BRITISH journalist Ian Bailey, who was the main suspect in the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996, has claimed that DNA was found at the murder scene in 1996 which did not belong to either him or the French film executive.
Mr Bailey made the startling claim on Cork’s 96fm this morning, as he revealed he had to learn about the so-called “alien DNA” from the case file prepared by a French magistrate against him for a Paris-based murder prosecution.
The trial in the French capital is expected to take place either later this year or in early 2019.
The Manchester native, who has lived in west Cork for 20 over years, is demanding answers as to whether the DNA found at the murder scene was ever tested or compared against Irish or international databases.
He told 96fm PJ Coogan: “I got all of the forensic details. There were over 100 different blood samples collected at the scene. The vast majority of those were from Ms du Plantier.
“(But) there was, apparently, according to the file what was known as alien DNA – not her DNA.
Quite clearly that did not match my DNA because I had given samples and they could check against it.”
Mr Bailey said he was astounded by the revelation, and revealed that he had volunteered various samples to Gardai at the time – assured they would fully underline his innocence to authorities.
“My hope – or my prayer, if you will – is that the identity of the real murderer is revealed,” he told 96fm.
Mr Bailey went on to say that he has endured “a nightmare and torture” through being wrongly accused of the brutal killing of the French film producer at her rural cottage outside the village of Schull 22 years ago.
He also confirmed that he is now preparing to take a European Court of Human Rights challenge to the French-based prosecution which, as he said, was geared towards wrongly convicting an innocent man of the crime.
“I have been informed by my lawyer, Dominique Tricaud, that I have failed in the French Supreme Court in my challenge of the decision to charge me with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 22 years ago,” he said.
“Mr Tricaud said he was very surprised at that decision.
“I am less surprised although clearly disappointed that a prosecution repeatedly rejected by the Irish authorities could make muster in France.
He continued: “I am also angry that as part of the French investigation somebody here in Ireland in authority made the decision to not inform me that I had the right to participate in the French investigation.
“Where do I go from here?
“My French lawyers will in due course take my challenge to the false allegation that I am somehow unexplainedly connected with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier to the European Court of Human Rights.
“Even if I am tried for murder in France and found guilty under their Napoleonic Code of law all they will have done is convict an innocent person and merely managed in France what the members of An Garda Siochana tried to and failed.”
Meanwhile, the victim’s son, Pierre-Louis Bauday Vignaud, has paid tribute to the French authorities for their commitment to the investigation – and he vowed that his family will never cease their campaign for justice for Sophie.
