Late Late appeal from Sophie Toscan Du Plantier’s son made Ian Bailey ‘feel like crying’

 6th September 2021

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Ian Bailey “felt like crying” as he watched the son of murdered Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier make an emotional appeal on Friday’s Late Late Show for anyone with information about her killing to come forward.

The former chief suspect for the murder reiterated that he was “not responsible” for the killing in west Cork 25 years ago and added that he too wants to see the person responsible brought to justice.

“I watched the programme, and it made me feel like crying. I feel very sorry for Pierre-Louis [Sophie’s son]. I’m sympathetic as a human being for Pierre-Louis and his family.

“I have no complaint about the programme, it just made me feel very sad. I hope the truth comes out too. I had nothing to do with her death and have been consistently blamed for 25 years. I’ve been a victim of a miscarriage of justice,” he told the Sunday Independent.

The journalist-turned-poet, who is currently writing his autobiography, added he “would consider” going on the show himself to discuss the case but said he wasn’t expecting an invitation any time soon from the State broadcaster.

Meanwhile, a security source at Garda headquarters told this newspaper that there are “no plans right now” for a fresh Garda investigation into the 1996 murder in West Cork.

The du Plantier family and Ian Bailey have both called for a renewed Garda probe into the killing of the mother-of-one.

On the Late Late Show on Friday night, Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud looked straight into the camera after host Ryan Tubridy asked him to make a plea to any potential witnesses who could help with the investigation and said: “Please, for you, for me, for my mother, for the justice, for all the women in this country, please call me, please email me.”

He said he is absolutely certain that someone out there knows who is responsible for his mother’s murder when he was just 15 years old.

He said: “It’s been 25 years. The truth has not arrived yet, we must end this story, for me, for my mother, for the Irish people.”

He said he still lives each day with the pain of losing his mother in such a brutal manner.

“There is no words to describe my pain that is still here today. Everything changed when you lose your mother,” he said.

He said his childhood “stopped” the day his father woke him up in the middle of the night to inform him that his mother had been killed. He recalled how his father held him in his arms.

“Very odd, too odd. He was crying and he told me we would never be the same as before. My life turned upside down. My mother was found dead with the complete body destroyed.

“Her face was destroyed by stones. She was almost naked with a scratch on her face and body. You can’t forget,” he said. He also revealed the close bond he had with his mother.

“She was my everything. I was like a little monkey attached to her,” he said of following her around everywhere.

“We had a special connection, we looked the same with freckles,” he said.

Sophie was found dead on a laneway leading from her isolated holiday home at Toormore, outside Schull, on December 23, 1996.

Mr Baudey-Vignaud named his eldest child Sophie in honour of his mother and has insisted on keeping the Toormore cottage the filmmaker used to describe as her “dream home”.

He vowed that he will never stop campaigning for justice for his mother.

And despite the horrific events that unfolded in Schull, he said he still loves coming to his mother’s beloved house in West Cork with his own children, aged eight and nine as a reminder of how she was. “I continue to visit her,” he said.

“I love Ireland, it’s part of my roots now but I can’t forget that my mother’s blood had entered Irish soil now,” he said.