The middle-aged French couple probably never knew that soon after they left a shop in Bantry, west Cork, the man questioned about their daughter's murder arrived to do his shopping.

It was just before Christmas and life went on in west Cork. The parents of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, were retracing the steps of the French woman bludgeoned to death outside her holiday home exactly a year earlier in December 1996.

The Bouniols were taken to the shop to buy food. Shortly afterwards the man who had been questioned once by gardai arrived with his partner.

The French couple would probably have recognised him, as he has appeared in television and press interviews protesting his innocence.

Fourteen months after the murder the situation, bizarre enough to people in west Cork, is unfathomable to the French, where the judicial system is very different.

Lawyers for the parents and Ms du Plantier's widower Daniel have criticised the Garda and the Irish authorities over the investigation.

Gardai refused to be drawn into the row following Mr du Plantier's interview about the case in the French newspaper, Le Figaro, this week. They see it as a sideshow to the investigation, they said, best left to the politicians to comment.

Mr du Plantier said he had to wait to hear news of his wife's murder from the French Foreign Minister, and gardai at the holiday house in Toormoor refused to give them any information. Gardai have said, however, the information had to be channelled through the French embassy.

According to an embassy spokesman, an official had to travel to Schull to sign the death certificate before the French authorities could confirm the death.

There were difficulties in contacting the embassy, and Mr du Plantier was "visiting in the south of France" at the time, the spokesman said. All of this led to Mr du Plantier hearing about his wife's murder on the radio before he was officially informed.

Gardai finally spoke to him on the night of December 23rd. Sophie's body had been found at 10 a.m.

In January 1997, three days after gardai travelled to France to interview Mr du Plantier, lawyers for him and Sophie's parents filed criminal proceedings in France against her killer.

The French hoped that this would mean information would be shared between French and Irish investigators.

Under the French system an investigation is carried out by a public prosecutor and an independent investigating magistrate, who leads the investigation.

The prosecutor performs a similar role to the Director of Public Prosecutions. But in France the prosecutor and investigating magistrate will exchange notes and reports on the inquiry's progress.

According to the du Plantier lawyer, Mr Alain Spilliaert, family members can apply for access to an investigation file under French law, and this is usually granted.

All official communication between the French authorities and gardai has been through Interpol. Some time after criminal proceedings were started in France a "request for mutual assistance in a criminal matter" was sent through Interpol to the Garda. This was forwarded to the Department of Justice on April 30th.

The request was for access to the file and authority for the French police to assist the Garda.

The Department received the same request through the French embassy the following month.

The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, told the Dail in December that both requests had been sent to the Chief State Solicitor's Office and the Attorney General for advice. Mr O'Donoghue denied that the requests had been ignored, saying the French authorities had been kept informed "through the usual diplomatic channels".

It is understood that the AG and the DPP advised the Department later that month "that it would not be proper to agree to assist the French authorities in the manner requested, while a decision was pending on a prosecution in this jurisdiction".

But while requests for information were being refused pending the DPP's decision, the family and lawyers were reading and watching interviews with the man questioned by gardai.

Under the French system a suspect can be charged as being mis- en-examen or under investigation. While the suspect is not remanded in custody there is a charge against that person while evidence is gathered and a file prepared for the court which decides whether to prosecute.

Irish, British and French media have flocked to the Mizen peninsula. Reporters start in Bandon, where the investigation in based, and then travel to Schull to interview the suspect on the way to the house where Sophie was murdered.

Both the lawyers and Mr du Plantier have expressed their amazement that a man can be identified as a suspect without being charged.

It was the man's birthday the day he was arrested last month for the second time and questioned for 12 hours. At the house where he has lived since he was first questioned in February 1997 he said he was not giving any more interviews.

"I don't think there's anything we can say. We've both got terrible colds and it's been a constant barrage. At the moment we just need to be left to heal."

The Bouniols, along with Sophie's aunt, Marie Madeleine Opalka, attended a memorial Mass in December with around 60 local people. In an address to the congregation, Ms Opalka appealed for help from anyone who knew anything.

Sophie's family did not forget the gesture of the local people. A visitor's book was left for those at the Mass. Thank-you postcards have just arrived in west Cork for those who were there.

Since they returned to France, flowers have been delivered regularly at the end of the laneway where Sophie's body was found. Locals say the family organised a contract with a florist nearby.

The family still owns the house, and Sophie's housekeeper, Ms Josie Hellen, and her husband look after the property. They are waiting for builders to fix storm damage to the roof tiles.

There are no curtains in the windows and, from a distance, a bunch of dried flowers in one window appears fresh. Apart from the bouquet and frost-browned hyacinths planted beside candles at the gate it looks like just another empty holiday home in winter.