Family of Sophie to gather for ceremony
MURDERED French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s family will gather in a small mountain village tomorrow to remember the motherof-one killed at her isolated West Cork holiday home just before Christmas 23 years ago.
Ms Toscan du Plantier spent many happy hours as a child at the family’s country retreat in Combret in the Lozere region of France, so it was there that her family chose to lay her to rest after her battered body was found on a roadside in the early hours of December 23, 1996.
Among the small group who will gather at the village church will be Sophie’s only child Pierre Louis, her parents Marguerite and Georges Bouniol,
‘No one will go to Ireland’
as well as her two brothers.
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle Jean Pierre Gazeau told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘My sister Marguerite will be there, my brother in law Georges will be there, her two brothers and her son. No one will go to Ireland.
‘There is always a Christmas meeting of the family and there will be a special meeting in the little mountain village where Sophie is buried.’
No one has ever been charged in connection with the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier. Her body was found outside her holiday home in Schull, West Cork. Local journalist Ian Bailey was arrested twice by gardaí, in 1997 and 1998, in connection with the death of the French filmmaker. But he was never charged and continues to protest his innocence.
However, after a week-long trial in France this year, the 62-year-old was found guilty of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s murder. Neither he nor his legal representatives attended the trial. He faces serving a 25-year jail sentence in France. A European arrest warrant seeking his extradition to France was endorsed by the High Court in Dublin last Monday.
Mr Bailey was arrested in Dublin after the request seeking his extradition came before the Irish courts and he was released on bail until the case comes before the High Court for a full hearing on January 20 next.
His solicitor Frank Buttimer said his client was left ‘devastated and traumatised’ by the latest bid to have him extradited to France.
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle Mr Gazeau said: ‘If Mr Bailey was brought to France a new trial would be held and the conclusion of the first trial would be erased.There would be a new trial, so he could be defended.’