Sophie probe breakthrough unlikely, says Bailey lawyer
THE solicitor representing Ian Bailey throughout his battle against extradition to France has said it is unlikely a new ‘lead’ will provide a breakthrough in the case.
During the course of a fivepart Sky documentary, Murder at the Cottage, made by six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan about the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Mr Bailey claimed a French hitman may have been hired to kill the Paris-born filmmaker at her home outside Schull in West Cork.
Marie Farrell, who was a crucial witness in the doomed Garda investigation before she withdrew sensational testimony that pointed the finger of suspicion at Mr Bailey, believes she saw a man wearing a long black coat outside her shop in Schull on the last day Sophie was seen alive in December 1996.
It is understood she identified this man as she and Jim Sheridan were perusing photos of Sophie, her late husband and people who were known to the couple.
And it has been claimed that the man spotted by Ms Farrell was not only with Sophie on that fateful afternoon, but he was also the same person the shopkeeper saw at a remote bridge close to the French woman’s holiday home hours before her body was found. Mr Sheridan recently made a statement to gardaí in Bantry about the evidence.
However, Mr Bailey’s solicitor Frank Buttimer, said it is unlikely the development will lead to a breakthrough.
Mr Buttimer said: ‘One of the awful consequences of this tragic situation would become apparent in the event that a genuine suspect for the offence became identifiable, which might require cooperation from the French authorities to An Garda Síochána and where the likely outcome, in that event, would be a refusal to provide mutual assistance from the French.’
Mr Bailey was arrested twice by gardaí, in 1997 and 1998, but never charged and continues to protest his innocence. However, in 2019 he was convicted in absentia by a French court.
Last October, the High Court in Dublin refused to grant permission for Mr Bailey to be extradited.
Last night, Alain Spilliaert, the solicitor for Sophie’s family, said: ‘We were surprised the Irish government did not appeal the High Court decision not to extradite Mr Bailey before the Supreme Court. What the family wants is to have the case come to a trial with Ian Bailey being present.’