Ian Bailey, an English former journalist who was a prime suspect in one of Ireland’s most infamous murder cases, has died near his home in Bantry, County Cork, aged 66. He died of a heart attack, his lawyer said. “Now we will never know the truth,” laments the victim’s brother.
Bailey lived in the public eye for almost three decades as the prime suspect in the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. The 39-year-old Frenchwoman was beaten to death near her holiday home in west Cork in 1996.
Police arrested Bailey twice, but the Irish Public Prosecution Service each time found there was not enough evidence. When the Irish police eventually transferred the file to the French court, Bailey was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a court in Paris in 2019. That happened in absentia, as Bailey never showed up for the trial and questioned its legitimacy.
The Irish High Court blocked his extradition to France several times. A European arrest warrant also did not help matters.
“Frustrating”
“He suffered a deep and painful injustice at the hands of the Irish state,” said his lawyer Frank Buttimer. “It has defined his life for the past 27 years. He was deprived of any form of normal existence.”
The victim’s 64-year-old brother, meanwhile, responded to Bailey’s death. “Now we will never know the details of what happened to my sister. This is frustrating and very unfortunate, because for us the case will never be closed.”
Books, podcasts and even a Netflix documentary were devoted to the case. In the latter, Bailey himself also gets to speak, he maintains his innocence.
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