ROMANCE ISN’T DEAD FOR JIBES TARGET BAILEY Love life is ‘grand’...despite abuse in streets says ex Sophie suspect
IAN Bailey has said his romance with a Mayo woman is “grand” despite the verbal abuse he endures from strangers.
Ethna Staunton has been dating the prime suspect in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder for the past year following his split from his long-term partner Jules Thomas.
She previously told The Star that she met him while on a trip to Schull in west Cork where he lived and that she felt very sorry for him and that she believes he is the “victim of a terrible injustice.”
Now 65-year-old poet and law graduate Bailey has revealed that “my romantic life is grand altogether.”
“I don’t really want to say anything about it other than everything’s fine,” the former freelance journalist from Manchester said.
This comes after he said he had to endure more verbal abuse from strangers — the latest incident happened on Sunday in the car park near Schull Farmer’s Market where he has a stall nearby. “Basically someone saw me and instantly shouted at me to get out and that I am not welcome.
“Others said they heard the ‘F-word’ but I didn’t actually hear that,” he said.
Bailey, who was found guilty in absentia by a French court of Sophie’s murder and sentenced to 25 years’ jail in 2019, said the verbal abuse is indicative of what he has had to endure since being identified as the prime suspect in the filmmaker’s murder.
“I didn’t let it bother me,” Ian told The Star.
“It’s water off a duck’s back. It’s just indicative of the sort of abuse I have had to suffer being falsely identified with something
I had nothing to do with.
Genuine
“But at the same time I get a huge amount of support from people.
I mean, really touching, lovely and genuine support which helps to counteract the verbal abuse.”
Ian, who has always denied any involvement in Ms du Plantier’s murder, was arrested twice but never charged.
He also believes that if he hadn’t written to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris last year then a scoping exercise into the murder of Ms du Plantier may not have happened.
“I suspect if I hadn’t written that letter he wouldn’t have done a scoping exercise and we wouldn’t have the conclusion that there were grounds for a cold case review,” he said.
He said he hopes the investigation finally manages to get to the truth of the killing of the French filmmaker.
Ms Du Plantier was bludgeoned to death in the garden of her holiday home in Schull, west Cork in December 1996.