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Ian Bailey shares picture from hospital after suffering double heart attack

He was due to be discharged from the cardiac unit at Bantry General Hospital this weekend but will now continue to receive treatment as his condition has deteriorated.

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Ian Bailey has shared his first photo from hospital after suffering two heart attacks earlier this month.

In an image published by the Irish Mirror, the 66-year-old, a suspect in the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39), sits in a hospital bed wearing a grey beanie hat and a green scarf.

He was due to be discharged from the cardiac unit at Bantry General Hospital this weekend but will now continue to receive treatment as his condition has deteriorated.

The English journalist requires triple bypass surgery but is too unwell for the operation to go ahead, the publication adds.

Mr Bailey yesterday supported Sophie’s family’s calls for gardai to speed up their cold case review into her murder at her west Cork holiday home.

“I would like to clear my name in case I die,” he said.

“Fortunately I was able to get into hospital and hopefully I will make a full recovery, but who knows?

“The thought did occur to me that this could be the end. As everyone knows I have been very highly accused of a crime that I had nothing to do with, there is no evidence whatsoever

“I guess what I am trying to say is this, should I depart now before this cold case review is solved, I had nothing to do with this.

“I will go and meet my maker if there is a maker with nothing on my conscience. I did not kill Sophie and I want to see her killer caught before I die.”

Mr Bailey did a brief interview last week from his hospital bed with Cork radio station 96FM.

I think I am on the improve now,” he said.

“I am hoping that somebody will acknowledge [in the ongoing Garda cold case review] that it wasn’t me that murdered this poor French lady.

“I would like to think it [a full exoneration] would happen. Whether it will or not, only time will tell.”

Mr Bailey had written to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris pleading for a cold case review.

“My hope and prayer is that before I am dead and gone the truth will come out – and the truth is that I had nothing to do with this terrible crime,” he continued.

“It would go a long way towards putting a smile on my face, I can tell you.”

Mr Bailey said he and others had long been trying to get to the bottom of the case.

“What I did with [my podcast]… I went through a few scenarios [of who was responsible]. There is an independent cold case review that is being conducted by an Irish TV company, they employed forensic experts from the US and UK to go through every piece of evidence – there is an indication that it could be a person still alive who was responsible,” he said.

“I do not want to say too much more.

“But there is a strong suggestion of who that person may be. That person is in Ireland, they are Irish and they are still alive.”

The poet was working on other projects when, last weekend, he suddenly fell ill with severe chest pains.

“I feel really weak at the moment and do not know what the future holds. The medical team is doing their best for me and I really appreciate it. Each and everyone of them are stars. I have been overwhelmed with support,” he said.

“I had been suffering from extreme stress and anxiety for weeks now caused by the whole Sophie case plus the prospect of being kicked out of my home.

“There is nothing worse than being accused of something you did not do. The pressure of losing your home and homelessness is also very very difficult to deal with.”

“I did not feel well at all and then it all came to a head. I felt very weak and felt like I was going to die . Thankfully I got to the hospital in time and they were able to treat me.”

Mr Bailey – who is also a law graduate – has successfully fought extradition to France three times since 2010 over the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.

He has consistently protested his innocence in relation to the killing of the French mother of one at her west Cork holiday home.

Mr Bailey was twice arrested by gardaí in relation to the investigation in 1997 and 1998 but was released without charge on both occasions.

The Director of Public Prosecutions ruled in 2000/2001 that he did not have a case to answer. But he was convicted in absentia by a French court of the killing in 2019 – despite repeatedly claiming that attempts were made to frame him for the crime.

The French court imposed a 25-year prison term. The poet, formerly of Liscaha, Schull, Co Cork, but currently living in Bantry, described the Paris proceedings as “a farce” and “a show trial”.