Ian Bailey challenged to explain how he knew Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s movements before her murder

Ian Bailey has been challenged to explain how he knew about the movements of murdered French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) on the weekend she was killed in 1996.

The call came from Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle Jean Pierre Gazeau as he prepared with Sophie’s parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, her son, Pierre Louis Baudey Vignaud and her brothers, Bertrand and Stephane Bouniol to mark the 27th anniversary of her murder in west Cork today.

Ms Toscan du Plantier’s badly beaten body was found on the laneway leading to her remote holiday home at Toormore near Schull on the morning of December 23rd, 1996, just hours before she was due to return to France to spend Christmas with her husband Daniel Toscan du Plantier.

Englishman Ian Bailey (66), who was working as a journalist at the time, was twice arrested by gardaí for questioning about the murder but was released without charge on each occasion and has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder.

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Mr Bailey was later convicted of the voluntary homicide of Ms Toscan du Plantier following a trial in absentia in Paris in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years in jail, leading to the French authorities seeking his extradition to France to serve the sentence, but the Irish courts refused to extradite him.

Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle Mr Gazeau has said he believes new information has emerged in Mr Bailey’s own podcast series which casts doubt on his testimony that he did not know Ms Toscan Plantier and was not watching her in Schull two days before her murder.

Mr Gazeau told The Irish Times he had listened very carefully to Mr Bailey’s podcast series Ian Bailey in His Own Words and was surprised to hear Mr Bailey reveal details about his niece’s movements on the weekend she was murdered.

“In second episode of his podcast, called From Paradise Found to Paradise Lost, Ian Bailey talks about Sophie’s movements on the afternoon of Saturday, December 21st, 1996, and says that she drove from her home at Toormore to go into Schull to do some shopping,” said Mr Gazeau.

“He talks about how she went into Marie Farrell’s clothing store and how Marie Farrell said that she noticed a man wearing a dark coat and a French-style beret across the street, and that he followed Sophie after she left the store and walked up Ardmanagh Road where she had parked her car.”

Mr Gazeau said the “interesting thing about this is that Marie Farrell never said she saw the man follow Sophie up Ardmanagh or that her car was parked up there, and neither of the other two witnesses who saw either Sophie or the man in Schull that afternoon said anything about where her car was parked”.

“One of the witnesses, Ceri Williams, told how she saw Ian Bailey on the other side of the street as she was walking along the street with her children and accidentally bumped into Sophie, but she makes no mention of Sophie walking up Ardmanagh, or that her car was parked up there.”

Ms Toscan du Plantier’s uncle said the only witness who mentioned Ardmanagh was Dan Griffin who is now deceased.

“He said he saw this man wearing a long black coat and black beret that he didn’t recognise and he said he saw him walk up Ardmanagh, but he makes no mention of ever seeing Sophie,” said Mr Gazeau.

“Dan Griffin said in a second statement that he later saw a man walking with a woman on Main Street in Schull on January 12th, 1997, and he looked like the same man he had seen on December 21st heading up Ardmanagh, and he now knew this man that he saw on January 12th to be Ian Bailey.

“So my question for Ian Bailey is this – given that no witness ever mentioned to gardaí that they saw Sophie walk up Ardmanagh, or that they saw her car parked up there – how does Ian Bailey know this to be true, unless of course, he saw the man following Sophie, or if he was the man following Sophie?

“And if he saw this man following Sophie, why did he not say that to the gardaí when he was arrested and questioned in 1997 or again 1998? Or why did he not say it in his libel case against the papers or his civil action against the Garda? ... he never mentioned it at either court case – it’s bizarre.

“It seems to me to be much more likely that he was in fact the man watching Sophie and that he followed her up Ardmanagh, so he knew where her car was parked – it is incredible for him to say this now and it is something I will point out to the cold case team reviewing the Garda file.”

Several Garda sources familiar with the file on the matter have confirmed to The Irish Times that no witness had made any statement that indicated that Ms Toscan du Plantier had parked her car up Ardmanagh Road and that Mr Bailey’s podcast is the first time they had heard this information.

Contacted by The Irish Times, Mr Bailey played down the significance of Mr Gazeau’s observations, repeating his denial that he was the man observed by Ms Farrell on Main Street in Schull when Ms Toscan du Plantier left her shop at about 3.30pm.

“I did say that in the podcast, and I think it is provable in the statements – I’m sure it’s in there in the statements somewhere, so it is provable – I wouldn’t be able to put my finger exactly where it is mentioned but I know it is there and certainly it was being said around Schull at the time,” he said.

“Anyway, it’s such a minor point – and clearly designed to try and perpetuate the false allegation that I was the man following Madame du Plantier in Schull that day, and that I was in some way involved in the murder of Madame du Plantier – that it hardly merits consideration, it’s a load of nonsense.

“And of course, we now know Marie Farrell has corrected her first statement where the gardaí rounded up the height of the man from 5ft 8in to my size to put me in the frame, and she has said I was not the man she saw in Schull on Saturday or at Kealfadda Bridge on the night of the murder.”

A Garda serious crime review team led by Det Supt Des McTiernan and Det Supt Joe Moore and based in Bantry Garda station is considering the original Garda investigation, re-examining pieces of evidence and reinterviewing surviving witnesses as well as a number of new witnesses.

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