Gardaí are to interview award-winning film director Jim Sheridan about new information he has over the murder of French beauty Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Cork in 1996.
They contacted him in the last few days and are due to meet in the coming weeks.
The movie legend, who made the five part Sky series Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie, does not believe long time suspect Ian Bailey killed her - and that the answer to the riddle lies in France.
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He and his research team have obtained new information that Sophie, 39, was followed in the afternoon before she died in Schull, west Cork on December 23, 1996.
They subsequently identified the man trailing her from a photofit by witnesses as a European national who lived in Paris. He also had a link to Sophie's late ex husband Daniel.
Last night Mr Sheridan said: " The Gardaí have contacted me as part of their investigation and I am more than happy to sit down and meet with them. I will fully cooperate and give them whatever information and help I can.
"We all want to find out who killed Sophie and for her to finally get justice".
The director has spent over seven years researching the French woman's death.
He firmly believes the French side of the murder was never fully investigated.
Garda detectives originally sent to Paris weeks after the brutal killing never got to sit down and question her husband Daniel.
Instead it was left to the French police to deal with him and the gardaí were given a written statement from Mr du Plantier. They never at any stage got to interrogate him.
Sophie's husband didn't come to Ireland to bring home her body either and didn't return to west Cork or stand in their house until several years after the murder.
Jim Sheridan said: "I have always believed there were many unanswered questions in France over Sophie's death.
"I hope the gardaí can go and track down the man we have identified and see what he was doing following Sophie in the hours before she died. It would also be interesting if gardaí get his DNA. We believe this is a lead worth following.
"I have always said if the gardaí looked at other possible suspects apart from Ian Bailey they might catch the killer.
"If you look at all the overall evidence I don't believe Ian Bailey did it."
Gardai also found no DNA evidence linking Bailey to the crime scene.
Jim Sheridan is also hoping that huge improvements in DNA technology worldwide will also help the gardaí solve the case.
Sophie's body was found on a lane 100 yards from the front door of her holiday home. She was battered to death and struck over 50 times with a rock.
Gardai are now investing huge resources into the murder enquiry with a team based in Bantry, Co Cork, between the ongoing probe and a cold case review. Interpol has also been drafted in to help to track down and interview witnesses abroad.
So far Ian Bailey has not had any contact from gardaí investigating the murder. He was arrested twice but never charged with the murder.
In 2019 he was found guilty and given a 25-year jail sentence in absentia by a French court for killing her.
But Irish judges have refused to extradite him since the French trial was regarded as a Kangaroo court based largely on hearsay evidence that would never be allowed in an Irish court of law.
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