Toscan du Plantier family thanks locals for giving them 'strength to continue the fight'

The parents of murdered French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier yesterday paid tribute to the people of west Cork, saying the support they have received from ordinary Irish people has helped them persevere in their quest for justice for their daughter.

Georges and Marguerite Bouniol said they would forever be indebted to the people of Goleen, Schull and Bantry and elsewhere for the sympathy they had shown them since the murder of their daughter at her holiday home at Toormore some 16 years ago.

Yesterday, Georges Bouniol accepted an invitation from the parish priest of Goleen, Fr Alan O’Leary, to address the congregation at the midday Mass at the Star of the Sea Church in the west Cork village and express the family’s gratitude to the people of the area.

‘We thank you’

“We, Sophie’s parents, have come here today to offer our thanks to the people of Goleen, Schull, Bantry and the west Cork area,” said Mr Bouniol, assisted by family friend Jean Antoine Bloc-Daudet, who translated his address for massgoers.

“We have been missing Sophie now for 16 years and we thank you all for your messages of sympathy expressed through the few words and smiles that tells us: ‘We are with you and support you, and we hope that you stand and remain strong’.

“We join our prayers with yours and we ask God to help us find the truth and justice and for justice to be done soon. We renew our trust and faith in the justice of Ireland and we keep our hope,” he said to applause from the congregation.

Afterwards, Ms Bouniol echoed her husband’s comments, saying the support of local people in west Cork had helped them when they felt despondent and had given them “the strength to continue the fight for justice for Sophie”.

Earlier, Mr and Ms Bouniol, along with Mr Bloc-Daudet and his wife, Marie Paule, had paused beside the simple granite Celtic cross, now beginning to green with moss, which marks the spot where their daughter was murdered in the early hours of December 23rd, 1996.

Annual pilgrimage

Ms Bouniol had earlier told The Irish Times that making what has become a near annual pilgrimage to her daughter’s isolated holiday home at Dreenane in Toormore was never easy but was something they felt they owed their daughter.

Asked if she ever felt like resigning herself to the possibility that her daughter’s killer might never be caught, Ms Bouniol was clear and resolute: “I do not know what else I could have done to get a better outcome for my daughter, but equally I know we will not rest . . . we can never do enough in our quest for justice for Sophie and we will not give up hope,” she said.