The review team interviewed nearly 100 witnesses and gardaí, writes Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent.
A team of detectives reviewing the Garda investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 10 years ago is understood to have interviewed close to 100 people for its report which is expected to be finalised shortly.
The Irish Timesunderstands that the team under Assistant Commissioner Ray McAndrew has interviewed about 50 serving and retired gardaí and about 40 civilian witnesses who made statements to the original Garda inquiry team.
The review team was set up by Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy in response to concerns about Garda behaviour.
This followed allegations by a key witness in the Garda case, Marie Farrell, that pressure was put on her by investigating officers to make a false statement.
Last year, Ms Farrell told her solicitor, Donal Daly, that a statement she made, saying she saw English journalist Ian Bailey at Kealfadda Bridge on the night Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered, was false and she named gardaí who she said had put pressure on her.
The Irish Timeshas learned that the review team has identified 40 or so other civilian witnesses who made statements to the named gardaí to see if they had any complaint of being put under pressure to make any false statements.
Mr McAndrew's team, led by Chief Supt Willie Keane and Det Supt John McKeown, has also spoken to about 50 serving and retired members of the Garda, as well as to Ms Farrell and to Mr Bailey and his partner, Jules Thomas.
The review team has met Mr Bailey (49) on at least six occasions and on Thursday met him again in west Cork to seek further clarification on a number of issues arising from statements he and his partner made earlier about how they were treated by gardaí.
According to one informed source, the review team is expected to finish on Friday, December 15th, in Bantry Garda station where it has been based since December 2005.
It is expected to complete its report for Mr Conroy within a matter of weeks.
Ms Toscan du Plantier's elderly parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, and her aunt, Marie Madeleine Opalka, are due to travel from their home in Paris to west Cork on December 16th to mark the 10th anniversary of their daughter's murder at her holiday home.
Ms Toscan du Plantier's badly beaten body was found by the gateway leading to her dormer holiday cottage at Toormore, Goleen, near Schull on the morning of December 23rd, 1996, by her neighbour, Shirley Foster.
A postmortem examination by then State pathologist Dr John Harbison confirmed that Ms Toscan du Plantier died from a laceration to the brain caused by a fracture to the skull due to multiple head injuries caused by a blunt instrument.
In February 1997, gardaí investigating the murder arrested Mr Bailey for questioning but he was released without charge. Almost a year later, in January 1998, he was arrested again but he was again released without charge and he has continued to protest his innocence.
In December 2003, Mr Bailey sued seven newspaper publishers over articles linking him to the killing. He lost five of the actions but won €4,000 in damages against both the Irish Sun and the Irish Mirror for wrongly claiming that he had assaulted his former wife.
Mr Bailey is currently appealing the Circuit Court ruling on his unsuccessful actions against Independent Newspapers, Independent Newspapers UK, the Star, Times Newspapers Ltd and Telegraph Group Ltd.
The case is scheduled to go ahead in the High Court next February.
Mr Bailey, who is represented by solicitor Frank Buttimer, who is based in Cork city, succeeded in obtaining an order in the High Court in July 2005 for access to parts of the Garda file on the murder to aid him in his appeal of the libel action.
The papers had successfully applied for access to the file in the original Circuit Court hearing and, while it is understood Mr Bailey has obtained access to more documents on this occasion, the access is confined to witness statements and does not include forensic and pathologist reports.
Meanwhile Ms Toscan du Plantier's parents and her son, Pierre Louis Baudey, decided earlier this year not to proceed with a civil action against Mr Bailey over the wrongful death of their daughter.
This was welcomed on Mr Bailey's behalf by Mr Buttimer.
Just last week, Mr Buttimer successfully applied under the Police Property Act for the return of notebooks, diaries and other items belonging to Mr Bailey which had been seized by gardaí investigating the murder.
Mr Buttimer said the decision by the State not to contest the application for the return of the items was confirmation that the State had abandoned all interest in Mr Bailey as a potential suspect for the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.
Supt Liam Horgan of Bantry Garda station, who is heading up the murder inquiry, has confirmed that the file on her killing remains open and is actively and regularly reviewed by officers in Bantry.