A TEAM of French investigators is to come to Ireland next month to interview more than 30 witnesses as part of its inquiry into the murder of French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork almost 15 years ago.
Investigating French magistrate Judge Patrick Gachon has asked a team of French police officers and criminal forensic scientists to travel to west Cork to meet witnesses who made statements to gardaí investigating the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.
Agreement on the visit follows a meeting between French officials, including the French interior security attaché at the French embassy in London, Eric Battesti, and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, at Garda Headquarters in Dublin last month.
Two senior gardaí, Chief Supt Tom Hayes and Det Insp Joe Moore of the West Cork division, who are both based in Bandon but were not involved in the original Garda investigation into the murder, have been appointed to liaise with the French team.
Gardaí have already approached the 30-plus witnesses whom the French investigators wish to interview and it is understood the vast majority are willing to speak with the French team.
Mr Battesti confirmed to The Irish Times that the French investigators had no powers to compel Irish or British citizens or anyone else other than French citizens to speak to them and it was entirely a voluntary matter for the witnesses whether they wished to speak to the French officers.
The composition of the French team has still to be finalised but it is understood it will consist of at least two police officers and two criminal forensic scientists, as well as a French officer attached to the Serious Organised Crime Agency based in the UK.
It is believed the French investigators will be guided by gardaí as to where witnesses will be interviewed, and that each French investigator will be accompanied by a garda and an interpreter when taking statements from the individual witnesses.
The French team is expected to spend seven days working in Ireland, mainly in west Cork, though members of the team may travel elsewhere in the country to take statements from witnesses who may have left the area in the 15 years since the French woman was murdered.
The badly beaten body of Ms Toscan du Plantier (39), a mother of one, was discovered by her neighbour, Shirley Foster, near the entrance to her holiday home at Dreenane, near Toormore outside Schull, on the morning of December 23rd, 1996.
Despite an intensive Garda investigation, during which officers arrested English journalist Ian Bailey (54) in both February 1997 and January 1998 for questioning about the killing, nobody has ever been charged with the murder.
Mr Bailey, who earlier this summer lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court against a decision by the High Court to extradite him to France in connection with the murder, has always denied any involvement in Ms Toscan du Plantier’s death.
About half of the witnesses to whom the French team wishes to speak have already given evidence on behalf of eight newspaper titles sued in a libel action in 2003 by Mr Bailey over reports that he said libelled him by linking him to Ms Toscan du Plantier’s killing.
However, it also includes approximately the same number of witnesses who did not testify in Mr Bailey’s libel action but whom gardaí believe are equally central to the file on the murder, which they presented to the DPP for consideration.
During Mr Bailey’s extradition hearing at the High Court last December, lawyers for Mr Bailey pointed out that the DPP had reviewed the Garda file on the case on a number of occasions and on each occasion directed that there be no prosecution of Mr Bailey.