'A dirty, rotten, stinking lie': Ian Bailey hopes cold case review will clear his name
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Ian Bailey has welcomed the decision by An Garda Síochána to open a cold-case review of the Sophie Tuscan du Plantier case.
In 2019, Mr Bailey was convicted in absentia by a court in Paris of Ms du Plantier’s murder, but he has always denied having anything to do with it. Ms du Plantier’s body was found near her holiday home in Toormore, West Cork, on the morning of December 23, 1996.
Ian Bailey told the that the reason this cold-case review is now progressing is because he wrote to the Garda Commissioner asking that the case be reopened.
“Last March, I wrote a letter to Drew Harris asking him, as a clean pair of hands, to open this case again," he said.
He said that he hopes the investigation finally manages to get to the truth of the killing of Ms du Plantier.
“All I know is that I had nothing to do with this," he said.
"As we know, the Irish authorities handed over to the French all the material that had been rejected in this jurisdiction. My prayer has always been from day one that the truth comes out.”
Apart from the murder trial in Paris, Ms du Plantier’s killing has been the subject of a number of civil cases in this jurisdiction. Mr Bailey took a libel action at Cork Circuit Court in 2002 which heard a volume of evidence as to why he came under suspicion for the murder. He gave evidence himself at the trial and completely denied ever having anything to do with the crime.
In 2015, he took what turned out to be one of the longest civil actions in Irish legal history, suing the State and An Garda Síochána for wrongful arrest. The jury in the case ruled against him.
The original Garda investigation was later the subject of two internal reviews within An Garda Síochána, and while neither were published, it is understood that nothing new was uncovered in either of them.
The Garda Ombudsman examined the original investigation and was critical of how the case had been handled by the investigating gardaí.
The announcement of the cold-case review was also welcomed by Ms du Plantier’s son, Pierre Louis Baudey-Vignaud. Mr Baudey-Vignaud's family had been “deeply involved” in the fight for justice for his mother, he told RTÉ Radio’s , and they had “big expectations” for the outcome of the review.
There had been pressure from the public, the family, the media, the European Union, and women’s groups which had been recognised by the gardaí and had led to the review, he said.
There was now new technology, new elements which could make a difference.
Mr Baudey-Vignaud said he believed that if a new investigation was being launched, it was because the authorities believed there was new evidence. He said his family had been waiting 26 years for justice, and that they were hoping to finally have closure.
The Irish people also needed closure, and it was important for Irish justice, he added.