Du Plantier postmortem reveals nothing new

A POSTMORTEM on the body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier by pathologists in France, as part of an inquiry there into her killing, has failed to discover anything new, her family revealed yesterday.

Last June, a French magistrate, Judge Patrick Gachon, ordered the exhumation of the murdered Frenchwoman's body, to allow a fresh postmortem to assist an inquiry he was conducting into her murder in west Cork in December 2006. Her body was exhumed from the family plot at Conbret, in south central France, on July 1st and brought to Paris.

Toscan du Plantier's uncle and president of the Association for the Truth about the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Jean Pierre Gazeau, said yesterday the family was deeply disappointed at the failure to learn anything new about her death.

"This exceptional judicial action [the exhumation order] was a very distressing experience for Sophie's family and friends. But it also gave them new hope of a significant advancement in the murder inquiry. A vain hope." he said in a statement yesterday.

Mr Gazeau expressed disappointment at the ongoing delay by the Irish authorities in making the Garda file on his niece's murder available to Judge Gachon. He said that last July, Irish authorities undertook to send the file to their counterparts in France.

"Five months on, the file is still in Dublin, in the hands of the Irish authorities, bogged down in an obscure transfer procedure. Such a delay is not acceptable: it slows down the work of Judge Gachon.With the passing of time, the reliability of the testimonies decreases [some witnesses are deceased] and the value of evidence and samples from 1996 is compromised," Mr Gazeau said.

Mr Gazeau was also critical of French president Nicolas Sarkozy for failing to respond to letters seeking assistance.