‘There’s no hope of justice now’

‘THE French invented the word bureaucracy but the Irish perfected it.’ That was the stinging rebuke of Schull resident Bill Hogan who, as a member of the Association for the Truth about the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, is critical of the 27-year investigation.

He was responding on the day that Ian Bailey’s remains were cremated in an unattended ceremony in Ringaskiddy, two days after southernstar.ie was the first media outlet to report that the Englishman had been found unresponsive on a street in Bantry.

It is believed that Bailey, who was found guilty in a French court of the 1996 murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier near Schull, had suffered a heart attack.

He was pronounced dead at Bantry Hospital on Sunday afternoon.

‘I have this terrible feeling of bitterness and futility,’ Bill told The Southern Star on Tuesday. ‘Ian Bailey got off. He preferred oblivion to justice.

‘There is no chance now of any resolution. The family was looking forward to a trial,’ said Bill.

‘There was, of late, an expectation that something was going to happen in the case, that something was imminent.

‘People felt that there was going to be an arrest – a feeling that the gardaí were close to solving the case.

‘Certainly, I feel frustrated that the case is not going to be pursued, but I am hoping that Jean Pierre Gazeau, Sophie’s uncle, is right. I hope the gardaí are going to do DNA tests.

‘It would be great if we could get some modicum of truth,’ he added. ‘There is now no hope for justice, but maybe the truth will come out. I feel that the investigation was too long. It is very important to respect people’s rights but the investigation was just too slow.

‘We all knew a couple of months ago that Ian Bailey’s health was precarious. We tried to get the gardaí to move, but they work in their own way.

‘The French invented the word bureaucracy but the Irish perfected it,’ he said.

‘I am sorry that this saga is over. I would have loved to have seen it go to a trial and for justice to have been served.

‘ You can’t blame the gardaí. Bailey was very clever. He was always throwing sand in their faces. He mocked the gardaí. He treated them like idiots. To me that was always very irksome. It proved his guilt to me,’ said Bill.

Bill Hogan: 'Ian Bailey got off.'

It is believed that the garda investigation into the murder will still result in a file being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). It’s now likely that the DPP will still review the file and decide on whether charges would have been pursued if Mr Bailey was still alive.

The Southern Star contacted the Garda Press Office for a comment and a spokesperson said: ‘The Garda investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996 remains active and ongoing, as does assistance from the Garda Serious Crime Review Team.’

Bailey’s remains were taken from Bantry for cremation at the Island Crematorium at Ringaskiddy on Tuesday, as first reported on southernstar.ie. It is understood that his ashes are to be posted to his sister in England.