GARDAÍ INVESTIGATING THE murder of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier have seized items from the flat of Ian Bailey, who died last Sunday.

A team of officers seized items including notebooks, computer equipment, memory sticks and a mobile phone for examination from a rented flat in Bantry, Co Cork.

They spent much of this morning and afternoon searching the property after obtaining a warrant to examine the premises on Barrack Street.

Personal items such as hairbrushes, combs and razors will be forensically examined at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Dublin.

This will facilitate gardai in gathering a broader DNA profile than the one given by the British national in a voluntary sample 27 years ago.

Other personal items such as the musical collection and clothes of the 66-year-old were not taken from the property.

The search was carried out by local detectives along with members of the Serious Crime Review Team who are carrying out a cold case review of the original Garda investigation.

Bailey was cremated at the Island Crematorium in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork earlier this week following his passing of a suspected heart attack. His ashes were sent to his sister Kay Reynolds who resides in the UK.

Bailey was on two occasions detained by gardaí for questioning in relation to the murder of 39-year-old Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Bailey always denied any wrongdoing in relation to the murder of the film producer, who had a holiday home in West Cork. 

In 2019, he was convicted in absentia after a trial in France and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. However, officials in France were unable to extradite the British man to Paris to serve the sentence handed down by the courts.

The body of Ms Du Plantier was discovered outside her remote holiday home in Toormore on the outskirts of Schull in West Cork on 23 December 1996.