Du Plantier family vow to continue fight for justice
The family of murdered Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan Du Plantier today vowed their 10-year fight for justice would continue despite dropping a civil action.
As they confirmed the case against self-confessed suspect, Ian Bailey, had been scrapped, Bertrand Bouniol, a brother of the murdered woman, said they were not giving up their struggle for answers.
“It is still difficult for my family, my parents and I, to continue to live without knowing what happened,” he said.
“What we want is to get justice and we will still continue in the memory of my sister to follow in that area and to work and to put pressure just to know what happened, and to have justice. That is our main goal.
“It is not hope that we speak about it is to get justice in the memory of my sister.”
The body of the 39-year-old Frenchwoman was found in a lane close to her holiday home near Toormore in West Cork, Ireland, on December 23, 1996.
Mr Bailey, a former freelance journalist and landscape gardener, was arrested twice in relation to the death but has consistently maintained he is innocent.
He has been fighting the family of Ms Du Plantier for the last two years.
Last October, a key witness, shopkeeper Marie Farrell, withdrew statements she had made to gardaí that had placed Mr Bailey close to the murder scene in December 1996.
An internal garda investigation is continuing into claims by Ms Farrell, that she was intimidated by officers into making a false statement which placed Mr Bailey near the scene.
Mr Bailey’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer, said there had been intensive discussions with the family’s legal team over the last two months.
He said: “Ian Bailey is relieved that the action has been dropped. He regards it as another chapter closed in the situation and he’s appreciative of the fact that the family now appear to accept that he has no responsibility whatsoever in relation to the event.”
Mr Buttimer said: “If, as I suspect, there is clear wrong (doing) established, which I believe there is, then Mr Bailey is undoubtedly the most vilified man who has lived in Ireland for the last 10 years.”
He said Mr Bailey could seek damages from the state if the inquiry found An Garda Siochana had misbehaved.
The former journalist lost a libel claim against six newspapers in 2004 and was left with a €200,000 legal bill. But he has appealed against the verdict at the High Court and the case is expected to be heard at the end of this year.
Mr Bouniol said the decision of his parents, Georges and Marguerite, to take a civil action against Mr Bailey was never an attempt to seek monetary compensation for his sister’s death.
“The objective of this civil action, that we started a few years ago, was first of all not to take some money from anyone, the idea of this civil action was mainly to put some pressure on the DPP and mainly on the gardai for them to continue to work on my sister’s death,” Mr Bouniol told RTE Radio.
He said the family’s legal counsel in Ireland had assured them work was continuing on the murder inquiry.
Her brother said they were following advice of their lawyers in dropping the action.
