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A witness has come forward to gardai working on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier case with a fresh statement about the 1996 murder.
An elderly man gave an account claiming another person had confessed to him that they had helped clean blood-stained clothing after the murder.
It is understood the West Cork resident, who knew the French filmmaker, got in touch with a solicitor in the wake of two new documentaries about the unsolved case.
He made a new sworn statement at Bantry Garda station on Thursday in which he discloses the “confession” to him about bloodied garments.
In a three-hour interview with gardai the man, who has previously given other statements, claims there was a face-to-face conversation at a named premises in 2001.
He said the other person appeared to be in fear and he told them to contact gardai, but that did not happen. Mum-of-one Sophie, 39, died of blunt force trauma after being hit in the head more than 50 times with a rock..
A spokesperson for the Justice for Sophie campaign in France described the development as “dynamite”.
They added: “This is a major new statement. We look forward to other new developments within a
short time.”