Gardai trying to find the final link with clues in flat
GARDAI hope to find clues that could finally link Ian Bailey to Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s murder from his extensive writings and his electronic devices.
Investigators will now sift through a mountain of potential evidence after seizing a large quantity of material including a laptop, memory sticks and notebooks in a raid on his flat.
However, questions are being asked as to why gardai waited until nearly a week after the 66-year-old’s death to visit the flat in Bantry, Co Cork.
While investigators don’t expect to find a written confession to the murder which has haunted West Cork for nearly three decades, they hope that he may have jotted down something of relevance to link him to the crime.
It is known he was drinking heavily and may have committed his thoughts to paper or typed them into his laptop while under the influence of alcohol.
A source said: “Regardless of what you think of Ian Bailey he was a very literate man and as well as being a journalist had a masters degree in law he got from UCC [University College Cork].
“He was always writing and scribbling and maybe he put something down that might be of use…you never know.
“It’s quite possible he put something down and then forgot about it or somehow leaked out of his head but only time will tell.”
Officers from Cork and detectives from the Garda cold case unit spent several hours in Bailey’s flat on Friday looking for any clues that might link him to the murder.
The latest twist came five days after the prime suspect in the murder collapsed and died of a massive heart attack on Barrack Street just a few metres from his flat. It is understood the seized items will be examined to see if Bailey made any reference to the brutal murder of Sophie who was battered to death outside her home in Toormore, near Schull in West Cork in December 1996.
If any new evidence is found it will be sent to the DPP’S office which will review the new investigation and decide if there would have been enough evidence for Mr Bailey to have been charged. While it could mean no one would ever be charged with the murder the case could be finally closed which might help the filmmaker’s family get some closure.
But Mr Bailey’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer said that the law had now entered a “parallel legal universe”.
He said: “Nothing ceases to continue to surprise me about this case.
“Ian Bailey always said that this case would follow him to his grave. Even he could never have imagined that it would continue to be pursued against him after his death.”