THE FORMER PARTNER of Ian Bailey, the self identified chief suspect in the west Cork murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, is to sue Netflix and the director of a documentary.
Jules Thomas, a well known artist in west Cork, has issued legal proceedings against the online streaming service following the broadcast of Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.
The three part film was shot in Ireland and France and features interviews with residents of Schull, members of the press and Sophie’s family including her son, Pierre-Louis Baudey.
An entry on the High Court’s website shows that Thomas, who is originally from the UK, is suing Netflix, the makers Lightbox Media Ltd and director John Dower.
Du Plantier was a French television and film producer who was beaten to death outside her holiday home near Schull, west Cork, in 1996.
Thomas had been a long term partner of Bailey, a British journalist, who moved to the west Cork community of Schull more than two decades ago.
Bailey was arrested by gardaí and questioned in relation to the murder but he was never charged. He was convicted by a French court in his absence following a campaign by Sophie’s family.
The Irish High Court has refused to allow his extradition to France.
Irish filmmaker Jim Sheridan has also released, on Sky television, his five-part examination of the case Murder at the Cottage: The search for justice for Sophie.
Last July gardaí announced that they were to conduct a full review of the investigation into the murder.
That re-examination is still ongoing and it is understood that officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation have interviewed a number of people and traced the whereabouts of members of the public mentioned in the original file.
At the time of the investigation a law officer in the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote a scathing 45-page report on the investigation and refused to give gardaí a direction to charge.
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