Sophie Toscan du Plantier told friend about 'weird' man in west Cork, court told
Sophie Toscan du Plantier told a friend that a “weird” man in west Cork who had an interest in poetry wanted to meet her in the days before her death, the Ian Bailey murder trial heard today.
The witness, Agnes Thomas, had been a friend of Ms du Plantier’s and had visited the west Cork home near where the deceased woman’s body was found in December 1996. She told the court in Paris today that a week or ten days or so before Ms du Plantier was murdered she’d told her, Ms Thomas, of a man who wanted to meet her. Ms Thomas said that she warned her friend about meeting somebody who sounded “weird”.
“She didn’t really want to meet him and didn’t know what to do,” Ms Thomas told the court. She first related this conversation in 2015, some nineteen years after Ms du Plantier’s murder.
Under questioning, Ms Thomas said that she remembered the conversation in 2015 after seeing FILM footage about her friend in which poetry was mentioned. This reference was what prompted her memory of the conversation with Ms du Plantier in 1996.
It was pointed out to her that when French magistrates began investigating the murder in 2008, she had not related anything about this conversation.
“The brain is a complex thing,” Ms Thomas said. “I lost my best friend, it was so shocking. Something blocked in me and it took years before it came back to me when I saw the footage that mentioned something about poetry.”
She also told the court that she had worked with the association set up to find out the truth about Ms du Plantier’s death, “because she was my friend”.
The trial in the Palais de Justice in Paris is taking place despite the absence of the defendant, Mr Bailey. All of the witnesses so far have been French, none of whom were in the area at the time of the murder. A number of witnesses living in west Cork have been listed for the trial but none so far have appeared.
According to legal sources there is hope that at least one witness will travel today or tomorrow for the trial.
Earlier yesterday the court heard from an elderly witness who said he was a friend of Daniel Toscan, Ms du Plantier’s husband at the time of his death.
Jacob Gilbert gave evidence despite never having been interviewed by any magistrates or investigators about the case prior to his appearance today. He described the deceased woman as having no time for fame or the limelight.
“She was beautiful, reserved,” he said. “She needed calm because of the lifestyle of Toscan…Francois Mitterard knew him. He was high profile. She was kind and deep. She worked and wanted to do things. She didn’t want to be only a wife.”
He told the court that her husband had been destroyed by her death and didn’t emerge from his grief for a long time.
When asked why her husband hadn’t travelled to Ireland to co-operate with the initial garda investigation M Gilbert said the Mr Toscan didn’t have “the courage” to it at a time of grief.
