BAILEY’S VERSE 

Ian Bailey launches spoken word version of poetry on Audible – but is yet to make a cent on downloads

• Showbiz Editor

• 7:00, 13 Jul 2021

IAN Bailey has revealed how he has launched a spoken word version of his poetry on Audible – but has yet to make a cent from downloads.

The chief suspect in the murder of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier has revealed he spent over €1,000 recording an audio version of his poetry ­collection, A John Wayne State Of Mind.

Bailey, who has always denied any involvement in Sophie’s death, hired a professional sound engineer to tape the verses at the home of his former partner Jules.

He told the Irish Sun: “I sold out of my poetry books at Bantry market last week, people ask me to sign them and give them as presents.

“I sell a few books of my poetry on Amazon, I would have thought I’d have sold more lately but apparently I haven’t.

“But this was a recent decision of mine to do an Audible version, to make sure there is an audio version of my poems for posterity.”

The 64-year-old said many of the readings concern his struggle to maintain his innocence for the murder of Sophie, with one They’re Building A Bonfire in Paris penned about the court case in Paris where he was found guilty of the murder in his absence.

‘ROTTEN PILE OF LIES’

With his frustration and anger evident, Bailey raged: “They are building a bonfire in Paris, built on a rotten piles of lies, they are building a bonfire in Paris so they can watch me burn there, right before their eyes.”

The journalist said that the John Wayne title for his collection had come from a belief that he would need to “toughen up” to deal with the court case in France.

John Dower, director of No1 Netflix documentary Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, claimed Bailey’s decision to write about the case in his poetry was proof that he was not, as he claimed, trying to get on with his life, but was instead using his link to the the case himself for his own ends.

Dower said: “Ian’s last book of poetry ­constantly refers to the case.”

But Bailey told us: “There are other poems about the Palestinian people or a wooden boat festival in Ballydehob. I’ve been doing these poems for a long time.”