Ian Bailey didn’t appear at festival in Scotland over arrest fear – and performed poems online instead

Bailey – who now earns a living as a poet – said: ‘Putting the poetry s

Ian Bailey was afraid to appear in person at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in case he was arrested for Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s murder.

The 65 year Englishman who now earns a living as a poet, said he was terrified the British authorities would lift him as soon as he stepped foot on UK soil.

He said; “I wanted to appear in person at the festival but I couldn’t. There is still a European Arrest Warrant outstanding for me that was issued at the request of the French authorities.

“I couldn’t and would not take the chance of leaving Ireland to go to Scotland because I feared I would lose my freedom.

“I suspect the British would act on the warrant and arrest me as soon as I landed back home. I would then have been extradited to France to serve a jail sentence for a crime I did not commit.”

Bailey was found guilty of Sophie’s murder by a French jury in absentia in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years jail. He has been arrested twice in west Cork over her brutal Christmas 1996 death but never charged with her murder.

The Irish courts refused to act on the European Arrest Warrant and kick him out of the country on the basis that most of the evidence heard during the French trial was based on “hearsay” and would never be admissible in an Irish court of law.

Both the High Court and the Supreme Court have both refused to extradite him on the basis that the French conviction was unsafe.

Bailey went ahead and participated at the Fringe Festival online and punters were asked to pay five pounds to watch his hour long poetry show called A John Wayne State of Mine.

He added; “I would prefer to be there in person, but obviously I couldn’t. Putting the poetry show online was better than nothing. This European Arrest Warrant means I can’t leave Ireland and although it is very frustrating that is just the way it is at the moment. One has to get on with it.”

show online was better than nothing’

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