Death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier

The Sophie Toscan du Plantier incident was at the centre of an extradition case surrounding a prime suspect in the case, Ian Bailey, and the desire of the French authorities that he be brought to France to be questioned.[9]

In February 2010, a European Arrest Warrant was issued by a French magistrate which led to the High Court in Ireland granting an extradition order.[10] This was appealed to the Supreme Court by Mr Bailey.[11] In March 2012, the appeal was granted by the Irish Supreme Court.[12] All five judges upheld the appeal on the ground that the French authorities had no intention to try him at this stage; four of the judges also upheld the argument that the European Arrest Warrant prohibited surrendering Mr Bailey to France because the alleged offence occurred outside French territory and there was an absence of reciprocity.[13]

In March 2017, Bailey was arrested in Ireland on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the French authorities. The warrant sought to extradite Bailey to France to stand trial for the voluntary homicide of Sophie Toscan du Plantier and the High Court of Ireland endorsed the warrant. Bailey immediately instructed his legal team to oppose the application.[14] Bailey was successful in avoiding extradition, and in 2018, a French court ruled there was "sufficient grounds" for Bailey to face trial in absentia.[5] As Bailey was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison May 31, 2019 by a French court the conviction is expected to lead to a new French arrest warrant and renewed extradition attempts.[15]

On 12 October 2020, Ireland's High Court ruled that Bailey could not be extradited.[16] Later that same month, the Irish State decided not to appeal the High Court's finding[17] effectively ending all attempts to extradite Bailey.

In 2014, when it came to light that phone calls at Garda stations had been secretly recorded, there were claims that some recordings from Bandon Garda station had evidence of irregularities in the Toscan du Plantier investigation. The Fennelly Commission, a commission of investigation established in April 2014 by the then government of Ireland, includes within its terms of reference both the recordings generally and the Bandon allegations in particular. The sole member of the commission is Nial Fennelly, a retired justice of the Supreme Court.

The murder was the subject of a 2018 true-crime podcast miniseries titled West Cork,[18] produced by Audible and hosted by documentarian Jennifer Forde and investigative journalist Sam Bungey.[19]

• List of unsolved deaths
• Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform v Bailey