Concern at probe into killing of du Plantier
A GARDA Ombudsman report after an inquiry into the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation has ‘serious concerns’ about the deliberate alteration of key Garda documents.
It also expressed alarm about a large amount of evidence that went missing during the investigation.
‘Pages missing from the original Garda “Jobs Books” in relation to the Garda murder investigation are of the most concern to GSOC,’ according to the report.
‘These books form a complete record of all activity undertaken in respect of a major or critical incident (or investigation) along with the rationale for the decisions made,’ it said.
‘This concern is compounded further by the fact that the specific pages missing are from an area of the book when Ian Bailey seems to have first been identified as a potential suspect in the murder by gardaí – and as such, they are potentially very significant.’
The report also concludes that the removal of pages appears to have been ‘deliberate’.
There was no explanation offered by gardaí for the missing pages but the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission report concluded that there was ‘a lack of administration and management of the incident room’ rather than malpractice or corruption.
However, Mr Bailey’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer told the Irish Daily Slain: Sophie Toscan du Plantier Mail last night: ‘GSOC is a powerless organisation when it comes to investigating matters of significant Garda misbehaviour.’
The Garda watchdog’s report published yesterday follows a lengthy investigation into a number of complaints – made by Mr Bailey, Jules Thomas and Marie Farrell – about the Du Plantier murder investigation.
However, the GSOC report found no evidence of the high-level corruption by gardaí that was alleged by the three complainants.
Mr Bailey, who was once described himself as the chief suspect in the case, and Ms Thomas, had both been arrested during the investigation but neither was ever charged with any offence.
At one point, Ms Farrell had been considered a witness.