Retired English journalist Ian Bailey has been found guilty in a court of the murder of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork in 1996.
Ian Bailey was handed a 25-year jail term following the case which was featured in the recent podcast West Cork. The death of Ms Toscan du Plantier has been one of Ireland’s most noted unsolved mysteries.
The verdict was delivered today after a short trial.
Bailey, 62, was convicted in his absence of killing 39-year-old Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
Ms Toscan du Plantier’s body was found on an isolated hillside near Schull, two days before Christmas in 1996, a Paris court heard.
She was the wife of cinematographer Daniel Toscan du Plantier.
The court in Paris heard Bailey had scratches on his hands and forehead on December 23, the day Ms Toscan du Plantier’s body was found.
Bailey initially claimed he had spent the entire night at home with his partner Jules Thomas. And a man who ran a photograph developing business in Cork identified Bailey as the person who approached him more than three years after the murder and asked him to develop a role of film which showed her badly beaten body. Patrick Lowney, who died in 2016, made the statement to gardaí.
There was no jury in the trial and the three judges took around five hours to reach the verdict.
As he was not present in court, Bailey cannot appeal the verdict. Under French law, however, a person found guilty of a crime in absentia, is entitled to a second trial in France where they will be present in court and represented by defence lawyers.
French authorities are now set to request Bailey’s extradition for a third time.
Sophie Tuscan du Plantier’s son, Pierre Baudey-Vignaud, describes this afternoon’s verdict by a French court to find Ian Bailey guilty in absentia of his mother’s murder as a “victory for justice” pic.twitter.com/e4Bg0gmD25
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 31, 2019
