NEW FILM

Sophie’s family are ‘obsessed’ with suspect Ian Bailey claims movie legend Jim Sheridan ahead of new film on murder

• Published: 22:31, 13 Aug 2023
• Updated: 22:32, 13 Aug 2023

MOVIE legend Jim Sheridan has had a meeting with Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s family and is hopeful they’ll participate in his new film about her murder.

Work is expected to start in west Cork at the end of this year on the 90-minute documentary-style production.

The family were due to appear in his smash-hit Sky series Murder At The Cottage but pulled out in a row over suspect Ian Bailey.

Sophie’s parents Georges Bouniol, 97, and Marguerite Bouniol, 92, and her son Pierre felt it was sympathetic towards Bailey, who they believe killed their daughter — even though the Englishman denies it.

Jim said:  “I met Sophie’s family in Paris recently and hopefully they will take part in the movie.

“They’re obsessed with Bailey, but as far as I’m concerned he didn’t do it. 

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“There is no DNA against him, no blood, no evidence. The Gardai have his DNA and they have a blood sample from Sophie’s shoe.

“All they have to do is check Ian Bailey’s DNA against it and it will exclude him.

He added: “I am going to start a petition calling on the Gardai to do an ethnic breakdown on the sample.

“All I want is to identify the real killer and get justice for Sophie.”

The Oscar-nominated director and producer said despite the interest around Sophie’s killing he still had difficulty raising the funding to make his film.

He said: “You would think I would have no problem getting the money for a murder that everyone is interested in but that was not the case.

“The Irish media and the elite regard Ian Bailey as the killer when, as I keep saying, there is no evidence.”

The Gardai are currently conducting a cold case review of the murder of 39-year-old Sophie who was found battered to death in December 1996.

Her body was found on a lane 100 yards from the front door of her holiday home outside Schull, west Cork.

BAILEY FOUND GUILTY

Despite protesting his innocence, Bailey was found guilty of murder in absentia by a French court in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years’ jail.

But much to Sophie’s family’s anger, the Irish courts refused to extradite him to France on the basis that much of the evidence against him was hearsay.

Meanwhile, Gardai received several pieces of new information about the murder of Sophie following their public appeal before Christmas last year.

But it is not enough to make a breakthrough in the 26-year-old unsolved case.

A senior Garda source said in January: “We are making progress slowly but surely. We received a lot of new information which is extremely helpful and is now being checked

“We are effectively running two investigations side by side — the original murder probe plus the cold-case review of her murder.”