No because they lost the gate.
The only blood on the gate was Sophie du Plantier's
A five-bar gate to the holiday home of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has not been “lost” by gardaí but was disposed of after it was decided it was of no value to the murder investigation.
www.independent.ie
Contrary to a flurry of social media claims alleging Garda incompetence in mislaying the item, it can now be revealed the gate was discarded intentionally.
This was done by the National Forensic Laboratory (now Forensic Science Ireland or FSI), based at Garda headquarters in Phoenix Park, Dublin, and not by local gardaí in Cork.
The gate was quickly established to be of no evidential value into the investigation into the December 1996 murder of the French filmmaker at Toormore, Goleen, Co Cork.
Senior sources said the gate was initially “offered back” to be returned to the property but was not wanted. It is understood it may have been offered to Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, Mrs Toscan du Plantier’s parents.
“I had never news of the gate from the Garda. They never gave it back to me,” her son, Pierre-Louis Baudey Vignaud, who inherited the west Cork property, told the
Irish Independent.
The gate had a number of bloodstains or smears on three of its bars. These were Mrs Toscan du Plantier’s blood.
Further tests were carried out on the gate for up to six months, and it was then retained for six years at the laboratory in Dublin.
It was later decided to dispose of the gate because of its large size and because it was deemed to be of no value to the murder investigation.
“In the various discovery processes when people were seeking material, a query was raised about the gate and it was stated in writing that the gate was no longer available,” said a senior source.
“That has now turned into a claim that the gate has been lost or stolen, which is not the case. It is being used as a stick with which to beat the force but the truth is very different.”
