Murder at the Cottage | Sky

Thanks, I had forgotten that case and it is good to recall that some Gardai do a great job and that DNA is a tremendous forensic tool. I would love to have seen David Lawler's face when he realised that he had supplied the evidence that would send him away for life! (I think and hope he is still in prison. I wonder if he is guilty of other unsolved murders, like his cousin Larry Murphy who was in the same class with him in school?)

But the Gardai had put David Lawler on the spot by asking for a sample, as they did with many others in that investigation, and he took the risk, probably because poor Marilyn Rynn's body wasn't found for two weeks. IB was persistently volunteering his samples during questioning in Bandon Garda station when everyone assumed that forensic evidence would be recovered from the murder scene.

Let's see if those sunglasses help get a conviction for that horrible gang attack in Blanchardstown. The defence will try everything to exclude that evidence.

The amount of drink Bailey & JT were consuming at the time of the murder, I'm surprised they could remember their own names waking up in the morning....

Was JT not taking sleeping pills as well?

I can't remember what time I went to bed at last night? And I was sober watching bands from the nineties on Youtube. I left the property to check the out houses were locked before turning in. Thankfully, nobody was murdered in the vicinity last night, otherwise I might have some explaining to do...

Sorry Gard, I can't remember what time I left the house last night, I don't recall seeing any cars passing, but there might have been.. Don't recall how long I was outside for?

Imagine being questioned after being on a bender... Although Bailey gave conflicting statements about his movements on the night before the murder, I can only imagine how foggy his brain would be whilst in the process of sobering up.

I would also question Maria Farrell's eye witness account of the man near the bridge...

It would appear that she didn't want to be identified in the beginning (hence the fake name 'Fiona'). She rang from phone booths originally to mask her identity. This leads to two possible things:

1) She did see somebody by the bridge that night, and wanted to share this information with the Gards. Maybe she was with somebody she shouldn't have been with, hence the false name etc....

2) She's a total fruit cake that wanted to manipulate the enquiry with made up stories?

It really makes no difference now going forward.. Her reputation is shot to pieces, and she has been discredited numerous times.

I hope the case is opened up again.

One thing here is a fair point and something that struck me when watching the documentary where they show the Christmas swim.

Firstly Bailey references something about talking to his lawyer which comes across a bit strange but knowing his apparent penchant for dark/mistimed humour, I just assume it was probably another bad joke.

What struck me most about the clip however was that to me he seemed to act completely normally, he recites a poem, says thank you/happy Christmas and just seems boringly normal (for him). Bearing in mind this is a couple of days after a violent frenzied attack. I'd say something if the man was Peter Suthcliffe and had a string of murders behind him but he definitely didn't act the way I'd have expected someone to act two days after having committed their first murder.

JT mentions multiple times that she doesn't think he'd have been able to keep something like this from her. From my take on watching that he'd want to have been incredibly good at hiding it.

Really like I was travelling all around Europe in the eighties, we used maps to get around, believe me once you can read a map you can find anywhere on the planet within reason without much bother, one would think we were driving around in circles like eegits asking locals where we were before the advent of google maps and sat navs the way some people are talkin

The entire country is covered in minute detail by Ordnance Survey maps. The half inch to a mile (1:126,720) scale map at the time would have had far more detail than Google maps shows today. It would also have had the advantage that a paper map doesn't have location tracking built in.

Anyone with even very basic mapreading skills could plan and follow a route on a map to her house.

One cannot assume without evidence that the murderer had to have known the area and been local.

That's all well and good, if you had the location of the house on your map.

It's not like it's a house a stranger to the area would happen across.

Therefore it's reasonable to assume the murderer knew the house either as a local or visitor

or had directions from someone who was familiar with the location.

If you had the name of the townland the house is in it would be no problem to find. Also as another person has mentioned the person could have been a guest at the house before or could have researched the location of the house prior to that night. People are reliant on google maps and sat nav ( these are not always that helpful either )now but back then people used actual maps, took directions down etc., looked for landmarks to get to their location. It wasnt that difficult.

I lived rurally at that time - never had a problem with people not being able to find us.

GSOC examined this and said JT’s arrest was lawful and reasonable. She had also given incorrect information about their movements that night, she said they were at the Courtyard Bar and went straight home. Then she later said they were in the Galley and stopped on the way home so IB could have a wander outside the car. It’s another element the DPP got wrong.

With respect to you I think you sound like a townie who has no idea of country areas. People found exactly where they needed to go in those days even in very very remote areas. From the maps Sophies house wasnt even that hard to find. Your use of the term 'cattle station' shows you have no idea of irish country areas -LOL what the hell is a cattle station. Im from a farming background - no Irish person ever calls a farm a cattle station. Im guessing you were not even in Ireland in 1996 to know what it was like.

Four months previously (Aug '96) it was mentioned that the house just visible from Alfie's yard belonged to a French film producer. At that point IB asked if that was Sophie. When asked if he knew Sophie he replied 'just to see'. He gave no indication he knew she lived there prior to that. He could have been lying but why? Alfie heard IB and didn't contradict him.

In terms of how easy it was to find the place - our guide was a very close friend of Alfie and Shirley's and had been there many times. He got lost. Kept missing the turn into the Boreen. And no, he wasn't using a map as he believed he knew where he was going. Except he didn't. And no, no locals were asked for directs as they weren't any locals hanging around the back of beyond on that early Sunday afternoon in August '96.

Until last week the 3 cottages were incorrectly marked on Google Maps as Kealfadda.

And "Kealfadda Bridge" is actually Ballyrisode Bridge

So navigating by Google Maps is not a great idea in this case.

Local in ‘local house isn’t hard to find’ shocker.

Holiday makers presumably aren’t arriving in the middle of the night. Everyone involved in any documentary and article says it’s hard to find even if you have an idea where you are going.

Jules and Ian both agree he drove them home from the pub that night, he wasn’t blind drunk and would be even more sober a couple of hours later. There’s no reason to think if he wanted to go to Alfie’s house next door that night, as Jules said in her statement, that he wouldn’t have driven there too.

Anyone that had a reason to find Sophies house would have had no problem finding that house - even in 1996. The logic that the murderer must be local because nobody else could have found the house is complete nonsense.

I think the debate about the ease or otherwise of locating Sophie's home is a bit of a red herring.

Whoever did it almost definitely knew her.

Even in the previously discussed and very unlikely event of it being a contract killing, the killer would certainly have ascertained his route in and out beforehand.

I agree.

I am, however, amused at the number of people who are certain it was a breeze to find what with OS maps and everything yet none of them ever set foot in the place. I am saying I was there in August 1996, and a person familiar with the house had difficulty finding it. That's it. I make no comment on locals vs visitors etc etc.