Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s son urges people of west Cork to travel for Ian Bailey trial

"My mother Sophie is not a ghost."

Sophie Toscan du Plantier's son has urged the people of west Cork to travel to France for the upcoming trial of Ian Bailey.

Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud attended a mass in Goleen this weekend in memory of his late mother, who was brutally murdered outside her home in west Cork in 1996. Bailey, a British journalist who currently lives in Schull, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the 39-year-old's murder. RTÉ reports that Baudey-Vignaud, who was 15 years old when his mother was killed, said that the trial is necessary whether it takes place in Ireland or France. "My mother Sophie is not a ghost, she is the victim of human cruelty and violence which has no place here," he said. "Sophie fought like a lioness against the most atrocious violence there is. The violence used by a monster that nothing stops, the one that struck her for no reason, for nothing. "I still come back here every year because it is the only way for me to defy this violence and to destroy it." Bailey will be tried in his absence over the next two weeks for the murder of Toscan du Plantier. He told Virgin Media News earlier this year that he had no plans to travel to France and said that he is "actually an innocent man." "I am greatly, greatly imperilled here," he said. "I know I had that I nothing to do with this and I am going to finish up a convicted murderer. "I am actually an innocent man. What will happen in France is that they will probably celebrate the fact that I have been convicted. "All they'll have succeeded in doing is convicting an innocent man." Bailey's legal team have said that they expect him to be convicted in his absence. If that happens, France will most likely attempt to have him extradited for the third time. Bailey is expected to fight this move.