“He was known to her I believe.”
Ian Bailey has said that he believes the killer of French Filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier was a man from Bantry.
Speaking to Colette Fitzpatrick during Monday night’s The Big Interview, he reiterated earlier comments that he has his “own theory” that Toscan du Plantier’s killer is already dead.
Fitzpatrick told Bailey during the interview that many people believe that he is a “killer”.
Bailey replied: “I’m not. I was falsely accused, falsely put in the frame from almost day one.
“I can assure you that I have nothing to do with this crime.”
He added that he has his own theory on who was responsible for the tragic murder of Toscan du Plantier, saying that he believes it was “somebody from Bantry” who was “known to her”.
When asked how well the man who Bailey said is now dead was known to the filmmaker, he replied: “I don’t know, but I think, well no, I’m sure there was a connection.”
He added that he is “hoping and praying” the truth will come out as he “had nothing to do with it [the murder]”.
Earlier this week Bailey claimed once again that he knows who killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier, adding that he believed the murderer is already “dead”.
Bailey told Newstalk on Wednesday that he had his own “theory” as to who killed Toscan du Plantier, saying that they passed away “quite a long time ago”.
“Is the killer still alive? I keep seeing this reference, the fact that the killer I think – if my own theory is correct, and I can’t say too much about it – the murderer is dead and has quite a long time ago passed away,” Bailey said.
“I don’t absolutely 100% know… my belief is that the murderer is probably dead – but that’s a belief, I can’t prove that”.
Bailey has maintained his innocence in regard to the murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan Du Plantier after first hitting headlines as a suspect in the case.
The brutal murder, which took place in the town of Schull in west Cork in 1996, triggered one of the biggest murder investigations Ireland had ever seen and became a national obsession.
Over the past quarter of a century, facts and information about the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier are still being released to the public, with most people in Ireland able to give a broad strokes retelling of the murder.
In 2019, a French Court found Bailey guilty of voluntary homicide, sentencing him to 25 years in prison.
Ireland didn’t extradite Bailey due to a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that the Irish extraterritorial provision was not the equivalent of the French legislation and therefore they were not reciprocal.
Bailey was not present for the French trial after winning the legal battle against his extradition.
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