Ian Bailey, suspect for Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s murder, dies in Cork

Ian Bailey, who became the chief suspect for the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, has died in west Co Cork.

Mr Bailey, who would have celebrated his 67th birthday on January 27th, suffered a suspected heart attack near the Square in Bantry and waved to some passers by for assistance.

Members of the public came to his aid and performed CPR on him for more than 15 minutes before paramedics arrived and unsuccessfully attempted to revive him.

It is understood that he was taken by ambulance to Bantry General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by a doctor. The coroner for West Cork, Frank O’Connell, was then informed.

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It is unclear at this point given Mr Bailey’s recent medical history - he suffered two heart attacks which had caused significant damage - as to whether a postmortem will be conducted.

Speaking to The Irish Times days last year shortly before the anniversary of the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s death on December 23rd, 1996, Mr Bailey said the two heart attacks had caused serious damage.

[ Ian Bailey’s 33 years in Ireland: Accusations, assaults, legal battles and media scrutiny ]

He said doctors had told him he had suffered 75 per cent damage to his heart and they were putting him on medication to try to build up the organ so he would be strong enough to undergo surgery. He said he hoped to have the operation in February or March if he responded well enough to the medication.

Born in Manchester, England, Mr Bailey worked as a journalist with an agency in Gloucester before moving to Ireland and settling in west Co Cork in 1991. He contributed as a freelance reporter to several newspapers.

He reported on the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier for a number of outlets after her badly beaten body was found on the lane leading to her holiday home at Toormore near Schull on December 23rd, 1996.

However, just over a month later, in February 1997, Mr Bailey was arrested over the murder and questioned by detectives at Bandon Garda station before being released without charge.

In January 1998, he was arrested for a second time and again questioned about the killing. He was again released without charge and a file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

In 2001, a solicitor in the DPP’s office, Robert Sheehan, carried out a review of the file and concluded there was not sufficient evidence to merit a prosecution against Mr Bailey.

He later brought a libel action against several newspapers over their coverage of the murder, but he lost on the substantive issue when Judge Patrick Moran ruled against him at Cork Circuit Court.

Mr Bailey in 2014 brought a High Court action against the State for wrongful arrest, claiming that gardaí had tried to frame him for the killing, but he also lost that action.

In 2019, Mr Bailey was convicted in absentia in Paris of the voluntary homicide of Ms Toscan du Plantier under French law, which allows suspects to be tried for crimes against French citizens abroad.

He was sentenced to 25 years in jail and the French authorities sought to have him extradited on a European Arrest Warrant. However, the High Court in Dublin refused to allow his extradition.

The ruling effectively meant that Mr Bailey – while he could travel freely within the Republic – could not travel abroad as he risked being arrested and extradited to France to serve the sentence.

Mr Bailey repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier and said after suffering a heart attack last year that a Garda cold-case review team would clear his name.

News of Mr Bailey’s death was greeted with shock in France. Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle, Jean Pierre Gazeau, spoke of his dismay at what the death of the prime suspect may mean for the family’s search for answers.

“We are not at all happy at this news,” he said. “First, because a human being has died, so we are sorry to hear that, but we are also sorry because we fear the cold case review team may not conclude its work,” he said.

“Ian Bailey was convicted by the French justice system, but we wanted him to remain alive so that the Irish justice system could also reach a final finding that he was the person who killed my niece.

“We have never had any doubt that Ian Bailey was the killer, but we had hoped that the cold case review team would get DNA and forensic evidence to prove it beyond any doubt. Now, our fear is that we will never reach the full truth of what happened so I would urge the Irish Garda to continue with their investigation to be absolutely sure that Bailey was the culprit.”

Mr Bailey’s ex-partner, Welsh born artist Jules Thomas, said after receiving news of his death “I feel nothing, he’s gone and he isn’t in my thoughts, that’s it.

“I haven’t been to see him and have no emotional connection to him for a long time since we parted,” said Ms Thomas (73), although she was sorry to hear of his death “as I would about anyone I know”.

The couple parted in March 2021 after she served him notice to quit her home.

Mr Bailey’s lawyer, Frank Buttimer, who represented him during the French attempts to extradite him as well as in his High Court action against the State, said he believed Mr Bailey was innocent.

“I first met Ian Bailey in March 1997 when he came into my office to ask me would I represent him if he was ever prosecuted for the crime he didn’t commit - the murder of Madame Toscan du Plantier,” he said.

“I felt immediately it was clear that he hadn’t committed the crime and that in my view, it was subsequently established by information I acquired, that he had been the victim of State persecution.

“There is no question in my mind but that there is an association between his untimely death and recent ill health with what was done to him by State in wrongly associating him with the murder.”

Asked how he found Mr Bailey on personal level, whom he said “he helped along the way” ever since that initial meeting in 1997, Mr Buttimer replied: “How long have you got?”

He added: “Having said that, I found him to be very interesting, very read, overly talkative, difficult to advise at times but always trying to rise above the consequences of the grievous wrong inflicted on him.

“He was a remarkably resilient man. I always found he was always extraordinarily positive in his outlook on life given everything that had been done to him by the State over the last 27 years.”

Mr Bailey continued to protest his innocence to the end. While he complained that the Garda cold case team had not contacted him, he was still hopeful they would clear his name.

“For the past 27 years my life has been damaged by a false accusation that I was the murderer of Sophie. The false accusation has resulted in me losing my career, my partner and my health,” he told The Irish Sun in December.

“There is now a cold case review under way which I am awaiting to assist, and my hope and my prayer is that the truth emerges before I die. The stress and strains imposed on me have ultimately resulted in a double heart attack from which I am now recovering.”

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