The family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has written to the French government urging it to reject an attempt by a retired solicitor in the Director of Public Prosecution’s office to have Ian Bailey’s murder conviction overturned on appeal.Bailey, who died in January 2024, was convicted in absentia by the Cour d’Assises in Paris in May 2019. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail for the voluntary homicide of mother of one Toscan du Plantier (39) at her holiday home near Schull in west Cork in December 1996.Robert Sheehan, the now retired solicitor at the office of the DPP who directed Bailey should not be prosecuted for the murder, has written to the French authorities urging them to overturn Bailey’s conviction.Sheehan said separate forensic elements of the Garda cold case review involving American experts and checks of a Europe-wide DNA database had failed to link Bailey to the block and rock used to bludgeon Toscan du Plantier to death.However, Toscan du Plantier’s uncle Jean-Pierre Gazeau has told The Irish Times the intervention is based on a flawed premise.He said it was wrong for Sheehan to presume that because no reports have linked Bailey to the murder scene, he should then be considered innocent of the crime.“The arguments now being put forward rest essentially on inferences drawn from the absence, to date, of any public disclosure concerning certain forensic investigations currently underway in Ireland,” he said.Gazeau said the fact the Garda cold case team has begun searching international databases to seek a match for unidentified DNA found on his niece’s boot, shows “the investigation continues to progress nearly thirty years after the events”.Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) was found murdered at her holiday home near Schull in 1996. Photograph: Family Handout/PA