Sophie: A Murder in West Cork - Netflix.

"The facts, at least those that are in the public domain, do not point at any one suspect"

Of course they do. What planet have you been on? Did you watch even one of the documentaries?

I was responding to a point which talked about other incidents where Bailey was drunk and lost his temper.

And as others have pointed out, Bailey had been out drinking that night.

So evidence of Bailey being violent to anyone else other Jules... zero. Not his former ex-wife. Nobody in the pub when tanked up.

How many men have convictions for domestic abuse? How many in that area?

The fact that they had a witness putting him walking at Kilfadda Bridge on the night would have lead them to believe he was on foot.

Remember Bailey only became a suspect in the days, maybe weeks after the murder and was only arrested in February.

The Gardai would not have been going around forensically examining the cars of random people like Juels Thomas if they thought the killer was on foot.

I think the Guards learned by interviewing some people in the area that Bailey was in the habit of taking walk at night alone, with no real aim, other than just for walking sake.

Thus this Kaelfadda bridge sighting was also believed, at least initially. The rest is just the overall incompetence the police portrayed during the investigation.

There is also no clarity on how much he really had to drink that night, but since Bailey was known to be a heavy drinker, at least at times, it is generally assumed, he may have had more than 3 or 4 pints of beer that night and quite possibly also Whisky. He was also known to be a Whisky drinker.

The conclusion I would have is yes, he could have done it, he had the opportunity even though the motive is unclear, but it's highly unlikely he did it given how much he had to drink that night and how much physical activity for the hike would have been required.

There were rumors going around that Bailey would take long hikes at night and howl at the moon at times. Nothing of that was ever proven, I think.

Some of these points you've raised I've wondered as well.

The Guards were able to coerce Marie Farrell, but the didn't coerce Alfie Lyons or Leo Bolger? And as you said, they had more than enough on Alfie as well as Leo to coerce them into mostly anything, - given that one of the guys would be looking at 5 to 10 years behind bars and the other possibly a shorter period of time.

So in your opinion, what could have motivated the Guards not to coerce Alfie Lyons or Leo Bolger to some false whiteness statement? Something down the line that Alfie had seen the murder, actually seen Bailey lifting the cavity block and hitting Sophie, and Leo was later on on the way to visit Alfie that morning with intention of fixing and repairing something on the house, but saw Bailey running away, blood all over him?

It could have worked, and they probably would have gotten away with it, but why didn't they? The possibility of 5 to 10 years behind bars for possession of class A drugs are pretty strong persuaders.

Maybe Alfie and Leo had something as well on the Guards, something they could have exposed as well? - so they settled on coercing Marie Farrell?

Is yours a serious statement? The fact that he had no previous form for this kind of behaviour regarding anybody other than Jules is irrelevant. The man committed at least two brutal physical assaults on a woman - his own partner - which necessitated her having hospital treatment. In very slight mitigation of him he did admit to doing so but it demonstrates what he was capable of. If he was capable of doing that he would be capable of doing worse - killing another human being.

He could have done either, in my opinion. Also, how did he get home from the pub on the night in question. Did Jules drive him? It must be around eight miles from Schull to their home at Liscaha. Sure, he could have left sometime in the small hours and walked to Sophie's. It's not that far, maybe half an hour on foot. If he drove he could have parked up somewhere not visible from the house. I have never read whether the Gardai had any definitive view on this other than that they believed he was in the vicinity and that he committed the crime.

I think small villages and towns like Schull still had the issue to deal with that emigration happened and not always the brightest stayed behind. Joining the police would have been one motivation to have a stable job, and not having to emigrate or move somewhere. Hence those small villages got what they had....

At least the courts didn't convict Bailey, as they had nothing on him.

France is most likely the other way around, more competent police, and a questionable judicial system sentencing Bailey for murder without any evidence.

It's incompetence both in France and Ireland which lead to this.

And yes, I've noticed colleagues, who were English and faced a lot of discrimination in Ireland, back in the 90ies, even as long as 1999. Finding rental accommodation was more difficult, if you were English back then and French, Spanish and Germans had it a lot easier.

And nobody in the house noticed the car being cleaned?

You ever tried to clean bloodstains out of a car?

In the dark too...

Absolutely it wouldnt have been easy to get rid of blood or any evidence in a car. They drove the very same car to the crime scene the next morning right under the nose of the gardai - no way would he risk that if he was the killer.

It's possible that somebody switched the DNA samples taken from the crime scene with blanks and than they were sent off or analysis.

This would explain why absolutely nothing was found, and also point at further police corruption or the killer was possibly himself a Guard.

I find it hard to believe that the Guards collecting the DNA evidence were so incompetent that they collected absolutely nothing. There must have been something in terms of fingerprints or DNA, remember, the gates were opened and closed by many people, - especially if Sophie insisted on it to be closed. At least Alfie and Shirley's DNA must have been in the area, - for a perfect reason, they were using it almost daily.

Jules wasn't the only person staying in the house at the time. None of them noticed a smell of bleach in the car etc etc

Maybe there was no blood? Who is making excuses now.

How did he know where the blood was and wasn't on a December night?