Bailey may yet be tried in France over killing
‘A form of torture’
FRANCE may put Ian Bailey on trial for the unsolved murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier – despite a High Court ruling that he can never be extradited.
A judge decided yesterday that the Irish State committed an ‘abuse of process’ by asking the High Court – for the second time in the past seven years – to send Mr Bailey to Paris over the 1996 killing.
Outside court afterwards, the former journalist said he was ‘very, very sympathetic’ to the du Plantier family but ‘I had nothing to do with it’.
Ms du Plantier, a 39-year-old French filmmaker, was killed at her west Cork holiday cottage in December 1996.
Garda suspicion fell on Mr Bailey, who lives nearby at The Prairie in Schull. He was arrested twice but never convicted of the crime. Nobody has ever been charged with her murder.
In 2010, France first asked Ireland to order Mr Bailey’s extradition to Paris to face questioning by investigators. That request was rejected by our Supreme Court in March 2012 and it was believed that was the end of the saga.
But this February, Mr Bailey, 60, was formally indicted by a French judge for the ‘voluntary murder’ of Ms du Plantier and an extradition warrant was sent to Dublin.
At the time it was reported that French prosecutors intend to try Mr Bailey – whether or not he wants to attend. French law allows for prosecutions ‘in absentia’ and the penalty for the offence is up to 30 years in jail.
On March 30 last, Mr Bailey was arrested in Dublin after the then justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, laid that fresh French extradition request – this time seeking to make Mr Bailey stand trial in Paris – before the High Court.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Tony Hunt ruled that the Irish State was wrong to ask the High Court to send Mr Bailey to Paris in connection with the murder – five years after the first attempt had failed.
Judge Hunt said he was ‘bound’ by the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling in Mr Bailey’s favour. He said: ‘These proceedings are an abuse of process… The surrender of respondent [to France] is refused.’
The judge said this should end the matter ‘for once and all time.’ Despite that ruling, in theory, France could proceed with the intended criminal trial even in Mr Bailey’s absence.
Potentially, if he is ultimately convicted and sentenced to jail by a French court ‘in absentia’, then France could issue yet another extradition request for him to be sent to Paris to serve any such sentence.
Outside the Criminal Courts of Justice yesterday, Mr Bailey said the Irish State had ‘put me through a form of torture for 20 years on and off’ but that he was pleased with the judgment.
‘The State will almost certainly appeal this decision today, so it’s not the end of the matter,’ he said.
Mr Bailey said the du Plantier family ‘believe, for whatever reason, that I had something to do with the death of their daughter.
‘I’m very sympathetic – but I had nothing to do with it.’
When asked by the Irish Daily Mail if he hopes Sophie’s killer will be found, he said: ‘It would be good from my point of view if a new piece of evidence came to light or somebody admitted the truth – but I don’t suppose that’s going to happen.’
Jean Antoine Bloc of the Association for the Truth about the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (Assoph), said the family had expected that the judge would refuse the extradition.
‘We have been waiting for 20 years for justice and we are no longer expecting anything more from Ireland,’ he said.
Meanwhile, tomorrow the Court of Appeal will decide whether Mr Bailey should be granted a retrial of his failed ‘wrongful arrest’ action for damages.
paul.caffrey@dailymail.ie