I am planning further articles on my main case, the 1996 murder in West Cork of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. However it has been a busy summer for all kinds of people involved in the original investigation.
New Documentary
Following on from last summer’s Re-creation, a film by Jim Sheridan, which imagined the jury room in a trial that never happened, Virgin Media Ireland have announced the screening this autumn of an all-new documentary on the case. It is called Sophie Toscan du Plantier: 30 Years. As far as I could find out, it was made in-house by Virgin Media and I have not managed to find a UK screening date yet.
Martin Malone
This week saw the sad occasion of the funeral of Martin Malone, a former police officer involved in the case. Keen readers will recall that Malone was the first person to consider Ian Bailey a suspect in the case, and that this leap of logic occurred at the crime scene itself on the day of the murder.
It would be unrealistic and unfair to blame too much of what happened next on one police officer, but it is notable how swiftly An Garda Síochána adopted this narrative and how little attention they gave to other suspects afterwards.
I have already documented the death this summer of Shirley Foster, who found Sophie’s body at the scene.
Shirley Foster Dies
It is a sad reality that witnesses will gradually pass away after a crime, and this year will be the 30th anniversary of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork. News broke this week that Shirley Foster, the woman who found Sophie just before Christmas 1996, has herself died.
Robert Sheehan
Finally there have been a number of stories this summer about the continued admirable efforts of a former solicitor at the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Robert Sheehan, to bring this case back into the foreground.
Although the initial (and now notorious) 44-page report in 2001 into the evidence surrounding Ian Bailey was anonymous, in the sense that it was the considered view of the entire DPP office, it is known now that Robert Sheehan was its main author. He has produced detailed new documentation and made various official submissions to try and get the case reconsidered. These are valiant efforts and I hope to cover them in more depth soon.
As ever I look forward to the replies and questions in the comments. If we achieve nothing else, at least we have kept the memory of Sophie alive for over three decades after her untimely death.
