Ian Bailey RIP - threadbans in OP

Well he was a very nasty man, I’d imagine that can lead towards shag all people at your funeral.

Why do I need to read up on Marie Farrell

I've discounted her evidence . What's the point reading all about her if it's inadmissible

I think Jules knew he did. I can’t believe people think she is going to change her story now because he is dead. How would that make her look like.

Nah just beat the shite out of his own 3 known times oh and tried to ride her 18 year old daughter. No RIPs from moi. I wonder do some posters see that as normal, maybe.

A section of posters are posting nonsensical stuff hence the high horse as you call it

French hitman

Bailey 100% didn't do it

You're not helping yourself making it personal re social skills

I don't believe I'm on a higher intellectual plateau either but I can think logically

https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/19cqlxl/senan_molony_i_was_first_to_interview_ian_bailey/. The text is posted in one of the first comments.

02:30

The death of Ian Bailey robs the family of Sophie Toscan du Plantier of justice, even though he was convicted in absentia in France for her murder and sentenced to 25 years in jail.

I never had any doubt that he and he alone was her killer, having been the first reporter to interact with him and the first to interview him after his release from custody following his initial arrest in 1997.

So convinced was I and photographer Jim Walpole of his guilt after our own interview that we immediately proposed flying to England to delve into Bailey’s background - expecting him to be charged imminently with her murder.

That did not happen, even though An Garda Síochána submitted a detailed file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

But the material gathered in England – about which I gave a further statement to two gardaí in just the past fortnight – was deeply disturbing, if not damning.

It painted a picture of a man already wanted by Avon and Somerset police in relation to claims of a forged life insurance policy in the name of his wife, Sarah Limbrick, from whom he was subsequently acrimoniously divorced, amid allegations of violence and threats.

After all, why did Ian Bailey come to Ireland in the first place, taking work as a fish-gutter, having worked as a journalist in Gloucester?

That city was the scene of the House of Horrors and the killing spree of Fred and Rosemary West. It could not be reported at the time – being hugely prejudicial – but several sources on that research trip told of Bailey being consumed by the case and of his regularly holding vigil at 25 Cromwell Street where the Wests’ victims died. The house has since been demolished.

Ian Bailey had form. He repeatedly attacked his partner, Jules Thomas, and once caused her to be hospitalised with a huge section of her scalp missing and severe damage to an eye. He was arrested at Cork Airport at that time, and subsequently served brief incarceration.

Sophie Toscan du Plantier

It is admitted in the witness statements of both Bailey and Thomas that he left their house after midnight on the night of Sophie’s murder. He claimed he needed to go to an outhouse; something about writing an article for the Sunday Tribune. But it was a Sunday night – there was never any rush on that story.

He had severe scratches on his hands and arms visible in the immediate aftermath of her death, including a deep triangular ‘nick’ on his hairline.

The killer of Sophie had chased her through brambles. The little red hatchet she kept by the back door was missing. Investigators theorised she used it to hit Bailey before fleeing, resisting his efforts to impose himself on her.

Ian Bailey profile: journalist claimed bid for new life in Ireland became ‘torture’ over link to Sophie killing

‘I feel nothing’ says Jules Thomas, former partner who stood by Ian Bailey for decades

‘We still have reason to hope’: Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s son says 2024 will be ‘pivotal’ to solving her murder

It was always a sexual motive by a local man who knew her – and I told Bailey as much when he asked my opinion, as I was a crime reporter at the time.

I said to him: “Look at the crime signature – overkill. Her skull crushed with a rock and block. That is not pre-meditated. It is a rage killing.

“How many houses on this peninsula, 400? Half them are holiday homes, empty in December. Leaves 200. How many of those are retirement places? Take out another 100.

“You are looking for a man in the prime of his powers, aged 25 to 40, after that. How many of those around here? The guards will have this wrapped up in a fortnight. It is 100pc a local killer – look how hard this house is to find.”

Ian Bailey listened and said nothing. But within a short time, he was writing lurid stories about a French connection, as if it was a Day of the Jackal assassination.

But what contract killer puts a concrete block in the overhead bin of an aircraft? If the murderer did not come prepared, then it was a spur-of-the-moment killing – in December, in empty countryside.

From a sworn legal statement I gave over 20 years ago: “I was asked to go with a photographer to cover the story of the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, which was receiving international attention.

“I had been told by my newsdesk that we should link up with the local corr, Ian Bailey, on our arrival. We did so; he joined us in Martin Maher’s van, and we drove to the crime scene at Toormore with Bailey briefing me as we went.

“He was a tall, powerful man who looked rather dishevelled. My first impression was that he was someone who had embraced the bohemian lifestyle of West Cork.

“Bailey provided me with a series of details of the killing, which were to my mind impressive in the breadth and scope. I was able to fill a couple of pages of my notebook before we had even arrived at the crime scene.

Senan Molony with Ian Bailey in his home in 1997. Photo: Jim Walpole

“When we got there, Bailey hung around in the background and did not make any introductions to gardaí, despite my assumption that his level of knowledge must have come from his relationship with local officers.”

The scales fell from my eyes when I learned Ian Bailey had been arrested in February 1997.

On his release without charge, he granted me an interview, perhaps because of our previous meeting, but also because he wanted to blacken the name of the gardaí by way of defence. It led to a front page headline: ‘I did not kill Sophie’.

He claimed, as he would continue to do, that he had never met or spoken to Sophie, but only seen her once, two years before. Her neighbour Alfie Lyons, now dead, gave evidence that he was 90pc sure he had introduced them.

I doubted Bailey because he had told me he knew the murder victim was French, and referred to her by a name other than du Plantier — Buoniol, her maiden name. I also found it incredible given that he was presumably a naturally curious journalist. She had star quality.

Ian Bailey confirmed himself as the principal suspect: “It looks to me as if they are not looking for anybody else.” He claimed he had been threatened by gardaí while on the way to custody, saying he had been warned he would end up face-down in a ditch with a hole in the back of his head.

“At no time did I attach a shred of credence to these claims because of my extensive experience in this area. No, arresting officers in a major murder inquiry could conceivably allow such a major compromise as would come from resorting to making such a threat,” I said in my statement.

But Ian Bailey insisted it had happened in the garda car taking him to the station – not, notably, on the way back, if officers had been frustrated by a lack of confession.

Then I asked: “What about the scratches, Ian?”

He said he had told the guards when under arrest that he had a sidebar selling Christmas trees, and got them from lopping them down. I can still see his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish when I protested: “Who the hell buys a Christmas tree on the 23rd of December? They’ve already got them up.”

Turkeys came into it days later – belt and braces, because he never said turkeys to me that night, but had instead told trees to the gardaí. Henceforth he had been nicked by an upside-down bird… but I knew then he was lying.

Bailey confirmed to me in early 1997 that gardaí had previously interviewed him regarding a domestic dispute between himself and his partner. “Jules and I had had ups and downs before,” he said. He said gardaí were once involved at the behest of a third party. This was before he hospitalised her with severe injuries.

He also admitted a very acrimonious divorce. News gathering in Britain confirmed this, with former bosses describing Bailey as having had “a bit of a temper”.

The father of Bailey’s ex-wife cited psychological cruelty as being one of the grounds for the divorce. There were detailed incidences of physical abuse suffered at the hands of Ian Bailey. Corroboration came from a former girlfriend of Bailey, Ellie Carey. She said she believed Bailey had been changed because of the “frustration and hurt” he had experienced in the separation.

Former colleagues and friends also repeatedly told me that while in Cheltenham, Bailey had a penchant for causing fights by being abusive to people for effect.

Ms Carey said he could be “niggly” and “narky” with people. That impression was extremely marked, and many people I spoke to in England agreed that Bailey enjoyed getting up people’s noses as a form of pastime. He liked to “push a situation to see what happened”.

A cross placed at the spot where Sophie Toscan du Plantier was killed in Schull, West Cork

That’s what occurred when Bailey, who had been drinking all night, went to Sophie’s house seeking sex. Don’t forget she answered the door after presumably shouting “Who is it?” while in bed. The answer meant it was someone she knew.

Bailey probably picked up a bottle of wine left inside her door as he tried to worm his way in – which is when she used the hatchet. Incredibly, he took away the bottle.

He later wrote about a “Champagne clue” – a journalist reporting on his own murder – but the gardaí didn’t know about this missing item and dismissed the story as a “flyer”.

But two months later a full bottle was found in a nearby field by the son of Sophie’s housekeeper… the article had almost been a confession. Almost, but never enough.

Of course he did repeatedly confess, when drunk, which he brushed off as “black humour”. Who does that, when practically in the frame?

For all these reasons, and many more, I have always been convinced, certain, sure.

Brutal Ian Bailey murdered beautiful Sophie.

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