The son of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has said that he will continue to fight for “truth and justice” for his mother, and remains confident that the case might yet one day be solved.
In his first public comments since the death of Ian Bailey on Sunday, Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud said that while his family would never now be able to obtain a “confession of guilt”, they were hopeful that “the discovery of new elements, the hearing of new witnesses and the revelation of possible complicity” would enable gardaí to finally close the case, 27 years after the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.
Speaking to The Irish Times from his home in Paris on Monday night, Mr Baudey-Vignaud said he did not really want to comment at length on Mr Bailey’s death but said he was not surprised after learning that the former journalist had suffered two heart attacks last year.
“I wasn’t shocked when I heard Ian Bailey had died but it’s not my place to react to his death. I am sure that I will return to Ireland now in a certain peace and I will be free now again in Ireland,” said Mr Baudey-Vignaud.
In a video statement, he said that despite the fact that Mr Bailey had been tried and convicted in absentia in Paris, and repeated requests from France for his extradition, he had remained free and never faced charges in the Irish justice system.
He said Mr Bailey had refused to answer the questions of French investigators, and had “entangled himself in lies and contradictions”, and had “provoked and taunted police, the judiciary and the media”.
“Ian Bailey always avoided telling the truth about this murder, of which beyond any reasonable doubt, he knew every detail.”
Mr Baudey-Vignaud said that Irish judicial authorities “never wanted” to charge or extradite Ian Bailey to France, in disregard, he said, of European commitments based on the principle of mutual trust between states.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our In The News podcast is now published daily – Find the latest episode here
