Murder at the Cottage | Sky

None of the evidence (even if most of it wasn't much-disputed) though amounts to anything coming even close to being enough to convict someone of murder.

The DPP cannot determine the legality of arrest either according to you. GSOC interviewed the various DPP personnel and got their opinion first hand, they would have had to seek legal counsel to dispute the DPPs opinion so clearly and in absolute terms. I think IB even had his wrongful arrest case started at that point so GSOC would have made absolute fools of themselves and also looked incompetent to contradict the future findings on this. Hedigan's judgement, as far as I can recall, said that the wrongful arrest case was statue barred because of the exceptional delay in bringing a case but if he had been forced to rule on it that it would have been a lawful arrest.

LOL, no. Report me for being a garda shill if you think the conspiracy theory spreads as far as a poster on boards whose other main contributions were about Harry and Meghan.

Yes, it was empty.

you are wrong again to say it failed in civil court as you did yesterday

So he won then?

There was much legal argument over whether it was statue barred or not, that's part of the reason the case was so long. The judge therefore felt it deserved comment in his judgement and said the wrongful arrest case would have failed on its own merits.

"The judge later noted gardaí would have been in dereliction of their duty if they had not arrested and questioned Mr Bailey. He had been arrested twice and questioned at Bandon Garda Station on suspicion of involvement, but was never charged and continually denies any involvement in the unsolved killing."

https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-20436242.html

Sorry I should have said that if Marie Farrell did see someone, regardless of who it was, the question has always been raised as to why Ian Bailey would have taken that route. The hatchet being missing, and confirmed to be in the house days prior by Sophie's cleaner, and cited as a possible cause of the blunt trauma to the back of Sophie's head, likely as she fled from the house. That would be one logical reason I could think of why he would go that way to dispose of the hatchet where it wouldn't be found rather than the more direct route back to his house.

Harry and Meghan who? We are a Republic.

And yet, as I've said before, it was IB and his team that were torn to shreds at both the libel trial and the action against the state, not the witnesses that would be used in any prosecution. The witnesses in the garda file were named in the judges remarks and he said he accepted their evidence was truthful. IB's legal team had the opportunity to cross-examine them.

About that gate, GSOC noted that any of the 'missing' items or pages seem to have gone astray sometime post 2002, after the DPP had repeatedly rejected the prospect of charges. These items would therefore have been available at a previous trial if the DPP had accepted the garda file as it was presented.

This from July 13, 2021 Independent.ie article by Senan Molony

A five-bar gate to the holiday home of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has not been “lost” by gardaí but was disposed of after it was decided it was of no value to the murder investigation.

Contrary to a flurry of social media claims alleging Garda incompetence in mislaying the item, it can now be revealed the gate was discarded intentionally.

This was done by the National Forensic Laboratory (now Forensic Science Ireland or FSI), based at Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin, and not by local gardaí in Cork.

The gate was quickly established to be of no evidential value into the investigation into the December 1996 murder of the French filmmaker at Toormore, Goleen, Co Cork.

Senior sources said the gate was initially “offered back” to be returned to the property but was not wanted. It is understood it may have been offered to Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, Mrs Toscan du Plantier’s parents.

“I had never news of the gate from the Garda. They never gave it back to me,” her son, Pierre-Louis Baudey Vignaud, who inherited the west Cork property, told the Irish Independent.

The gate had a number of bloodstains or smears on three of its bars. These were Mrs Toscan du Plantier’s blood.

Further tests were carried out on the gate for up to six months, and it was then retained for six years at the laboratory in Dublin.

It was later decided to dispose of the gate because of its large size and because it was deemed to be of no value to the murder investigation.

“In the various discovery processes when people were seeking material, a query was raised about the gate and it was stated in writing that the gate was no longer available,” said a senior source.

“That has now turned into a claim that the gate has been lost or stolen, which is not the case. It is being used as a stick with which to beat the force but the truth is very different.”

Asked for details as to how and when the gate was disposed of by, the Garda Press Office said: “An Garda Síochána does not comment on the specifics of any ongoing investigation. Queries in relation to Forensic Science Ireland should be directed towards FSI.”

A FSI spokesperson said: “We can confirm that FSI staff swabbed the gate and that the swabs were then assessed within FSI. The gate remained in the possession of the Garda Technical Bureau during this process.”

Was there any fingerprints on that wine bottle?

Because when GSOC did their investigation in 2018 they were told the Gardai did not know what happened to the gate (and a bunch of other items of evidence) and they also did not know when the gate went missing.

Now the Gardai are saying they offered it back to the family before disposing of it.

Why didn't they say this to GSOC back in 2018?