DNA results that could shed new light on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier almost 30 years after her violent death are being eagerly awaited by gardaí.
New vacuum tests on the rock and breeze block that were used to kill the French film maker at her holiday home in Toormore, West Cork are undergoing analysis at Forensic Science Ireland.
Detectives believe a positive result could identify Ms Toscan du Plantier’s killer.
The 39-year-old was beaten to death in the driveway of her cottage in the early hours of Monday December 23, 1996.
Ian Bailey, the self-described chief suspect who was tried and convicted in absentia in a Paris court, died of a heart attack last year aged 66.
Repeated efforts by French authorities to extradite him were defeated in the Irish courts.
The new development in the cold case comes amid reports that a garda blunder in the original investigation may have allowed Ian Bailey to gain access to the crime scene and deliberately contaminate it with his DNA.
Sources have claimed Manchester-born Mr Bailey was at the scene on the morning after the murder and ‘knelt down over the body of the dead woman’.
Gardaí reportedly feared at the time that Mr Bailey was trying to shed genetic traces via the transfer of flakes of his hair or skin to explain why his DNA was found at the crime scene.
One garda made a statement about Mr Bailey trying to encroach on the scene while it was being cordoned off. The original garda file includes a paragraph noting how ‘Ian Bailey did not lean over the body’.
According to witness statements Mr Bailey told a neighbour of the victim, Alfie Lyons who has since died, that he had looked through the windows of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s house while the scene was being preserved.
Author Nick Foster, who wrote Murder at Roaringwater, previously stated that the clues pointing to Bailey’s guilt were in the garda file.
Mr Foster said: “There are three rumours flying around that simply aren’t true. It wasn’t a hitman, it wasn’t a dead garda, and there was no man from continental Europe wearing a beret. We all know the post mortem was left too late, the body was left open overnight, and windy and wet weather blew fibres away.
‘You are not going to be able to prosecute this case without explaining why no DNA was found at the crime scene…. Sophie’s family were badly let down and so were the Irish people. This has left a stain on the landscape of West Cork.’
Earlier this week solicitor Frank Buttimer, who represented Mr Bailey for over 20 years, told RTE that any suggestion of new evidence linking Ian Bailey to the killing would be ‘extraordinary’.
He added that his client was ‘never prosecuted’ but for a ‘spurious’ trial in France.
