Posted by Ian Bailey prepared himself a fictitious alibi after being spotted outdoors on the night Sophie Toscan du Plantier was killed, a new book reveals.
It came after witness Marie Farrell – who later retracted sworn evidence she gave in court – told gardai she had seen the self-confessed prime suspect for the killing at Kealfadda bridge in West Cork in the early hours of December 23, 1996. Now a new book by veteran journalist Senan Molony, who covered the case from the very start, reveals that a draft alibi was even drawn up by Ian Bailey after his release from his arrest in February 1997 – when he was confronted by detectives with the Kealfadda bridge sighting.
Who Watches the Watchers? 
Absolute shite. If – if! – he scribbled some notes about where he intended to go that day, it is more reasonable to assume that he was trying to remember. He told me he was going to fax the article from the hotel in Skibbereen (fancied a free meal as the article had been an advertorial for the hotel and the town’s business community). A freelance colleague’s account supports narrative. The newspaper asking him to file copy over the phone really annoyed him – it wasn’t a hard news story, it was a longish, boring “puff piece” and he felt the assignment was demeaning. If you want an unbiased, fact-checked account of this incident, I recommend my own book “The Blow-In (Ian Bailey’s fight to clear his name)”, now available on Amazon.
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Actually, to be scrupulously honest here, I must add that Ian told me he actually faxed the piece from Jules’s. He later mentioned that he planned to fax it from the hotel. When he told me this, I took it that the fax machine in the Prairie wasn’t working, and / or he just wanted an excuse to go to the hotel and blag a free lunch in return for the publicity. He did say he felt they owed him a lunch and the use of their fax after he had given them such good PR, got a headache writing the boring thing and was up all night finishing it while drunk.
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No doubt Ian meant he “sent” it from Jules’s. He actually phoned it in. But his persecutors will seize on his imperfect recollection as “evidence” that he was a liar. I would be more suspicious of someone who remembers every little detail of their day (unless they’re Rain Man).
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