Gardaí have insisted that the file on the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier remains open after her son criticised the Irish justice system for "going around in circles" and failing to prosecute in the case.
Chief Supt Kieran McGann of West Cork Garda Division said last night that Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder remains under investigation.
He refused to be drawn further on the matter until he sees a documentary made for French TV in which Ms Toscan du Plantier's 22-year-old son, Pierre Louis Baudey Vignard, made his comments.
"I hope to see a copy of this documentary in the very near future and I won't comment until I see it. But from our point of view, the file remains open and the investigation into Ms du Plantier's death is continuing," said Chief Supt McGann.
Mr Baudey Vignard told documentary maker Serge Mousson for the series Secrets d'Actualites, on the commercial channel M6, that he had bottled up his emotions about his mother's killing for the past seven years.
But he had grown increasingly bitter about the failure of the Irish justice system to bring her killer to justice.
"I was 15 years old when this happened - I have tried to stay away from this story when, in the meantime, my grandmother and my family were struggling to find the secret behind this mystery. Now I am keen to speak, to tell of my bitterness with the Irish justice system which is going around in circles," he said.
Mr Baudey Vignard, who has retained the holiday home at Toormore outside Schull where his mother was murdered on December 22nd, 1996, expressed annoyance at the failure of the State to prosecute his mother's killer.
He added that he was particularly annoyed in the light of evidence which emerged in a libel action brought by English journalist Ian Bailey last December.
"We do not understand how, after seven years, a man can be at home, quiet, go in the village, shop there, meet people where there are such accusations are made against him which indicates that he is the suspect - even if there is no material evidence against him," said Mr Baudey Vignard.The documentary was made by Mr Mousson when he came to Ireland for the judgement in the Ian Bailey libel action last January.
Mr Mousson confirmed yesterday that he had requested Mr Bailey to appear or make a statement for the documentary.
Yesterday, Mr Bailey's solicitor in the libel action, Mr Con Murphy, said his client was refusing all interviews while appeal proceedings against Judge Moran's ruling in the libel cases were still pending. Mr Mousson confirmed to The Irish Times that Mr Bailey had contacted him three times in the past few weeks to find out what the documentary contained.