Bailey’s death brings renewed hopes over solving Sophie’s case
WEST Co Cork is one of the most beautiful parts of the world.. The scenery is spectacular, the weather is much warmer than many parts of the country and the people are as decent as they come.
But because it is so big and sparse, it is also a place where people flee to hide from their past or to start a new chapter in their lives.
There have been all sorts of foreign nationalities living there for decades, many embracing a bohemian, self-sufficient, get away from the rat-race lifestyle.
These are some of the reasons why both Sophie Toscan du Plantier and the main suspect in her murder Ian Bailey, decided to live or have a holiday home there.
A week after Bailey’s death the country is divided as to whether he killed Sophie or not.
The gardai searched his flat in Bantry over the weekend looking for a deathbed confession via his laptop, journals and diaries but I doubt if they will find any.
Over the past four years I would have spoken to Bailey on a regular basis.
He would call me at least every few weeks to see what was happening about his case or I would call him.
He actually rang me from his hospital bed after he had his first heart attack and said: “It might make a story for you.”
His health was in rapid decline right through the autumn and he wasn’t fit enough to undergo a life-saving heart operation. He got so weak at one stage he could hardly walk.
Bailey initially made an effort to clean up his act by stopping drinking and smoking but sadly it only lasted a few weeks.
In the chats I had with him in the run up to Christmas, he knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer and that his
heart condition was deteriorating fast. He was back smoking and on the booze.
He cut a very lonely figure in those last weeks with little or no friends and all he wanted to ensure was that if he kicked the bucket, the public would be told that he died proclaiming his innocence.
He told me: “This whole Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder has absolutely destroyed my life. It has been a non-stop constant battle to clear my name and it has drained and destroyed me both medically and physically.”
I would never have regarded Bailey as religious but he did tell me he often prayed.
In one of our very last conversations a few weeks ago he asked me: “Do you really think there is a God, an afterlife?”
I said that I believed there was and he replied; “Well I hope so because I have had a s**t life.”
Sophie’s family, commentators and journalists involved in the case have given their verdict on whether Bailey did it or not. I can honestly say that hand on heart I don’t know.
I always believed in following the evidence and there was never a trace of Bailey’s DNA at Sophie’s house or the crime scene.
Although he was an intelligent man I don’t think he was so clever that he could have cleaned up all the evidence that quickly on the night of the killing.
People argue there was substantial circumstantial evidence against him and Bailey didn’t help himself confessing to the murder to various people in what he claimed were bouts of black humour with large piles of booze on board.
But what worries me is if Bailey didn’t do it then who did? That means the killer is still out there.
West Cork is a place where many misfits put down roots and there was no shortage of them in the area when this horrendous crime happened on December 23, 1996.
Although initially the gardai had 54 suspects they narrowed it down to Bailey far too quickly.
The truth is from day one they never really looked at anyone else and the current cold case review seems to have gone down the same road.
I was hoping that fresh eyes might bring fresh suspects. The whole French end of this murder inquiry appears to have yet again been totally ignored.
Maybe Bailey was right all along that a hitman was sent in and out to kill the 39-year-old mother.
There is nothing we all want to see more than Sophie’s killer caught and for her heartbroken family to get justice.
The last hope now is that modern technology can rescue unknown DNA from items removed from the crime scene.
It would be very easy for gardai to close the case and say Bailey did it. But that should not happen until every last line of inquiry has been followed and they uncover more hard evidence against a dead man that they never had before.
Bailey cut a very sad figure in the end. He was beaten.
It would certainly be one of the biggest miscarriages of justice ever if he was innocent all along.
But one way or the other the Sophie case killed him and if he was the murderer he deserved every bit of the abuse he got.
West Cork proved to be a bad call for both him and Sophie in the end.