73]
Game Over?
‘It is not the DPP’s job to get convictions, it’s the DPP’s job to get justice’ – Gene Kerrigan, Sunday Independent[74]
Had she lived, Sophie would have just celebrated her 67th birthday (28 July 2024). Her son, father of two Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud whose daughter is named after her grandmother, has retained his mother’s cottage in West Cork which he visits with his family.[75]
Pierre was recently interviewed on The Late Late Show. He said that with the death of Ian Bailey, he regards the case as ‘game over,’ and he called on Ireland to ‘end this story.’ Pierre hopes that his family and the West Cork locality may now find peace, and the freedom to remember his free-spirited mother for the independent, vibrant woman she was.[76]
A Cold Case Review, commenced in 2022, is ongoing. Earlier this year, Marcia D’Alton, Councillor for Carrigaline Municipal District, remarked, ‘Should there be any chance that our State caused this man [Bailey] to live out thirty years of his life under the shadow of suspicion, then I think it is appropriate that we recognise that this is a terrible tragedy.’[77]
It may be that Ian Bailey seemed capable of the crime, but did not commit it. It may also be that, as with Joanne Hayes, Sophie and Ian Bailey were both victims of the crime of another. It remains to be seen if, with improved forensic technologies, the Cold Case Review, or an unforeseen confession, ‘the truth will out.’
‘I feel at ease here, with the people, their language and their thoughts … I would love to find a house and to stay there for a time’ – Diary of Sophie Toscan du Plantier[78]
Sophie was interred in the graveyard of Mauvezin-de-L’Isle near Ambax. In 2003, following the death of her husband Daniel Toscan du Plantier, her coffin was reinterred in the Bouniol family plot in the cemetery of Saint Germain-du-Tell. Her body was exhumed in 2008 as part of the French investigation into her murder. Her body now rests in the Combret family cemetery in Saint-Germain-du-Tell in Lozère.[79]
The diary of Sophie Toscan du Plantier records her embracement of Ireland:
The people are genuinely very nice, very obliging … It is a country of endurance, of resistance, of pride in the flag more than mere roots! There is simultaneously pride and concern in the attachment of an Irishman to his country, no resignation despite the clarity of their thoughts, their sayings and their proverbs. They speak earnestly and with great interest about the weather and constantly assure us that the weather we are having is not normal. I really love this country.[80]
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[1] Sophie Andrée Jacqueline Bouniol was born on 28 July 1957, daughter of Georges Bouniol and Marguerite Gazeau, and mother of Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud. Her first marriage to Pierre-Jean Beaudey produced her son but the couple parted when the child was about one year old (ref: ‘Sophie Life and Personality Report, M Larousse 2009’). [2] It is believed Sophie met her death where she was found but it is worth noting that Dr John Harbison’s Post Mortem report (24 March 1997) does not rule out movement of the body: See note 33. [3] ‘She wore a light top and leggings but oddly was wearing boots that had been laced up’ (Sunday World, 29 December 1996). The boots are described in Dr John Harbison’s Post Mortem report (24 March 1997) as follows: ‘Det Garda Byrne pointed out to me what appeared to be a drop of blood near the toe of her left boot. These were indeed boots with a coarse woven sock like material integrally sewn into the neck of the boot and not true socks I pulled off the left boot without untying its somewhat strangely located bow knot. The bow was located on the outer side between the 1st and 2nd lace holes. There were several thistles embedded in the laces and the sock band around the top of the boot. The boots were made in Italy of ‘Fourella’ brand.’ [4] The dressing gown was not being worn by Sophie when her body was found, as indicated by Dr John Harbison in his report of the scene (24 March 1997): ‘Beside the cavity block nearer the gate was a navy blue garment, which I subsequently learned was a dressing gown. It is of note that the cavity block rested upon this garment.’ The garment may have been pulled from Sophie or she may have pulled herself out of it during the attack. [5] Sunday World, 5 January 1997. Sean Boyne reporting. See above; the dressing gown was not on the body. [6] Detective Superintendent Dwyer, who might be more correctly termed the ‘Kerry Columbo’ is a native of Kilcummin, Co Kerry. He was on the investigation team from the day of the post-mortem and, having been promoted to Chief Superintendent at Bandon, took over as head of the investigation in June 1997 (The Murder of Sophie by Michael Sheridan (2020) p127). He was educated in Anabla National School, Kilcummin and St Brendan’s College, Killarney. He joined the Garda in the 1960s and began his career in Cork City. He was appointed detective in 1967 and Detective Sergeant in 1974. He was appointed to Mallow Garda District in 1990, and to Garda HQ Union Quay (Anglesea Street) in 1991. He became Inspector in 1986 and moved to Kevin Street, Dublin before being promoted again to Superintendent. In 1992 he returned to Anglesea Street Station in Cork as Detective Superintendent, subsequently Chief Superintendent in 1997. Chief Superintendent Dermot Dwyer retired in April 2003. [7] Sophie had not been able to encourage family or friends to travel with her on this occasion. She arrived in Ireland on 20 December 1996 and hired a silver grey coloured Ford Fiesta, 96-C-14459, from Avis at Cork Airport. Representatives Linda O’Brien and Verna Hyde of Avis described Sophie as ‘not a happy cheerful Christmas person like the rest of them coming in that day’ (Sunday World (Dublin), 5 January 1997). ‘Alexandra Levy, Sophie’s cousin, stated that several days before her trip to West Cork, Sophie had received a phone call at Les Champs Blancs, her production office in Paris, from a man who lived in the region of her holiday house. According to Alexandra, the man claimed to be a journalist and writer, and wanted to meet her for cultural purposes, and Sophie was both surprised by the call and by the man’s refusal to reveal where he had obtained the telephone number of the company’ (The Murder of Sophie, p47). It may be suggested that personal information contained in Sophie’s belongings in the house in West Cork could be shared by, for example, tradesmen or anyone with access to the property. The locks had been changed at one stage because of concerns about an intruder. [8] The cottage at Dreenane, Dunmanus West, Toormore (or Tourmore), Goleen, Schull, West Cork was purchased by Daniel Toscan du Plantier for his wife as a holiday home to escape her busy life in France where she worked in film. Sophie had travelled to Ireland in her youth. The cottage was purchased in the early 1990s for £48,000 (or €43,000) from an auctioneer in Bantry. It was said to have been the property of ‘a Professor living in Waterford’ (Evening Echo, 11 January 1997). ‘An acquaintance of Sophie’s, singer Barbara Henricks, said Sophie held a romantic view of Ireland since her adolescence and was delighted to have been able to buy her own little corner of it’ (Irish Examiner, 20 December 1997). ‘Dreenane’ may take its name from Drinane / An Draighnean, ‘place of blackthorns’ (‘West Cork Townlands Placenames Derivations,’ Southern Star, 11 March 1978). A townland of this name is found in Schull parish. James Sweetnam instructed Edward Goggin & Sons in the auction of a substantial farm of 40 acres at Drinane in 1928. Roycroft O’Sullivan and Co Auctioneers carried the sale for James Sweetnam in 1931 ‘with new dwelling and out-offices.’ James Sweetnam instructed John W Goggin in the sale of the farm in 1951, ‘This farm will feed seven cows and a number of dry cattle and the land is considered the best in the district for its fattening qualities. There is a very nice residence with kitchen, sitting room and three bedrooms’ (Southern Star, 29 September 1951). The Irish Lumberman-Farmer (1982) by author Joseph A King (1926-1996) native of Brooklyn is a genealogical history of a number of families who left the Mizen district in about 1830 including Patrick Horrigan, born at Drinane, whose brother Denis was grandfather of Bing Crosby. In the townland of Dunmanus West (Dun Maghnuis, Fortness of Manus) stands the ruined Dunmanus Castle, ‘the largest and best of the castles of Ivagha and built about 1430 by Donogh Mor, son of Diarmuid Runtach O’Mahony. The site originally belonged to the O’Driscolls. The O’Mahonys of the west were able to build and maintain twelve castles. The west side of the townland is Tobernasool, Tobar na Sul (well of the eyes) at which cures were affected for eye troubles’ (Southern Star, 11 March 1978). [9] ‘Sophie had confided to her friend Miss Thomas Agnès that she was extremely anxious, tired and psychologically weakened because she had a feeling that Daniel [her husband] was cheating on her and slipping away from her. He constantly refused to have a child that Sophie greatly desired’; ‘She [Sophie] had confided to Fatima [Zandouche, a friend] that she wanted to have a little girl to name her "Thérèse" but that her husband refused her. She wanted Fatima to accompany her for these few days that she wanted to spend at Schull’; Château de Lamezan at Ambax … Sophie arrived at Ambax in 1989 or 1990 … during receptions at the castle, she remained dressed soberly with chic and without any pretension … She seemed to have a need to be isolated in her universe … She was afraid of nothing and oblivious to possible danger’ (Mr and Mrs Christian and Christiane Larrieu) (Ref: ‘Sophie Life and Personality Report, M Larousse, https://www.reddit.com/r/DunmanusFiles/comments/1asbrk9/sophie_life_and_personality_report_m_larousse/). [10] An account of Sophie’s encounter at Three Castle Head (Dunlough) is given in the documentaries, Murder at the Cottage (Sky) and Sophie A Murder in West Cork (Netflix). Sophie told her friends at Dunlough, parents of four, Tomi Ungerer (RIP 8 February 2019) and Yvonne Ungerer about her sense of foreboding. In July 1997, Ian Bailey encouraged journalist Brighid McLaughlin to visit Three Castle Head: ‘Go to Three Castles Head. It was there Du Plantier had a premonition that something was going to happen her’ (Sunday Independent, 20 July 1997). It is worth noting that Sophie had a particular fascination with this district and her bed at her West Cork home was positioned to face the Fastnet lighthouse. The late Cape Clear poet John Kieran Cotter (1878-1968) was author of ‘The Fastnet Light,’ a poem contained in Ó Charraig Aonair go Droichead Dóinneach From Fastnet Sound to Blackwater Bridge (2016) compiled and edited by Éamon Lankford. Copy held in IE CDH 201. [11] Sophie met her second husband, film producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier (1941-2003) in 1988 and they married in 1990. Daniel had remained in France and had only travelled to Ireland once while Sophie was alive. He said Sophie sounded ready for sleep during their last telephone conversation. [12] On the evening before the murder, during a telephone conversation with Agnès Thomas, her friend in France, Sophie had mentioned that ‘she would be sleeping not in her usual bedroom but the one above the kitchen, as it was so cold in the former. In that room there was a plug-in heater. She had been made aware before her journey that there was a problem with the heating’ (The Murder of Sophie, p6). ‘Crucially, the [bed]room was not just above the kitchen but adjacent to the rear door’ (ibid, p13). ‘On the night she died, she had been reading a book of WB Yeats poems in bed before sleep. It was found beside her bed the next day, opened at a poem entitled A Dream of Death: I dreamed that one had died in a strange place/Near no accustomed hand;/And they had nailed the boards above her face,/The peasants of that land’ (Irish Independent, 5 April 2003). ‘My mind returns again to Yeats’s poem, which Sophie was reading before she fell asleep on her final night. The extraordinary coincidence of this is eerie, not only because of its subject matter but also because this is a poem with a French connection – it was written in December 1891 for Yeats’s great love Maud Gonne, who was recovering from exhaustion in the south of France’ (Death in December (2002) by Michael Sheridan). [13] ‘Sophie was wearing what appeared to be her night-clothes but had on a pair of walking boots suggesting that she had left her home for a reason’ (Sunday Independent, 26 December 1999). [14] There were two holiday homes in the vicinity of Sophie’s cottage, one occupied by Alfie Lyons (RIP 2021) and his partner Shirley Foster, and the other by Tom Richardson, Managing Director of IFF (International Flavours and Fragrances) who was in London at the time of the murder (Evening Echo, 3 July 1998). ‘There are just two other houses at the end of a cul-de-sac boreen about a quarter mile from the ‘main’ road which itself is little more than a boreen. One house, used as a holiday home, was unoccupied at the time. In the other house, the occupants, Alfie Lyons and Shirley, had gone to bed early. They slept soundly and saw and heard nothing. If only Sophie had managed to flee there, she would have been safe’ (Sunday World, 5 January 1997). Shirley Foster sold the house in 2021 and the property was up for sale again in 2023 with an asking price of €425,000. [15] Josephine ‘never provided the information or the quote, as she confirmed to me, and the poker was still in place by the living room fireplace’ (The Murder of Sophie, p67). [16] Dr John Frederick Austin Harbison (RIP 2020), State Pathologist, who worked alone, was unable to attend the scene on the day of the murder and the exact time of death could not therefore be determined. ‘In the 23 years he [Harbison] has held the position of State Pathologist successive governments have so neglected his needs that, if he were a minor, the State itself would be locked up … as our society grows more violent, his workload grows more burdensome. The ghoulish statistics speak for themselves: 48 murders in 1996, seven more than in 1995 … the demands on the State Pathologist have grown intolerable … At the Kerry Babies Tribunal Judge Kevin Lynch decried the lack of resources which had caused Dr Harbison to drive through the countryside in the weekend heatwave when the Kerry baby was discovered with the body parts of three suspicious death victims packed in boxes and Tupperware in the boot of his then Citroen car … he is critical of the level of competence he encounters in some individual members of the police force’ (profile of Harbison, Irish Independent, 18 January 1997). [17] ‘Searches for a murder weapon continued for a number of weeks along the shoreline and large tracts of hillsides. Gardai, reportedly, never recovered the weapon’ (Irish Examiner, 17 April 1997). [18] ‘There were no foreign fingerprints in the house other than those of the caretaker Josephine Hellen and members of her family, and the victim’s. There were no fingerprints on the wine glasses beside the sink and the ones on the unfinished glass of wine also belonged to the victim’ (The Murder of Sophie, p96). ‘Only the blood type and genetic profile of the victim were identified by the seals and samples taken from the scene and from the body, with the exception of a male genetic profile that was identified in 2011 by the INPS (National Institute of the Scientific Police) on the base of the leg over the shoe’ (Ibid, p399). [19] In the Netflix documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, Eugene Gilligan, Garda Forensic Detective, states, ‘The conclusion we came to was, she had come out of the house dressed for bed. Something happened outside. The door closed. She was brought or run down the roadway to where the body was found.’ [20] ‘The doors of her house were locked when her body was discovered by a neighbour at 10am last Monday morning’ (Irish Independent, 30 December 1996). ‘The lights had been turned off in the house’ (Sunday World, 29 December 1996). In The Murder of Sophie (2020, p17), it is stated that Josephine Hellen informed investigators that ‘Sophie most often used the front door and always left the rear door open, only locking it when she went to bed. There was a small axe for chopping wood, usually kept in a pouch under the porch, that was missing.’ [21] Sophie’s house slippers were photographed in the bathroom in crime scene photographs that appear in the documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork. Bridget Chappuis, a retired forensics officer, has recently suggested that Sophie may have been having breakfast when the killer called (‘Was Sophie Toscan du Plantier up and eating breakfast when her killer called?’ Irish Independent, 4 February 2024). [22] Death in December (2002) pp104-105. Nick Foster’s research of the case (Murder at Roaringwater (2021) shows that Sophie rarely used the back door, but the caretaker did. In The Murder of Sophie (p22) author Michael Sheridan states, ‘The keys of the house were found in the locked main front door. The rear door was unlocked.’ [23] Nick Foster’s research of the crime (Murder at Roaringwater The inside story of the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (2021), p6) records that ‘On 23rd December, Lyons and Foster [Sophie’s neighbours] walked down to Sophie’s house … Foster spotted something else unusual; the dustbin that was beside the back door was neat and intact, which seemed odd. Anyone rushing out of the back door would almost certainly have knocked it over, or disturbed it.’ [24] ‘He’ in the sense he, she or they. ‘Detectives are trying to find out whether her killer was in the house with her, or if she let him in. It is also possible he had his own key to the house’ (Sunday Independent, 29 December 1996). ‘It is believed that Ms du Plantier fled by the back door on which blood was found. The evidence indicates that she was pursued down the rocky track from her home and killed by repeated blows to the back of the head’ (Eoin Bailey, Sunday Tribune, 29 December 1996). ‘Sophie knew her assailant well enough to open the door to him’ (Nick Foster, Murder at Roaringwater, p10). [25] ‘The location of the small and bloodstained stone discovered between the house and pumping station, the fact that it was far from the body, that it was partly sunk into the ground and had only one drop of blood that matched the victim’s on it, and that it bore no trace of contact, are elements that suggest that object was not used as a weapon and that it had only been stained with Sophie Bouniol’s blood while she fled from the house, already wounded’ ( The Murder of Sophie, p400). [26] The gate was lost during the investigation. ‘After a six-year inquiry, Garda Ombudsman GSOC found that gardaí lost 139 du Plantier witness statements and five files on suspects. They lost a blood-stained gate from the victim’s property, and 22 other exhibits. Someone crudely cut nine pages from the official record of the investigation … gardaí lost Ian Bailey’s diary and they lost his long black overcoat … Yes the overcoat that Columbo believed Bailey wore while killing Sophie … it remained in Garda custody for years until someone lost it … Cold-case cops, it’s all yours’ (Sunday Independent, 3 July 2022). Some of the missing exhibits are documented in ‘Missing Items and Documentation’ in the GSOC Report issued 30 July 2018 (4.11/ 4.11.6) pp26-29. Nick Foster, author of Murder at Roaringwater, has his own theory on a bottle of wine found on the Kealfadda road; see ‘A ‘secret’ wine bottle is yet another twist in Sophie’s unsolved murder’ (Southern Star, 9 November 2021). [27] A Dream of Death (2020) by Ralph Riegel, p23. Copy held in Castleisland District Heritage Collection Ref: IE CDH 201. [28] See note 14. [29] Sophie’s body was identified by Finbar Hellen, the husband of Sophie’s caretaker, Mrs Josephine Hellen. He also appeared at the preliminary inquest in Bantry Courthouse on 17 April 1997, at which Ms Francoise Letellier, French Consul in Cork, was also in attendance. The inquest was adjourned to 26 September 1997, and further adjourned on Monday 21 October 1997. ‘A preliminary Cork coroner’s court inquest was held into Sophie’s death in 1997 but was formally adjourned because of the ongoing garda investigation. It has never been re-opened’ (Irish Independent, 21 November 2008). [30] Retired Co Cavan Garda detective, Val Martin (Real True Education), points to reform within the Garda Siochana’s Specialist Investigations in the 1990s as a factor in the initial response to the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. He describes the former ‘Murder Squad’ as efficient and professional at dealing with a crime scene. Kerryman John Courtney, former Chief Superintendent of the Murder Squad and author of It was Murder (1996), ‘gives the inside story of how he and his team cracked some of Ireland’s bloodiest and notorious murder cases’ (review, Kerryman, 15 November 1996). John Courtney joined the force in 1947 and retired in 1991. He died in 2017. [31] In Jim Sheridan’s documentary, Murder at the Cottage, Fr Cashman remarks that ‘Evil is a strange thing, it cannot co-exist with beauty, it must destroy it.’ Father Denis Cashman died on Good Friday, 7 April 2023. [32] ‘The dead woman had spoken to the caretaker of her converted farmhouse property around 10pm on Monday night. Within 12 hours, the woman caretaker’s husband was called by gardai to identify the body after a neighbour had raised the alarm’ (Evening Echo, 24 December 1996). In The Murder of Sophie (p17) it is stated that ‘At around 12.35 pm, and in the presence of the officers and Superintendent Twomey, Josephine Hellen and her husband Finbar, he identified the body as being that of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.’ [33] It is worth noting that Dr Harbison did not rule out movement of the body in his Post Mortem report: ‘The generally haphazard layers of the abrasions on the back did not suggest that the body had been dragged over a rough surface by the feet or arms, because there were no consistent vertical markings on the back. Nevertheless fine parallel lines could be seen above the level of these two inter-scapular abrasions suggesting some movement in a head to foot or vice-versa direction.’ Dr Harbison also noted scratches on the left and right buttocks of the body. It might be asked if the body could have been moved to allow a car to exit. Ian Bailey suggested that the killer may have been a man from Bantry and pointed out that on the morning of Sophie's death, a speeding blue Ford motor which may have had a red number plate overtook a motorist leaving Goleen on a dangerous hairpin bend about which a statement was taken (Irish Post, 14 September 2021). This is mentioned in Jim Sheridan’s Murder at the Cottage (S1 E4). [34] The surname of Josephine (Josie/Jozie) Hellen is sometimes given as Helen. ‘Josephine Hellen and her family lived only a mile away from the crime scene’ (The Murder of Sophie, p49). [35] ‘There was some indication of a struggle in the house, but no sign of forced entry. It is believed that Ms du Plantier fled by the back door, on which blood was found. The evidence indicates that she was pursued down the rocky track from her home and killed by repeated blows to the back of the head’ (Sunday Tribune, 29 December 1996). [36] ‘Metal detectors and painstaking searches by hand have so far failed to find the blunt poker-like object to hit her up to a dozen times in the frenzied attack that led to extensive injuries to her head, neck, chest and arms’ (Irish Independent, 30 December 1996). Early reporting on the poker, the wine glasses and the chairs was called into question in Death in December (2002) by Michael Sheridan. [37] ‘In the sitting room on the mantelpiece over the fire, there was a wine glass with a small drop of wine left in it. I got the distinct impression that somebody had been with her in the house the previous evening’ (Sunday World, 29 December 1996). ‘All the indications are that if the killer did have sex on his mind, he did not make it into Sophie’s bedroom, Josie said it was clear from the bed clothes that Sophie had slept by herself’ (Sunday World, 5 January 1997). In his book, Death in December (2002), author Michael Sheridan suggests that early reporting of this murder gave wrong impressions: ‘According to the media at the time, there were two unwashed wine glasses and the chairs in the kitchen were put closely together … there were never two unwashed wine glasses. The chairs pushed together were easily explained by the parents. Sophie was five foot one so when she was reading she put her feet up and that is how she used to read and why the chairs are pulled together’ (Review of Death in December, Southern Star, 14 December 2002). [38] ‘Mrs Hellen told detectives that Sophie’s manner on the telephone seemed unrelaxed and hurried’ (Sunday Independent, 30 December 2001). [39] ‘The killer may have been somebody who had a crush on her. As far as I know, she had no enemies whatsoever locally. Somebody out there knows who the killer is and is shielding him. She was a wonderful person and I can’t understand why anyone would want to kill her. All she wanted to do while she was here was to write TV scripts and enjoy the fresh air’ (Evening Herald, 9 January 1997). [40] Sunday World, 29 December 1996. Sophie’s mother, Marguerite Bouniol, said that Sophie had travelled to Ireland to attend to a heating problem in her home identified during a visit in September (Jim Sheridan, Murder at the Cottage). Sophie had called Josephine Hellen from Paris, to ask her to turn on the heating and set the fire before her arrival (Irish Independent, 11 January 1997). A later article stated that ‘The previous evening, Sophie had telephoned her house-keeper to tell her that she would, in fact, leave Ireland before Christmas, and she wanted her to lock-up the house after her departure. Helen Josie’s (sic) discovery, however, cast a shadow of doom’ (Sunday Independent, 26 December 1999). [41] In the subsequent report of post-mortem examination (24 March 1997), Dr Harbison stated that on receiving news of the murder from Garda Communications on the evening of the 23rd December 1996, he flew to Cork [24th] and was met at the airport by Det Garda Jim O’Riordan who took him to the scene where he observed the dead body of a female lying on the grass verge ‘on my right parallel to the roadway with the feet towards the gate and the head towards the houses. The feet looked about 2ft from the gate.’ [42] ‘Only the blood type and genetic profile of the victim were identified by the seals and samples taken from the scene and from the body, with the exception of a male genetic profile that was identified in 2011 by the INPS (National Institute of the Scientific Police) on the base of the leg over the shoe’ (Ibid, p399). [43] Dr Harbison made the following observations about Sophie’s clothing in his Post Mortem report (24 March 1997): ‘Prior to removing the clothing I had discussions with the detectives present concerning the curious situation that the drops of blood on the clothing were for the most part quite circular, a few with slight “blobs” on the edges, as if they had fallen vertically on to the “long johns” rather than dribbled downwards from the deceased’s head on to her legs. On stretching the “long johns” it was evident that the folds in the cloth occasioned by the pull from the groin area, showed the staining only to be on the visible part of the cloth, the infolded part lacking such blood. The impression was that this blood therefore fell on these trousers while in that infolded state. The same protective effect of the folding was not evident over the left knee.’ It might be asked if the ‘long johns’ provided or could still provide DNA evidence. [44] The radio broadcast appears in the opening scene of Murder at the Cottage (S1 E2). It is not clear which radio station broadcast the report. [45] If the informant was Ian Bailey, his information may have emanated from a discussion with the local postmistress. Bailey, in his statement to the Garda (illustrated in Murder at the Cottage), said that on 23 December 1996, at some period after receiving a call from Eddie Cassidy about the murder and visiting the crime scene, he went to the Post Office at Toormore and spoke to the postmistress. He also ‘checked phone book and got her name, listed there as Buinoil.’ The Irish Independent of 27 December 1996 reported, ‘Sophie Toucan (sic) du Plantier was married previously and had her Cork telephone number registered under the name of her first husband, Bouniol. She is believed to have returned to him recently.’ [46] Manchester Evening News, 24 December 1996 and Birmingham Mail, 24 December 1996. ‘The partially-clothed body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, 38, from Ambrax, near Paris, was discovered in Schull, Co Cork, in the south-west of Ireland. She had severe head injuries.’ [47] On the occasion of his fourth marriage to Melissa Nikolic in June 1998, eighteen months after the murder of Sophie, Daniel Toscan du Plantier held the wedding reception at Castle Ambax (Irish Examiner, 29 June 1998). Dr John Harbison gave Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s address as ‘Chateau de Lamizan’ in his Post Mortem report (24 March 1997). [48] ‘Garda sources have admitted that they are unlikely ever to charge anyone with the murder in 1996 of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier. A lawyer acting for the family of the dead woman has urged the gardai to admit publicly they have failed and wrap up the case … the investigation was badly run … A lot of time was lost’ (Sunday Independent (Dublin), 1 February 1998). [49] ‘A brutal sex attacker was being hunted by gardai today following the murder of a French woman near her holiday home in west Cork’ (Belfast Telegraph, 24 December 1996). [50] Sophie had about ten acres that went with her house, and she allowed Finbar Hellen to use the fields rent-free for grazing his cattle. In a written statement, Josephine Hellen (née Bohan), Co Tipperary, who married farmer Finbar Hellen, son of Francis Hellen, Dunnanig, Toormore in June 1981, said, ‘There was never a cross word over land. Sophie would come up from her grave and tell you that’ (Murder at Roaringwater The inside story of the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (2021) Nick Foster, p8). Nick Foster’s research also records that Finbar Hellen and his son made daily treks to Toormore, and on Saturday 21 December 1996 when they passed by the house at midday Sophie did not come out to greet them which Finbar found unusual, and when they passed a few hours later, Finbar thought he saw Sophie’s shadow. Josephine remarked that she thought there was ‘something wrong that she did not talk to them, as she always came out to talk.’ Josephine also found it strange that no Christmas gifts for the Hellen children were found in the house, as was normal for Sophie. ‘The Guards had a good look, but apart from some sweets, they found nothing. That was not like Sophie’ (Murder at Roaringwater, p10). [51] In 1972, one Finbar Hellen and his father Francis Hellen were summoned for assault and conduct likely to lead to a breach in the peace in a case heard in Schull Court before Justice William F O’Connell. Finbar Hellen was accused of assaulting Joseph O’Connell, Dunmanus, by driving a bicycle at him on 14 October 1971. ‘The father said he had hunted the other woman out of the land which witness had the grazing of’ and they would hunt O’Connell and the owner out too. Justice O’Connell remarked, ‘The Irish people are inclined to become very emotionally concerned about land … one would have to go back in history to find the source of these disputes’ (Southern Star, 11 March 1972, ‘Farmer-Neighbours Must Resolve Their Differences’). In 1973 Francis Hellen, Dunmanus East, was awarded £50 damages against Michael Goggin of Gloun, Schull for trespass of cattle on Hellen’s land entered via land sold by Goggin to a Dutchman (Southern Star, 7 April 1973). Finbar Hellen was described as ‘a hot and impetuous person’ who ‘seems to think that anything he says whether true or false will be believed by the court’ in a case heard at Schull Court in December 1975 where he was accused of assaulting Michael Goggin (who lived with his uncle, John O’Driscoll at Dunmanus, Toormore) ‘by striking him with his fist and kicking him’ and causing malicious damage to his car. The dispute was over a bullock. John O’Driscoll described Francis and Finbarr Hellen as ‘two lunatics’ when he was confronted by them. He said, ‘Finbarr’s eyes were like two poles of fire in his head and there was frath (sic) coming from Francis’s mouth … Finbarr said he would kill me and that Goggin would be killed for sure’ (Southern Star, 27 December 1975). Justice M J O’Hara described O’Driscoll’s language as ‘real Sean O’Casey.’ In Co Kerry it might be described as ‘real John B Keane.’ The Hellen surname is found in the Schull district from at least the early nineteenth century. It appears in Griffith’s Valuation at Dunmanus, and the Census of Ireland 1901/1911. As far back as 1895, a man named Frank Hellen of Dunmanus East, Goleen, brought an ejectment against a neighbour named John Courcey to recover an acre of land held by Courcey for twenty-seven years (the case was dismissed, Irish Examiner, 1 July 1895). The Hellen name is associated with Maulassa (Moulassa/Meallassa/Meall a’Leasa = Mound of the fort) a sub-denomination of Dunmanus East. During the Famine, two poor women were murdered at Dunmanus near ‘Mr O’Callaghan’s’ for the sake of a few pounds of meal which they were taking home to their families, ‘their bodies thrown into a lake’ (Kerry Evening Post, 2 June 1847). Names associated with land ownership in the Dunmanus district in the nineteenth century include Patience Noble, widow, John Noble, Rev Edward Fairtlough (son of Captain Francis Graham Fairtlough) and his wife Mary Anne Fairtlough née Swanton (relict of Richard Long Esq of Ballydehob), Francis Fairtlough and John Wren. In January 1873, in the Matter of the Estate of Benjamin Franklin and John Noble, owners, the petitioner was Mary Anne O’Sullivan. The district was then described as follows: ‘The Lands of Dunmanus immediately adjoin the celebrated bay of that name. The portion of said land which is situate on Dunmanus Harbour contains magnificent sites for erecting villas, and the entire lands are within three miles of Crookhaven, which is a seaport town, and to which it is intended to extend a branch railway from Bantry. The lands are about 10 miles from the town of Bantry and 15 from the town of Skibbereen, at both of which towns weekly markets and monthly fairs are held. It is proposed to extend the West Cork Railway Company from Bantry to Skibbereen, and a company is intended to be formed to run steamers from Cork to the Western coast of Ireland, calling at intermediate ports, by which the valuation of the lands will be greatly enhanced. They are capable of much improvement at a moderate outlay.’ In 1880, John and Michael Driscoll, Dunmanus West, publicly thanked Mr John O’Byrne, of 43 Fleet Street, Dublin on behalf of his tenants ‘for his generosity towards us – his tenantry of Dunmanus West. This noble and benevolent landlord not only forgave us one whole year’s rent out of three due but presented every tenant on his estate with two cwt of genuine champion potatoes’ (Irish Examiner, 15 October 1880). Some years later, at the sessions before County Court Judge Bird QC, a case in which the rent was disputed included John Driscoll, tenant, v John Byrne, landlord, and 30 acres at Dunmanus West which Driscoll swore ‘would not feed two cows’ (Southern Star, 1 May 1897). Jim Sheridan, in a discussion about the impact of nineteenth century history in the locality in the targeting of Ian Bailey, describes him as ‘English perfection in sarcasm and irony’ (‘Devil in the Hills’: Jim Sheridan on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier Murder by Casandra Voices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar3KkhEqAD8). [52] The Ireland of James Anthony Froude (unpublished thesis). [53] A Dream of Death (2020) by Ralph Riegel, p19. [54] ‘Killer is a psychopath with a history’ (Michael Sheridan, Irish Independent, 30 December 2001). Michael Sheridan, one time editor of the Clare Champion (April to November 2005), is author of Death in December (2002) and The Murder of Sophie How I Hunted and Haunted the West Cork Killer (2020). [55] Evening Echo, 27 December 1996. [56] Josephine Hellen, Sophie’s caretaker, noticed a small red-handled axe missing from near the back porch, used to chop firewood or cut kindling. She said to the Garda that ‘if it’s missing, and if you think it was used, and if you haven’t found it, I bet you it’s been thrown in at Kealfadda Bridge, but it would be washed away out by now.’ Her source was ‘one of the stories circulating locally at the time’ (Murder at Roaringwater The inside story of the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (2021) Nick Foster, p9). It is not known precisely where Sophie used the axe for its purpose; if it was outside it may have been left there. Michael Sheridan speculates that ‘possibly Sophie grabbed it [the axe] and in an act of self-defence hit the attacker, who possibly pulled the weapon from her and struck the struggling woman who then escaped through the door and ran into the garden in a vain effort to save her life’ (The Murder of Sophie, p22). [57] In his book, Death in December (2002), author Michael Sheridan discusses the murder weapon: ‘The caretaker said the first thing she noticed was that a poker was missing … I rang the caretaker to ask her if the first thing she noticed when going into the kitchen was that a poker was missing and she totally refuted any notion of her ever saying such a thing to anybody’ (Review of Death in December, Southern Star, 14 December 2002). [58] Southern Star, 11 January 1997. [59] Sunday Independent, 12 January 1997, ‘Sophie’s killer used a rock from garden.’ [60] Dr Harbison’s Post Mortem report (24 March 1997) indicates that the murder weapon was present when he attended the scene on 24 December 1996: ‘Beside the deceased’s left shoulder and head was a flat slate like stone which was heavily blood stained and might have been used as a weapon. Between the deceased’s body and the wire fence and within 9m of her own left hand was a 9in cavity block. This was made of precast concrete and showed two cavities throughout its length. It was 18in long and 9in square.’ [61] Southern Star, 25 January 1997. The murder was the work of ‘a psycho, end of fucking story’ (comment by detective at the scene, Murder at Roaringwater The inside story of the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (2021) by Nick Foster, p13). [62] Marie Farrell, originally from Longford and who had been living in London, was a newcomer to the area, and had with her husband Chris leased shop premises in two adjoining shops in Schull, one a clothes/knitwear/arts and crafts shop and the other selling ice-cream. Marie also had a market stall at Coal Quay, Cork City. She recalled Sophie going into her Schull shop (formerly Dan Griffin’s Pub) to browse on 22 December 1996, and while Marie was outside the shop talking to Dan Griffin (who lived next door), she noticed a man across the road watching Sophie, who then followed Sophie up Ardmanagh Road when she left the shop. Dan Griffin (RIP 2001) remarked that the man was a strange character. An account of Marie Farrell’s evidence is given by Vincent Browne in Magill, 19 October 2005, ‘Falsely fingering Sophie’s killer.’ The Farrell home at 11 Ard Chleire, Schull, was put on the market in 2005 and the family subsequently left the Schull area. A report in The Irish Sun (10 July 2022) indicated that Marie Farrell had built a new life for herself in the midlands. Her reasons for leaving London are outlined in The Murder of Sophie, p306. ‘RTE’s Crimeline used an actress to re-enact Sophie du Plantier’s last movements on Mizen Head and in Crookhaven on Sunday 22 December. The programme goes out tomorrow’ (Sunday Tribune, 19 January 1997, report by Eoin Bailey and Sophie Rieu). [63] Southern Star, 25 January 1997. The man lived outside West Cork but regularly visited the area, and was known to the authorities. Chief Superintendent Noel Smith, who headed the investigation until June 1997, informed a Southern Star reporter, ‘Gardai had not received any complaint from Sophie Toscan du Plantier about a prowler around her house.’ ‘Numerous verifications and searches were conducted … to eliminate people from the inquiries who had once been doubted, like Bruno Carbonnet, and to exclude the theory of a prowler … no element supported the theory that Sophie Bouniol’s murder was planned’ (The Murder of Sophie, p409). [64] DNA samples were taken from five suspects at the outset of the case (Irish Examiner, 6 January 1997, report by Ralph Riegel). ‘From day one, the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier was a difficult crime for the police to solve’ (Scotsman, 13 January 2001). The difficulties are discussed in Ralph Riegel’s A Dream of Death (2020). [65] They were French national Georges Pecout of Dunmanus East, a father of two, and German national Carl Heinz Wollny (sometimes Wolney), a musician. Georges Pecout, husband of Liliane and father of Sophie and Marie, died at his residence at Dunmanus East on 12 March 1997. He was buried in Schull Cemetery. ‘It came as a great shock to many people. Georges had come from France about twenty years ago and made his home in Goleen’ (Southern Star, 22 March 1997). ‘Gardai in West Cork said the tragic death of a French-born businessman was not connected with the murder of Sophie Toscan Du Plantier … a post mortem confirmed he died from a shotgun wound’ (Irish Examiner, 14 March 1997). In 1997, Ian Bailey informed a visiting journalist, Liam Collins, of the suicide: ‘Whether there is a connection or not, it is a strange coincidence … he lived in Dunmanus West, this happened in Dunmanus East … very close, hundreds of yards as opposed to miles apart’ (Sunday Independent, 16 March 1997). According to ‘Crime Guy’ (https://www.crimeguy.com/p/the-unusual-suspects), Sophie’s former boyfriend, Bruno Carbonnet (Carbonet), who had met Georges (who had been interested in Sophie’s cottage) in Ireland, found his behaviour odd. It is worth noting that in Carbonnet’s Statement given at Rouen on 28 December 1996, he stated that Sophie ended their affair without any warning. Elsewhere, it is suggested that Carbonnet ended the relationship as he did not wish to have children with Sophie (Sophie Life and Personality Report, M Larousse 2009 Part II). The character profile of Sophie by Michel Larousse, psychologist, given on the first day of the French trial in 2019 is also referred to in The Murder of Sophie (pp438-439). ‘She began an affair with an artist, Bruno Carbonnet, but it turned sour when she wanted a child and he was not interested.’ Carl Heinz Wollny returned to Germany in February 1997 after confessing to a friend that he did ‘a terrible thing’ (Irish Mirror, 27 January 2024). ‘Gardai were satisfied there was no apparent link to the Toormore killing’ (A Dream of Death (2020) by Ralph Riegel, p27. Michael Sheridan (Death in December, p61) describes the suggestion of Wollny’s suicide as evidence of guilt as ‘thought up but not thought out.’ Wollny of Blankenburg, Harz, Staufenberg, was born in 1952. He made a statement to the Garda on 11 January 1997 in which he stated he had been living in West Cork with his wife Trudy, an English woman, since 1991 in a house purchased from Pierre Farou. His wife had left him in 1996 and she had gone to live in Schull. He claimed to have no knowledge of Sophie or the area in which she lived. He had lived in England for about nine years: ‘In London, I resided at Fawe Street, East End, London and St. Philip’s Road which is near Angel Square … I lived at St Philip’s Road with A.R. Penck (Pseudo), his name being Ralf Winkler, he used to visit me here in Toormore quite often but I have not seen him since ½ year. He lives somewhere in Dublin and is a famous artist.’ In 1985, Wollny played in Bristol with his brother Frank Wollny and A R Penck (Ralf Winkler), who had an art exhibition in the city. [66] The bottle of wine found by John Hellen in April 1997 was lost (Jim Sheridan, Murder at the Cottage). Little seems to be made of the discovery at the time. In 2021 it was reported that ‘John Helen found the bottle of wine hidden near the entrance leading to Ms Toscan du Plantier’s house, about 900 metres from the murder scene. Later checks found it was on sale in Charles De Gaulle Airport, in Paris, but was not on sale in off-licences in West Cork’ (Irish Daily Star, 23 December 2021). A more accurate description of the place the wine was found seems to be the Kealfadda Road, described by John Hellen as ‘about 20 yards on the coast road side of the junction leading to Sophie du Plantier’s house … partially covered by withered rough grass’ (‘A discarded, unopened bottle of wine re-examined’ Irish Independent, 31 October 2021). The distinctiveness of the wine may explain why it was discarded. Sophie may have given the wine as a gift during her last or earlier trips and the recipient may have feared that being in possession of it could be regarded as incriminating. It could also be that it was ‘planted’ in the Kealfadda vicinity in order to suggest the killer threw it away when leaving the scene. It seems unlikely that Ian Bailey would have parted with an untouched bottle of fine vintage. [67] ‘This is the same bottle of wine that I now hand over to Detective Sergeant Walsh. My fingerprints, and that of my father, may be on the bottle. My mother's fingerprints may also be on this bottle. The point where it was found is about three feet in off the road’ (‘A discarded, unopened bottle of wine re-examined’ Irish Independent, 31 October 2021). Detective Garda John O’Neill, Fingerprint Section of the Garda Technical Bureau, stated, ‘I received many sets of fingerprints and as a result I identified some of the fingermarks developed in the house as having been made by the housekeeper and members of her family’ (Murder at the Cottage, S1 E4). [68] Bailey was observed by the Garda to have been behaving strangely at the murder scene and to have reported on aspects of the case before the information was considered to have been available. The date of birth of Ian Kenneth Bailey is generally given as 27 January 1957 (in the Gloucester Citizen, 4 February 1998, Bailey claimed that his second arrest in January 1998 came on his 42nd birthday, which would make his year of birth 1956). As far as can be seen, Bailey was the son of butcher Kenneth Bailey (RIP 2020) and his wife Brenda (RIP 2016), a secretary. The family lived in Stockport, Manchester until Ian was about nine years of age before moving to Hucclecote, near Gloucester. Bailey attended the Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, and played second row forward at Gloucester’s Old Cryptians Rugby Club. He joined the Gloucester and County News Service as a junior reporter in 1975 where he stayed for three years working briefly for Gloucester Express before setting up his own agency. He worked in his spare time as a nightclub bouncer. His residence was The Moorings, Churchdown, nr Gloucester at the time of his marriage to Dursley Gazette reporter Sarah Limbrick, daughter of Western Daily Press journalists Malcolm and Jill Limbrick of Alfords Farm, Upleadon (Bailey appears to have contributed to the Western Daily Press c1976-1986). The couple married at St Mary the Virgin Church, Upleadon on 21 June 1980, the union lasting about five years. The couple also lived at Foxmoor House, Churchdown (The Murder of Sophie, p116). Sarah, subsequently of Ford House Farm, Newent, had a child, Jamie Limbrick-Mayer, with Robert Mayer. Jamie was subsequently detained after raping and murdering his great grandmother. [69] Sunday Independent, 20 July 1997 (a revision published in the Independent on Sunday was entitled ‘The Devil in the Hills,’ alluding to Daniel Toscan du Plantier’s remark on the case in a 1998 edition of Le Figaro). During one of their meetings, Bailey told Brighid, ‘I came across Sophie du Plantier’s real name, it is Lienquette.’ Brighid asked him where he got this information and he replied, ‘On the Internet, I’m in the world wide net.’ Bailey was at one time working in close proximity to Sophie’s house, in the garden of her neighbour, Alfie Lyons. Sophie changed the locks of the house when it appeared someone had been entering and using the bathroom. [70] Sunday Independent, 20 July 1997. This appears to be the only reference to a missing laptop. In an article in the Sunday Tribune, 29 December 1996, Eoin Bailey alluded to the use of computer technology at this period: ‘Schull and Goleen, the communities closest to Ms du Plantier’s home, have ‘technology cottages’ allowing ready access to computers and the internet.’ As regards Sophie’s belongings, neither her ‘diaries, phone and computer records nor personal effects were obtained and examined. When eventually, after pressure from the family, an examining magistrate was appointed, the case file was empty’ (The Murder of Sophie, p48). [71] Interviewed by Brighid McLaughlin, Sunday Independent, 20 July 1997. [72] The case was tried in the Palais de Justice (Victor Hugo Courtroom) in Paris on 27-31 May 2019, ‘a place that might inspire a poet,’ writes Michael Sheridan (The Murder of Sophie, p432). But Ian Bailey did not attend, he ‘preferred to stay in the safety of West Cork and write more self-published rubbish’ (Sheridan, ibid). Sheridan does not disguise his antipathy towards Bailey, whose self-portrait Sheridan describes as ‘as close to reality as the distance between the Earth and the moon’ (Ibid, p463), and the man as a ‘failed journalist, poet, gardener, bodhran player, assaulter and persecutor of women, alcoholic, sick psycho diarist’ who had ‘figuratively speaking been afforded over two decades a war chest which would not have left much change out of eight million euros’ (ibid, p434). Of Bailey’s appearance in 2019, Sheridan writes, ‘His skin had the grey-green pallor like that of a vampire suddenly caught by the rays of dawn’ (Ibid, pp460-461) and of his conviction, he writes, ‘I hoped that Bailey, who knew well at this moment what had occurred, might consign something else into his pants. Perhaps he was instead prancing around West Cork dressed like the clown he is, the joker, the killer, revelling in the attention’ (Ibid, p457). [73] Sunday Independent, 28 January 2024, ‘This is it, I thought. He’s going to kill me.’ [74] Sunday Independent, 3 July 2022. Reporting on the Garda Cold Case Review and the role of ‘Columbo of West Cork.’ [75] ‘When I go back to Ireland, I don’t go to a crime scene. It is how she left it and her heart and spirit lives on there’ (The Murder of Sophie, p445). [76] Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud, son of Sophie Toscan du Plantier | Full Interview | The Late Late Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pvquk-niMY. A recently published thesis illustrates how the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has evolved into an area of study (‘The Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier and Its Implications for the Study of Media and Crime: A Case Study in West Cork’ (2022) by Shane O’Mahony, University of Hertfordshire Law School, in editor Liam Leonard’s Cases on Crimes, Investigations, and Media Coverage (1 ed., pp. 68-93), IGI Global Publishing). [77] Irish Examiner, 22 January 2024. [78] The Murder of Sophie, p472. [79] The Murder of Sophie, pp473-474. [80] The Murder of Sophie, p472.
