A GARDA ombudsman investigation into the treatment of Ian Bailey by gardaí investigating the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has been welcomed by the Minister for Justice.
Alan Shatter said it was in the public interest that the investigation take place. It has been instigated on foot of a complaint by Mr Bailey that the investigation into Ms Toscan du Plantier’s murder in Co Cork in 1996 was flawed and prejudiced against him from the start.
The Supreme Court this week unanimously granted Mr Bailey’s appeal against his extradition to France, where police have set up their own investigation into the murder.
Mr Shatter said yesterday he understood that issues raised by a solicitor in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, in a review of the Garda investigation into the murder, formed the basis for Mr Bailey’s complaint.
“I believe that it is clearly desirable that these matters be investigated in the public interest and that the ombudsman commission is the appropriate body to do so,” he said.
The DPP review was disclosed to Mr Bailey’s lawyers during his successful Supreme Court appeal against a High Court decision to extradite him. Mr Shatter also said he was consulting the Attorney General with regard to the fact that the DPP’s review of the case only emerged as the Supreme Court was poised to rule on Mr Bailey’s appeal.
Lawyers for Mr Bailey had argued that the DPP’s review could have helped them prepare for the High Court case had it been available to them. The unsigned 44-page memo, prepared in 2001, concluded that the Garda investigation was flawed and prejudiced against Mr Bailey and the evidence did not warrant him being charged with the killing.
Mr Bailey was twice arrested for questioning about Ms Toscan du Plantier’s murder but he has always protested his innocence of any involvement in her death. He and his partner, Jules Thomas, are now suing the State.