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Kerry Muston's avatar

It’s good to have hope! It was very sad that Sophie’s father died not knowing. I’ve just been looking at the Madeline McCann Netflix series and am struck by the similarities between the Irish and Portuguese police methods. They both seemed to just want a confession - understandably , as they operate under such pressure to solve high profile cases that involve another country. They also seized upon a suspect who was an outsider who inserted himself into the investigation. This derails the whole investigative process - police forces everywhere should learn from these mistakes.

Time does very strange things to memory too - just try telling a family story from years ago - everyone will have different versions. Perhaps if that initial focus on the one suspect hadn’t happened, we would know by now who the killer was. As it stands, memories can’t be considered as any sort of evidence. Our only hope is the science but if these latest DNA tests come back as Bailey’s I’ll be very very suspicious!

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Geraldine Comiskey's avatar

You make an important point especially re people's anger in the event it turns out they were wrong all along. Ego plays a massive role in people's adherence to their narrative. If a deathbed confession, or, better still, forensic evidence, cleared Ian Bailey post-humously, some people would find a bitter pill to swallow. There is also a hierarchy of suspects, like a popularity contest in reverse, with Bailey at the top, followed by other people who were hated or had no social capital (lovers, unemployed or in low-income careers, outsiders, childless, estranged from family etc). Every community has these people and in West Cork they had quite a few (Heinz Wollny etc).

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