A shadow hung over him both physically and his mentality

IAN Bailey’s lawyer Frank Buttimer said last night ‘life turned out wrongly for him’.

The high profile defence solicitor, who acted for Bailey during his numerous court fights, said that he was ‘shocked’ and ‘honestly sad to hear of his death’.

Mr Buttimer added: ‘I knew Ian was unwell but I didn’t know his death was imminent. He knew he may have needed medical intervention.

‘Over the past 27 years, life turned out wrongly for him.

‘A shadow has hung over him which deeply affected his health – both physically and his mentality.

‘He had a fear that the French would continue in their relentless attempt to unlawfully remove him from Ireland until he died. It’s the end of an era for this office.’

Mr Buttimer would not be drawn on whether the Garda

‘Life turned out wrong for him’

cold case review team set-up two years ago would continue with their investigations.

He said: ‘That is a matter for the gardaí. Whilst I have enormous sympathy with the family, as did Ian, for their loss, they were relentless in their wrongful pursuit of him.

‘Whatever one’s feeling is about their tragic loss, that feeling is tempered by the consequences that Ian has suffered by his wrongful association with the unlawful killing of Madame Toscan du Plantier.’ Mr Bailey was due to turn 67 later this month. Mr Butimer said the legal situation that his client faced having been tried in his absence in France went from ‘extremely worrying’ to ‘infuriating’. He stressed that the Irish State ‘facilitated the pursuit’ of Mr Bailey by the French by granting access to the Garda file on the case.

He added: ‘This was a decision made by the then minister for justice in 2008 where the minister for justice had a discretion not to release the material to the French but chose to make that decision.

‘That then brought about the consequence of their pursuit of Ian. And then their endless attempts to remove him from the Irish jurisdiction to face 25 years in jail. ‘He was worn down from it.’ There are many theories and much innuendo, rumour, gossip and third-hand stories, over the murder of Ms Tuscon du Plantier but no hard evidence or witnesses.

Bailey was always adamant he did not murder the French woman and that he did not even know her.

‘Endless attempts to remove him’

THIS and the photo on our front page are the last known photos of Ian Bailey, who prophetically told the photographer as he took them: ‘These could well be the last photos you will get of me alive.’ Bailey was looking dishevelled and unkempt when pictured in Bantry, Co. Cork, just days ago. How prophetic those words turned out to be as the English-born former freelance journalist and self-styled poet died yesterday – possibly taking the truth of Sophie du Plantier’s murder with him to the grave. He died from an apparent heart attack after several recent ‘cardiac events’ but there will be no post mortem, authorities declared. Bailey was trying to make himself fit enough to undergo by-pass surgery but time ran out for him.

‘Shocked’: Bailey’s lawyer Frank Buttimer