A British journalist convicted in absentia by a Paris court for the 1996 murder of a French woman died on Sunday, his lawyer told Irish media.
Ian Bailey, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2019 for the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, remained in Ireland, where he has consistently maintained his innocence and refused to be extradited.
Broadcaster RTE said Mr Bailey, 66, died on Sunday afternoon in Bantry, in southern Ireland, after an illness, adding that he was confirmed dead by his lawyer, Frank Buttimer.
According to the Irish Times, Mr Bailey suffered two heart attacks last year.
Mr Toscan du Plantier’s uncle Jean-Pierre Gazeau told the Irish Examiner: “We will never get the truth out of him now.”
“We know he is a murderer because a judge in France ruled that, but it’s not the same sentence in Ireland.
“The Irish state has not yet resolved the case.”
The body of 39-year-old Toscan du Plantier, wife of film producer Daniel Toscan du Plantier, was discovered by a neighbor on December 23, 1996, outside a holiday home in south-west Ireland.
She had been hit in the head with a concrete block and was wearing nightgowns.
During the investigation, Irish police arrested Bailey twice, in 1997 and 1998, but he was never charged in Ireland due to lack of evidence.
But the Paris court ruled there was “sufficient evidence” linking Bailey to the crime. Despite this, multiple extradition bids by France for Bailey have been rejected by Irish courts.
“This was a really shocking case for me,” Marie Dawes, a lawyer for the Toscan du Plantier family, told AFP.
“I think a lot about Sophie’s family. They wanted extradition, but I didn’t think it was legally possible.”
A documentary released in 2021 on the streaming platform Netflix brought the incident to the surface again.
MHC/BC/JJ