Gardaí are reviewing the investigation file on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier following a fresh lead from a former shopkeeper nominating a new suspect for the crime.Detectives are assessing the credibility of the information given to them by Marie Farrell, who claims she can now identify a suspect she saw following Ms Toscan du Plantier days before her murder.As part of the assessment process, they are reviewing the file on the unsolved crime to find out if the person she nominated was among the 50 suspects initially identified for Ms Toscan du Plantiers murder 24 years ago.The new information was given to detectives two weeks ago by Ms Farrell, once a star witness in the investigation but whose testimony was later discredited. She gave several witness statements identifying English journalist Ian Bailey as the person she saw outside her shop and later at Kealfadda Bridge close to Ms Toscan du Plantiers house on the night of the murder.
Years later, she withdrew her testimony, claiming gardaí had pressurised her into identifying Mr Bailey and she had gone along with it.
Mr Bailey was arrested but never charged with Ms Toscan du Plantiers murder. France mounted its own investigation into the crime, resulting in the conviction of Mr Bailey for the murder following a trial in his absence.
The likelihood of French cooperation in the latest development is unlikely, sources say, given Ms Farrells credibility and the fact the French regard the case closed.
It is understood Ms Farrell was prompted by two documentaries about the crime to google the case and came across a photo of a person she claims is the man she saw outside her shop.
The person she now identifies was known to Ms Toscan du Plantiers late husband, Daniel, a film producer, and is believed to live in France.
Ms Farrell relayed the information to film director Jim Sheridan, who interviewed her for his documentary for Sky, Murder at the Cottage.
However, in the documentary she refers to the person she saw as being Middle Eastern in appearance.
Mr Sheridan believed the new information significant enough to forward to An Garda Síochána. He met two senior gardaí in a hotel in Cork, with Ian Baileys solicitor, Frank Buttimer, and confirmed to the Sunday Independenthe also made a formal statement.
Gardaí then contacted Ms Farrell, who made a formal statement two weeks ago at Skibbereen garda station in west Cork.
The new twist in the case, first reported by the Sunday Independent last week, coincides with two new documentaries that have brought Irelands most infamous unsolved murder to international audiences.
Oscar-nominated director Sheridans five-part documentary features extensive footage of Mr Bailey, who was twice arrested but never charged with the crime. A three-part documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork,was made with the cooperation of Ms Toscan du Plantier family and friends and sets out to put her at the heart of the story.
She was murdered two days before Christmas in 1996, and her body was discovered in briars at the bottom of the garden of her remote holiday home near Schull in west Cork.
Mr Bailey, then a journalist living in west Cork with his artist partner, Jules Thomas, was nominated as a suspect by gardaí.
However, an internal garda inquiry found flaws in the original police investigation, which identified Mr Bailey as the prime suspect for the murder.
A scathing report from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, which also criticised the garda inquiry, highlighted among other issues inconsistencies in Ms Farrells original garda statements, which undermined her testimony.
Ms Farrell had claimed she saw a man outside her shop, wearing a long dark coat and watching Ms Toscan du Plantier, who was inside buying a newspaper.
She described the person she saw as five-feet-eight in height, but in later statements said he was taller. Mr Bailey is six-feet-two.
Gardai identified 54 suspects for the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier, according to evidence given at Mr Baileys failed legal action against the State for wrongful arrest in 2015.
He was initially nominated as a suspect by a garda, Martin Malone, after he turned up at the crime scene at 2.20pm on the day Ms Toscan du Plantiers body was found.
The garda observed that Mr Bailey did not ask any questions and seemed to act the part of a journalist, arousing his suspicions. He nominated Mr Bailey as a good suspect on hearing he had returned to the crime scene four days later.
The other suspects included a German man who had been living in west Cork at the time but returned to Germany, where he took his own life, and a local peeping Tom.
Gardaí whittled down the suspects to Mr Bailey because of a history of violence toward his partner, Ms Thomas, scratches on his hands that he attributed to cutting trees and killing turkeys for Christmas and alleged confessions to people in the community.
Gardaí are reviewing the investigation file on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier following a fresh lead from a former shopkeeper nominating a new suspect for the crime.
