Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a 39-year-old French woman, was killed outside her holiday home near Toormore, Goleen, County Cork, Ireland, on the night of 23 December 1996.
British journalist Ian Bailey, who lived near Toscan du Plantier's home in Ireland, was a suspect arrested twice by the Garda Síochána, yet no charges were laid as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) found there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial. Bailey lost a libel case against six newspapers in 2003. He also lost a wrongful arrest case against the Gardaí, Minister for Justice, and Attorney General in 2015.
In 2019, Bailey was convicted of murder by the Cour d'Assises in Paris, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was tried in absentia in France after winning a legal battle against extradition. In 2020, Ireland's High Court ruled that Bailey could not be extradited. Bailey died on 21 January 2024, aged 66, following a suspected cardiac arrest outside his residence in Bantry.
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Victim
Sophie Toscan du Plantier, née Bouniol, was born on 28 July 1957. She was a French television producer and lived in Paris with her husband and a son from her first marriage. She had visited Ireland several times as a teenager and bought the cottage at Toormore in 1993 as a holiday retreat. She was a regular visitor with her son. Locals knew her by her maiden name. The cottage is located in the townland of Dunmanus West in rural West Cork. She arrived alone in Ireland on 20 December 1996, with plans to return to Paris for Christmas.
Investigation
Toscan du Plantier was found dead by a neighbor at 10 am, her body clad in nightwear and boots, in a laneway beside her house. Her long john bottoms were caught on a barbed-wire fence. Bloodstains were present on a gate as well as a nearby piece of slate and a concrete block. Her body was left outdoors until the State pathologist, Dr. John Harbison, arrived 28 hours later. He found "laceration and swelling of the brain, fracture of the skull, and multiple blunt head injuries". The facial injuries were so severe that her neighbor could not formally identify her.
The Gardaí have been criticised for mishandling evidence, with several items including the bloodstained gate going missing in their custody, and were alleged to have coerced and intimidated witnesses, including the prime suspect Ian Bailey. A Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission report concluded that while there was a lack of administration and management in the investigation, there was no evidence of high-level corruption. The report noted that records of the Gardaí investigation had been altered and several pages removed, although this had taken place sometime after the initial investigation.
Suspect
Ian Kenneth Bailey was born on 27 January 1957 in Manchester, England. He worked variously as a freelance journalist, sometimes published under the name Eoin Bailey, and a fish farm worker and held a market stall selling pizzas and poems. He moved to Ireland in 1991 and lived with his partner in Goleen from 1992 onwards.
