Sheridan wants cameras on suspect in Sophie’s murder
AWARD-WINNING director Jim Sheridan has told how he would like to ‘put a camera’ outside the house of a person of interest in the unsolved murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
In an new interview, Mr Sheridan said he told gardaí the identity of a man who was allegedly spotted outside a shop in Schull, West Cork, the day before the 1996 murder, but they didn’t ‘seem that interested’.
The Oscar-nominated director, whose Sky documentary series on the murder divided opinion last year, was asked whether he would ever return to ‘guerillastyle’ filmmaking by Lisa Cannon in the first episode of the new season of her Spotlight show, starting soon on Extra and Evoke.ie.
‘If I could get a camera outside the house of the guy that I think was outside the shop in Schull the day before Sophie was murdered, that would be guerrilla-style,’ Mr Sheridan replied.
‘And I would do that. And I have told the police who I thought that person was, and I don’t think they seem that interested.
‘But they don’t seem to be able to find him.
‘So if they ever find him, I’ll put the camera outside of his house.’
Six-time Academy Award nominee Sheridan’s documentary, Murder At The Cottage: The Search For Justice For Sophie, was criticised by Ms Toscan du Plantier’s family for being too centred on Ian Bailey.
Mr Bailey, 64, a former journalist and chief suspect in the murder case was convicted in absentia in France in 2019, but has never been tried in Ireland.
Members of the family had initially given interviews for inclusion in the series. However, they later asked that their contributions be removed from the final cut.
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s brother Bertrand Bouniol told RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor last year: ‘I met Jim Sheridan at different times with my parents and alone, and he interviewed me and so on.
From the beginning of his documentary, it was clear, and I think it’s important, he wanted it to be as a witness, describing, trying to understand what the case is.
‘But they moved the objective of this documentary.
‘It was not about Sophie, it was about Mr Bailey.
‘And when you look at this documentary, everything is focused on Mr Bailey.’
In response to the family’s withdrawal from the series, Mr Sheridan told the same programme: ‘I think they saw the footage and thought that it inferred that there was a police hounding of Ian Bailey, and that maybe it raised suspicions that the conclusion reached in the French trial might not have been as sound as it looked.’
■ Spotlight, April 8 at 2pm on Extra.ie and Evoke.ie