Murder at the Cottage | Sky

I've been thinking along the same lines, her past relationship definitely throws up question marks IMO, but she could just as have been completely unaware.

Is Christopher Thomas the father of her children?

From the articles I can find, I don't know if the ages of the girls involved in the incidents match up to Jules daughters age.

Regardless, Jules was in a long term relationship and married to a man who turned out to be a serial paedophile committing some of the worst acts imaginable.

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/murder-and-suspicion-linger-in-west-cork-despite-garda-victory-31118695.html

"Martin Malone, a local garda who was dispatched to the crime scene, "got a fright" when Ian Bailey, sometime freelance journalist, turned up at 2.20pm. The last time he'd seen Mr Bailey was when his partner, Jules Thomas, had come to the station to withdraw an earlier complaint that he had assaulted her. That day, he observed that Ian Bailey was "very well dressed" in a long coat. He said he didn't ask any questions about the murder victim and "seemed to be acting the part of a journalist". "He departed too quickly and I was suspicious of him," he said in a statement some weeks later.

Four days later, Martin Malone heard that Ian Bailey was back at the crime scene. He had gone up the lane, past the garda cordon, to Alfie Lyons' house. According to Mr Malone, he had told the garda he had a message for Mr Lyons and mentioned "briquettes". Mr Malone said he was "furious" and "suspicious". He wondered was Ian Bailey trying to compromise the scene? But when he was cross-examined, he agreed that Mr Bailey could have been trying to get information out of Mr Lyons as a journalist.

That day, he nominated Ian Bailey as a "good suspect" to the incident room that was set up at Bantry Garda Station in the wake of the murder"

Bear in mind it is a guard giving this statement, and we know too well what they were capable of during this investigation.

It's an excellent line of enquiry as Jules would have had ample reason or motivation, however it was never really followed up as many things.

Like how did Bailey go to Sophie's house? By car? - if a car was heard? How did Bailey know that she was there? Where precisely was Sophie really murdered? If outside, why didn't any of the neighbours hear anything? And why was Sophie's body dumped where it was? In plain sight, to be found the next morning? If the body was dumped behind the bushes, Sophie would not have been found for several days, thus the time of death would even have been more uncertain to determine?

And if Bailey would have arrived by car, he could have driven Sophie to some site on the cliffs and thrown her into the sea to dispose of the body? One capable of killing could have done that as well?

What's also scary is that one can be sentenced in France to a lengthy jail time just on hearsay? ( just being out and about at 2 or 3am in the morning doesn't prove anything, also not if he was apparently seen at Kealfadda brige or not ) Also could Bailey have this have overturned in a European court of justice? ( apart from financial aspects ? )

This suggests that it only took the gardai 4 days to begin to point their investigation in the direction of Ian Bailey. That coincides with the claims of the gardai asking Marie Farrell to review video footage of Bailey around December 28th.

Just listening to Jim Sheridan on the Blindboy podcast - he's quite scathing of Nick Foster and the Netflix documentary. (It's the last 8 minutes of the recording)

I read on either here or elsewhere that in one of the books about the murder (could be Nick Fosters) its mentioned that he took her name.

Perhaps to aid covering up a shady past considering what is now known.

I haven't read the book myself just to be clear.

The problem is that all we have are possible theories, deductions and assumptions because the Guards failed in their job. We can only assume to a certain degree that Sophie opened the door to her house to somebody she knew, or thought she knew.

At this point I don't even believe Ian Bailey did it. There is no evidence linking him to the crime, not even a motive. It would see things differently if there was evidence connecting him with the murder. Same as the court case in France. If we're convicting somebody of murder for 25 years, we would still like to see some evidence.

I would never have ruled out Sophie's husband in France that quickly, their unhappy marriage and the possibility of a contract killing. Sophie was at last on one occasion unfaithful to her husband, - that's at least known. Sophie's husband would have benefited from the murder financially, - it would have saved him a messy and expensive divorce.

This would point to the idea that the murder wasn't planned. It would also point to Bailey, even though that's more my personal deduction. But if the murder was committed in such a frenzy as you described, the lack of evidence is also noteworthy. Could Bailey really have cleared all the evidence away, leaving nothing behind, in the state he would have been in, and that in the dead of night? I honestly don't know.... Do we know if Bailey drank alcohol earlier that evening? Was that question ever asked? We know he was a heavy drinker at times...

Well, they seemed to dispose of some of the objects \ weapons used in the assault; not the concrete block but that doesn't retain fingerprints.

Maybe they were worried if they tried to move the body, there would be too much forensics transfer.

Maybe something spooked them before they had a chance to think about dumping the body, and they fled the scene.

Or, they didn't care about obscuring the time of death, because they already had their alibi \ cover story lined up, for whatever reason brought them to the house.

So either the French publication is wrong about the January date or the bushes were completely destroyed and things were repaired and fixed.

Seems pretty weird considering the investigation was only beginning? Would the gardai have cut down the bushes looking for evidence? Seems strange.

The ditches were cut back by the Gardai in the days after the murder looking for evidence .

It appears Bailey was up to the house en route to Alfie's 4 days after the murder. (briquettes I think)

This photo was taken much later-weeks after the murder.