The mother of murdered Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) said yesterday her greatest fear is that she will die without seeing her daughter's killer being brought to justice.
Marguerite Bouniol spoke of the sadness and anger that she and her husband, Georges, feel that no one has been charged and convicted of the murder of their daughter outside her holiday cottage at Toormore, near Schull, west Cork, in December 1996.
"My greatest fear is to die before justice is done - it is something that weighs heavily with me . . . we will come back every year, we will keep coming back but it is very difficult for us. We hope that justice will be done someday," said Mrs Bouniol.
Mrs Bouniol was speaking after she and her husband and Sophie's aunt, Marie Madeleine Opalka, had attended a Mass at St Patrick's Star of the Sea Church in Goleen, west Cork, to mark the 10th anniversary of her daughter's death.
Speaking after the Mass, Mrs Bouniol said she had written a letter to Sophie's killer, published earlier this month by The Irish Times, out of despair at the fact that her daughter's killer remains free.
"It was a letter of despair really - after these 10 years, the sadness is still there. We would like her to be beside us and to give her a hug and we just can't do that, and that's why it was a letter of despair," said Mrs Bouniol.
She said she still hoped her daughter's killer would be caught as she recalled how her daughter was brutally murdered.
"I hope justice will be done, but the fact that she had been murdered in terrible circumstances and the fact that she was left lying there like that, it's terrible - would you do it to a dog?" she said.
While Mrs Bouniol praised the efforts of An Garda Síochána whom, she said, have always been supportive, she was critical of the failure of the Irish and French governments to achieve greater co-operation on judicial and legal matters.
"What is of concern is the lack of co-operation between the two states. France and Ireland haven't made one iota of progress in the area of legal co-operation in the past 10 years. The murder of Sophie didn't even serve to advance such co-operation."
"We are obviously very, very disappointed but more so, we are very angry that things are not advanced," said Mrs Bouniol, adding they believed that under the French system, Sophie's killer would have been brought to justice.
Mrs Bouniol said it wasn't for her and her family to judge why their daughter's body was left waiting for 24 hours for a pathologist to arrive and to carry out an examination, as they didn't know the reasons for the delay, but they did find it very surprising.
"Regarding the absence of the pathologist, leaving a corpse outside for 24 hours without examining it when it is well known that speed is of the essence in an inquiry and in technical analysis - we are not aware of the reasons [for this]," she said.
Earlier, Ms Opalka spoke movingly from the pulpit in St Patrick's Church to thank the people of Goleen and Ireland for their support in their long quest for justice.
"I want to ask you to pray, to go out and pray for the people that know more than they are saying. Please help. And may I ask you to pray even for the person who did it - to make them have an illumination and go and tell something about what he or she did."
The Bouniols and Mrs Opalka had earlier laid a bouquet of lilies with a sprig of red berry holly at the granite Celtic cross that bears Sophie's name and marks the spot where her body was found on December 23rd, 1996.
