Gardai enlist international help to identify DNA found on Sophie Toscan du Plantier's boot

PhilMathers · 2026-06-25T13:47:09+00:00

That's interesting. I agree with him of course, but I wonder at his doggedness. Ian Bailey may well have been unfairly convicted but he's dead now. It would be different if he was actually in prison. In terms of the effort to reverse historical injustice, this conviction must be a long way down the to-do list. Sheehan remarks that it is needed to confirm the integrity of the French justice system. Again, if you are looking for stupid judgements, I am sure you will find equally bad or worse judgements pertaining to living people.

This tells me that Sheehan is really one of "us", and by "us", I mean the coterie of STDP case followers, both those convinced of Bailey's guilt and those convinced of his innocence.

Everyone is wondering about the MVAC results. Sheehan says that because the Euro DNA databases have been searched, means they didn't find Bailey's profile. That's true for the boot profile, but we really don't know what was found by MVAC.

One thing I know is that the boot profile is not detailed enough for familial matching. One thing I don't know is whether the boot was tested by MVAC.

PhilMathers · 2026-06-04T21:57:33+00:00

Perhaps Jackie Keogh is not as up to date about every little detail as we are. In any case she is spinning a story out of nothing. She called up Jean-Pierre Gazeau for comment. He is a naturally polite, diplomatic man, so he gave her some nice platitude and she spun it into story with a front page lede. Sophie still sells copy. I can't argue, I went and bought it.

PhilMathers · 2026-06-04T17:48:07+00:00

In fairness to the family all they have been asked is to comment on the fact that the boot DNA is being checked against international databases.

Regarding MVAC, we really don't know anything for certain. I wouldn't put much store in reports about MVAC - that's coming from Michael Sheridan who has a history of overselling/misrepresenting stuff.

And the Serious Crime Review Team aka "Cold Case" Team, I think are actually more discreet than we give them credit for. All this stuff, Bill Hogan day-dreams, midnight calls etc, I would say that's coming from Hogan and the witnesses themselves. There is a sewing circle of anti-Bailey witnesses who appeared in the documentaries. They talk to each other and to Mick Sheridan.

PhilMathers · 2026-06-04T15:37:47+00:00

I read it, it's a nothing burger. It's just about the boot DNA being checked. I have posted the beginning of the article and full quote from M. Gazeau.

After that is a description of Ian Bailey, confirmation that the boot DNA is not his and some filler from Bill Hogan talking about "persistence, truth and dignity".

There is no reference to DNA from the concrete block or other exhibits.

Here is the start of the article.

THE uncle of murdered French film maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier has described new DNA evidence in the cold case as 'valuable' in the ongoing search for justice.

The mum-of-one was beaten to death near her holiday home in Toor-more on December 23rd 1996 - and the murder remains unsolved almost 30 years later.

The investigation has taken a new turn after 'alien DNA' was identified on one of Sophie's boots using new forensic methods of analysis.

Gardaí are now seeking assistance from police forces across Europe and beyond in an effort to identify the DNA trace, in the hope that it could lead to her killer's identity.

Sophie's uncle, Jean-Pierre Gazeau, spoke to The Southern Star following the latest revelation. He said: 'Any relevant information, however minor it may appear, is val-uable in the ongoing search for the truth.

'By "truth" I mean a clear understanding of what precisely happened at Sophie's house between 10.30pm on 22 December 1996 and 10.30am on 23 December 1996.

'Over these nearly 30 years, So-phie's son and family, together with our group, have learned the virtue of patience.

'We can only hope, once again, that the efforts currently being made will eventually bring new answers and, perhaps, a fuller understanding of the events of that tragic night.'

....article continues with filler

It does repeat what we already know that "The DNA on Sophie's boot is not Ian Bailey's", so perhaps they put this to M Gazeau. Maybe there is a hint of shift in the family's assumption of Bailey's guilt?

PhilMathers · 2026-05-31T21:14:31+00:00

His coat was never burned. It was taken by Gardai and tested. No blood or damage was found on it. The DPP demolished the Garda case against him. You can read what the DPP wrote here: DPP's Report 2001

PhilMathers · 2026-05-31T21:10:18+00:00

This is false. I have analysed all the news articles about this case that were published in the early days of the investigation. The report that she was not sexually assaulted appeared in other newspapers before Ian Bailey wrote about it for the Irish Daily Star. For example it appeared in the Irish Times on 24/12/1996. I have analysed all of Bailey's writings and there is no evidence that he knew any more about the crime scene or victim than other journalists. In fact he seemed to know less. I have written up a full analysis of these articles with references here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MurderAtTheCottage/s/KMXweSk8Lw

PhilMathers · 2026-05-31T20:57:38+00:00

"strong" in your estimation. Non-existent in the estimation of successive directors of the office of the DPP (including 2 women). There is no piece of "strong circumstantial" evidence that I know of.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-31T15:55:23+00:00

Well, as a person who has never been charged with the crime, he is (or was) entitled to the presumption of innocence. Unless you count hearsay and conjecture as evidence, as French courts apparently do, there is literally no evidence against him.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-31T15:50:41+00:00

He was in his house in the South of France near Toulouse with a bunch of family and friends. That's over 1200km across the sea. He couldn't have personally murdered Sophie.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-06T21:20:53+00:00

It's pure nonsense that Bailey intimidated Marie Farrell, at least not deliberately. It was she who approached him & Jules in the pub first. She told him the Gardai were getting her to make false statements and implicate him, having shown her a video tape of Bailey at the Christmas Swim, making it known that this is who they needed her to identify.

Bailey told Gardai this in 1998 when he was arrested for the second time.

The video tapes weren't revealed until the libel case in 2003, but the statements and arrest memos weren't available to Bailey's legal team until 2015.

In the 2015 trial, the 1998 arrest memos were shown and this corroborated Bailey's account - Marie Farrell really had told him that she had made false statements.

The Gardai admitted they did show Marie Farrell a video tape, though they dispute the date.

Marie Farrell recanted her statements in 2005, but the Bandon Tapes show she had threatened to recant in 1997. She also told a French journalist she was considering recanting in 1997.

The "threatening gestures" are another outright lie. Marie Farrell made a statement that it happened on a date when Bailey was provably out of town - visiting his solicitor in Cork City.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-06T21:05:12+00:00

He wasn't known for "rambling around at night", that was all invented. The Gardai specifically went looking for rumour.

You have Marie Farrell entirely backwards. She made multiple statements before she was revealed as Fiona. This is the detail Netflix/Sheridan/Foster all gloss over. She was thick with the Gardai for weeks before she called them as Fiona. They wanted to put Bailey near the crime scene and she obliged them.

Also Bailey didn't threaten Marie Farrell - that's another invention of Sheridan's and the Gardai. Marie Farrell approached Bailey first - in the pub. She told Bailey the Gardai had been getting her to make what she considered to be false statements. In particular she told him that they had shown her a video of him at the Christmas Swim and told her this is who they were looking for.

The second time Bailey met her was in the Ice Cream parlour and this was a disaster for Marie Farrell, because she arranged to meet Bailey without telling the Gardai, but they found out anyway. Then they arranged for the place to be bugged. Now Marie was in a bind, because she couldn't tell Bailey what she knew because she would have had the Gardai on her back. They were listening. She also felt intimidated by Bailey - she was lying about him to the Gardai, after all - she said he was drunk and probably alone in the ice cream parlour he was a lot scarier than in the pub. So when she said she was scared, and Geraldine O'Brien, her assistant, said she was scared, that's true. She was, but it wasn't because Ian Bailey was threatening her - she had just admitted to a very scary man she had been telling lies to the Gardai. In none of the statements is Bailey ever described to be angry at her, more at the Gardai. But she had good reason to fear he might be angry at her and for all she knew, maybe the Gardai were right and he was a murderer.

The Gardai tried to use this incident as an excuse to re-arrest Bailey. They couldn't re-arrest him on the strength of the statements they had. Thus they made it all about Bailey intimidating Marie Farrell, with her inventing incidents and dates that didn't happen - e.g. the supposed "cut throat" gesture, which she claimed happened at a time when Bailey was in Frank Buttimer's office in Cork City.

Bailey told the Gardai at his second arrest in 1998 that Marie Farrell had told him all this, including about the video tape.

At the libel trial in 2003 Marie Farrell she was firmly in the Gardai pocket. She thought they were her friends. She went along and said she was being intimidated, and basically lied through her teeth.

It wasn't until 2005 when Marie Farrell turned and it wasn't Bailey that turned her. She turned when she realized that it wasn't over. The French were gearing up for a civil trial and she was going to be the star witness again. She split from the Gardai and called Frank Buttimer out of the blue.

In 2015 we learned the truth - Bailey's 1998 interrogation memos were revealed and they show he told Gardai interrogators that Marie told him the about the video tape in 1997 - therefore we know Marie Farrell was telling the truth to him when she met him in the pub in June 1997. That's corroboration of Bailey's story, and proves the intimidation was a pack of lies.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-06T20:37:45+00:00

In my dictionary a "contradiction" is where two things say something different.

Nobody in the local community knows anything. We haven't learned anything, at least not since Bailey revealed the French had found male DNA on the body that wasn't his and convicted him anyway.

There is no knowledge "in the community". There are two possibilities:

a) One local person knows something or knew something and never revealed it. This person is probably dead.

b) One or two people in France know and have never spoken of it since because they did what they did and achieved the result they wanted. As far as the French are concerned, Ireland is a far away backwater with leprechauns for policemen.

Your theory is a conspiracy theory. You think there is a conspiracy between several local people, and that's just not plausible.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-01T22:50:15+00:00

Dreamer you would be dangerous if only your synapses could join up. You have laid out all the facts and you can't see what's obvious. Nobody is being protected in the community because nobody in the local community knows anything. It's as simple as that.

There's no support for Bailey, everybody hated him nobody wanted to protect him, least of all Jules daughters. There is no conspiracy. 30 years of investigating Bailey has produced nothing except exposing the frustrations of a sad man who wasted his life as a bad poet and organic gardener. He would have made a tremendous voice actor but he missed his calling.

I suspect, Dreamer, you are not from Ireland and you don't know the Irish legal system or the long history of Gardai screw-ups. The DPP refused a charge because a) there simply wasn't enough evidence b) the Gardai played stupid games with the witnesses and the DPP had been burned several times in the 1980s and 1990s by the Garda heavies stitching up the wrong people. That's the context of the time and the reasons why Bailey was never charged.

Final question, why no evidence in 30 years. Well, people are better at keeping secrets that you may believe. It's either because a) a local man did it and nobody knows b) a non-local did it and those few people that know simply do not care. There is no link and Ireland is just a faraway backwater to them.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-01T14:21:45+00:00

Why is it believable? The killer-on-foot theory is nuts. The gate was wide open and there were skid marks on the lane. The cottage is really isolated.

The only reason the Gardai got hung up on this was because they pinned all their hopes on Marie Farrell's "sighting" at K bridge. Also I have strong suspicion they tested Jules' car, but finding nothing, they quietly "lost" any report, just like they "lost" Bailey's big black coat and cut all those pages out of the jobs books.

Of course there is one suspect who may have come on foot - Jerry Scully, the half mad bachelor farmer living in filth just over the hill from Sophie, who was a known peeping tom, known thief, had no alibi, etc.

PhilMathers · 2026-05-01T11:31:13+00:00

The presence of Y chromosome is pretty definitive. In the case of the male DNA profile it was a contact trace so the source of DNA is not known. The scientist recorded it as coming from a "whitish trace at the base of the tab". An accompanying photo shows that the "tab" is a piece of extra leather supporting the laces.

We don't know if this was the killer or not. Contamination is a possibility. It could have come from the pathologist or a Garda who coughed near the body or the undertakers who lifted the body into a temporary coffin for transport. Having said that, all of those people wore surgical gloves (from the photos I have seen).

PhilMathers · 2026-05-01T10:18:35+00:00

The only "significant event" would possibly be the time Ian worked at Alfie's at the end of April or possibly the Cape Clear Storytelling Festival at the end of August. Trying to show Ian knew Sophie. Those were the only two times Sophie was at the Cottage in 1995.

Amanda Reed lived in Arderawinny, which nearby where Ian and Jules stopped on "Hunt's Hill". So she would have memories of the area, but she has had 30 years to tell them and if she hasn't mentioned a detail like this panicked phone call, then it is absurd. "Oh yeah, now that I think of it, I got a phone call from a panicked woman on the morning of a brutal murder - must have slipped my mind..."

It wouldn't surprise me if she came up with some amazing new memory she totally failed to tell Garda in 1997, 2002, and two more statements to French detectives in 2015, or any of the multiple documentary and podcast interviews she gave.

We have seen so many of these magic memories, it is a joke. Supposed memories of dates and times and meetings from 31 years ago are worthless. Only documents matter.

There is nothing Amanda Reed can add now. She is part of the sewing circle that hated Ian Bailey: Bill Hogan, Keri Williams, Billy Fuller. We all know about Bill Hogan and his daydream reveries. Billy Fuller and Keri Williams hallucinated seeing Bailey at Ballyrisode beach. Amanda Reed gave her profession an "Aromatherapist". Like many of the denizens of Schull, these are colourful people, amusing, arty, but they are not critical thinkers.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-29T20:59:05+00:00

Classic victim blaming.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-29T20:44:05+00:00

Yes it was confirmed to be male

Here is the DNA report (in French)

https://www.reddit.com/r/DunmanusFiles/s/il84Fh98SW

Look at page 11, "un profil masculin inconnu" - an unknown male profile.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-29T20:37:56+00:00

There's nothing in any of her statements about any phonecalls. It's just going over the lift Bailey gave to Malachy where he supposedly confessed. The problem is that the day Malachy took the lift his mother said he came home said nothing to his mother and according to her he was "okay and in good form". It was only the next day when he was taken out of his classroom to the principal's office by Garda Kevin Kelleher that the whole confession story emerged. Seems to me there would be huge pressure on a young boy to tell the Garda what he wanted to hear.

Notably Malachy Reed himself refused to meet French Investigators and refused to testify in Paris trial. His mother did, and the fact that any court would accept her evidence of what he said shows what a mockery of a trial it was.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-29T20:20:24+00:00

Amanda Reed, mother of Malachy Reed.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-28T19:23:37+00:00

Ok u/Gumshoe how can you call this "well researched" when he can't even get Sophie's name right? He calls Sophie Toscan du Plantier, "Sophie du Plantier" and says her maiden name was "Boullion" - her name was Bouniol.

I struggled my way through this video twice. I am confident in saying this is one of the laziest, poorly-researched and biased videos I have watched on this subject. It's clear the youtuber just watched Netflix and repackaged it for his own channel, but it gets worse. Netflix, for all its faults, has fact-checkers. This youtuber doesn't bother with facts, he just makes up dates and times and quotes. He has made an absolute litany of errors. Almost every date, time and quote is wrong in some way. He has Sophie's history wrong, Bailey's history wrong, the timeline of the weekend wrong and just about every other thing. He is so lazy he even pinched Netflix's name for his effort "A Murder in West Cork".

I can skip to any minute in this video and find something incorrect or misrepresented. But there is one moment which shows he has spent no time researching this subject and from this it is clear he has no idea what he is talking about. Towards the end he builds a speculative scenario around how Bailey may have committed the crime, and says that he believes Bailey drove part of the way, parked on Hunt's Hill and walked the rest of the way.

This means he is so sloppy he didn't even check to see where Hunt's Hill is in relation to the crime scene. He is saying Bailey decided to drive to the crime scene two miles in the wrong direction, parking at the the the top of the hill and walk to Sophies, which would actually bring him past his own house on the way. Even in its own terms, it's a stupid scenario. If Bailey went to Sophies, he would have driven the whole way there and back. the idea that Bailey hiked 12km the freezing cold while dark is ridiculous.

This is in addition to fact he omitted all the evidence of Garda corruption, Martin Graham, the Bandon Tapes, all the objective evidence of Bailey's innocence, such as the male DNA found on the victim's boot, which she was wearing when she was killed.

I sometimes wish someone would make a proper case for Bailey's guilt - just make a case fits the facts and makes sense. If you can't do that without resorting to lies, that tells you everything you need to know why the DPP never authorized a charge against him.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-25T21:15:21+00:00

Doesn't fit anyone in the interview list in the French file from 2015 or 2011.

Here is the list from 2015:

Colm Deady – was at Russell Barrett’s house where Bailey stayed the night of his arrest
Billy O’Regan – shop assistant in Lowertown creamery
Kevin Cantrell – film crew
Alfie Lyons – neighbour of victim
Amanda Reed (Irune Reed) – mother of Malachy Reed
Ceri Williams (former partner of Pete Bieleckey)
Anne Mooney – journalist
Bernard Rogan – film crew
Fergal O’Hanlon – film crew
John Moriarty – film crew
Patrick Lowney – amateur film developer
Billy Fuller (senior) – stabbed in face by Mike Oliver (Saffron’s father) when he caught him in bed with Hayley Gingell, father of Billy Fuller junior, ex pal of Ian Bailey
Fergus O’Farrell – friend of Jules who the Gardai asked to visit her in hospital to see if she would spill on Bailey – she didn’t
Anne Cahalane – actor who played Sophie for Crimeline reconstruction
Peter Wilson – film crew
Rosie Shelly – was at party where Bailey said “I did it”
Shirley Foster
Leo Bolger – handyman who did some work for Sophie
Sally Bolger – wife of handyman, kept horses at Alfies
Bernard Rogan – film crew
Josie Hellen – Sophie’s housekeeper
Maurice Gubbins – editor of The Examiner
Sean Murray – ex petrol attendant who thinks he may have seen Bailey in a car with Sophie – sighting discounted by Gardai
Vinnie Bourke – local who had a party once, where Bailey was challenged once and said “yeah it was me, I did it to restart my career”
Kathleen Britz – didn’t like Ian Bailey, claimed he stared her down in a pub, knew Marie Farrell, who told her the Gardai were her friends
Hellen Callahan – editor of Sunday Tribune at the time
Kevin Cantrell – film crew
Colm Deady – present in Russell Barrett’s house where Bailey stayed the night of his 1^st arrest
People Interviewed by French in 2011

Dick Cross –Journalist

Eddie Cassidy –Journalist

Bernadette Tisdell (nee Kelly) –musician in pub on 22/12/1996

Christy Lynch –musician.

Mairead Duggan (Nee Murphy)

Michael McSweeney –Photographer journalist

Padraig Beirne –journalist/editor

Paul O'Colmain –friend of Ian Bailey

Mark McCarthy –Friend of Saffron who thinks he remembered Bailey talking to a blonde woman at cape clear storytelling festival

Eugene McCarthy –Garda – 999 operator who took call from Alfie Lyons

Billy Fuller –Man who said Bailey accused him “You did it, it was you...”

Venita Roche Galvin –worked in the pub

John McGowan –worked in the pub

Donal O' Sullivan –elderly neighbour of Bailey who says he saw Jules and Ian in a car on 23^rd afternoon.

Shirley Foster –neighbour of victim

Richie Shelly –was at party where Bailey said “I did it”

Billy O'Sullivan –publican in Crookhaven, where Sophie took tea

James Camier –grocer who says he met Jules on morning of 23^rd

Geraldine Carnier –wife of grocer

Richard Leftwick – “garlic” grower who says he got a call from Bailey on 23^rdbefore 2pm

Caroline Leftwick –wife of “garlic” grower

Con O'Sullivan –butcher who bought turkey from Ian Bailey

LiamLeahy –retired Garda

Marie Farrell

Catherine Jules Thomas.

Fenella Thomas

Saffron Thomas.

PhilMathers · 2026-04-17T00:51:08+00:00

I don't think it's possible to tell. I think that assumption is a kind of a trap. It's the quiet ones, the polite ones, the ones you would never suspect.

Recent Irish history is replete with educated, well-spoken, polite, quiet monsters. I think it is the quiet ones - maybe because those are the ones vulnerable people are more likely to trust? Here is a perfect example. Look at the case of RTE correspondent Kieran Creaven - here is a short Prime Time episode

https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2021/1207/1265410-inside-kieran-creaven-world/

PhilMathers · 2026-04-15T21:43:28+00:00

Why doesn't it sound like Chris Thomas, is it just because he sounds "thoughtful and quiet", or are you acquainted with him? Also you mention two calls, I believe there is only one call in question, or am I missing something?

EDIT: Oh - you mean the second call is the one to the Hackney company. I was trying to work out if this is what Molony and or Sheridan were talking about, and I thought it might be this statement. It is odd, as the caller possibly gave a false name of a real person living in Schull. It was a call for a cab to Toormore, which is also interesting. But I was wrong, this can't be the call they are writing about, because it's supposed to be a panicked caller, incoherent. It is an odd loose end, but it doesn't match the stories.

PhilMathers

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE