WHO COMMITTED THE WEST CORK MURDER?

It was a crime that shook the sleepy, picturesque community of West Cork in Ireland – and later, the entire world.

- Emma Levett

Just a few days before Christmas in 1996, Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a 39-year old French film producer, was found outside her remote holiday home bashed to death – most likely with a bloodstained concrete block that was found nearby. Sophie was in her pyjamas and her injuries were horrendous. Her death was immediately ruled as a homicide.

The pretty rural area hadn’t seen a crime so severe in decades, and the police stumbled through the early investigations before ruling out Sophie’s husband, Daniel Toscan du Plantier – who was in France at the time of the murder. Sophie had travelled alone, so there was no obvious prime suspect until a line of enquiry led them to a local journalist, Ian Bailey.