Celebrity lawyer to represent Jules Thomas in battle over Sophie Netflix show

20/04/2025

Celebrity lawyer Gerald Kean has stepped in to help the late murder suspect Ian Bailey’s former partner, Jules Thomas, in her ongoing legal battle with Netflix, Extra.ie has learned.

Mr Kean said he has agreed to provide his services on a no-foal, no-fee basis after meeting with the Welsh-born artist, with whom he was ‘very impressed’.

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Ms Thomas was left without legal representation coming up to a crucial stage in her long-running action for damages against the streaming giant and the production company Lightbox Media.

She claims unauthorised filming took place at her home during the making of the 2021 documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.

Ms Thomas also alleges the three-part series contained ‘glaring inaccuracies, fabrications and falsehoods’ which led to her being treated as a ‘social pariah’. The claim is being fully defended by both companies. Ms Thomas alleged she was shunned by neighbours and ostracised by friends after the series aired.

She said she was forced for a time to stay away from the local market where she sold her artwork and experienced ‘stress, isolation and depression’ because of the Netflix series.

Mr Kean, who was well known for his frequent TV and media appearances and as the legal representative of a number of celebrity clients, this week confirmed he is now ‘instructing counsel’ on behalf of Ms Thomas in her action against the streaming giant.

He told Extra.ie: ‘I have full faith and belief in Jules Thomas’s instructions to me. I met Jules for the first time when she travelled to Dublin last week to meet myself and the legal team who will represent her.

‘I am instructing counsel on her behalf, I have already reviewed the matter in its entirety at length, including papers and documentation I received from Jules. I looked at the Netflix series of programmes. Having done so, I accepted her request to act on her behalf in relation to the action she has taken against Netflix.’

The high-profile lawyer said of his new client: ‘I was very impressed with the lady as a person.’ And he confirmed he has agreed to take on Ms Thomas’s case on a no-win, no-fee basis and has briefed a leading senior counsel and barrister to fight the action.

Ms Thomas told Extra.ie: ‘I am looking forward to a resolution of this case; it has already cost me so much in terms of stress, sleepless nights, and seeing little light at the end of the tunnel, nearly three years on.

‘I have great confidence in my legal team and renewed hope now that the case may be heard in full later this year.’ The case is due before the High Court on April 28 for a brief hearing concerning pleadings.

Ms Thomas has been awarded costs several times since July 2024, when motions of discovery in the case concerning the request for a location agreement signed by the registered owner of the property were not produced.

The artist maintains that these location agreements do not exist because she did not sign any such document.

Before his death in January 2024 after suffering several heart attacks, Ian Bailey – who had always denied any involvement in the murder of French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier – signed a statutory declaration confirming his former partner had never given permission for filming on her property.

Ms Thomas had been seeking new legal representation after the firm of Dublin solicitors who had previously represented her pulled out. This followed complaints from lawyers acting on behalf of Netflix that Vincent O’Donoghue, a former solicitor who has a conviction for fraud, was working as a lawyer on behalf of Ms Thomas without having a practising certificate.

In 2013, Mr O’Donoghue was convicted of fraudulently converting cheques that were supposed to be used for clients’ deposits on properties in Dublin and Belfast.

He moved to Australia and fought a long extradition battle, during which he spent more than four years in an Australian prison.

Ms Thomas said she was not aware of Mr O’Donoghue’s past when she was introduced to him ‘in good faith’ by the filmmaker Jim Sheridan, who also produced a 2021 documentary about the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.

She added that he acted as a legal advisor, but never calling himself a solicitor’, carrying out ‘a lot of work, and it was correct work’ on her case in the past.

Four years ago this weekend, Extra.ie first revealed how Ms Thomas had ended her ‘decades-long’ relationship with Ian Bailey.

Throughout their turbulent relationship, she stood by him through scandals and court appearances and has always maintained his innocence in the Du Plantier murder.

The artist, known for her evocative landscapes of coastal West Cork, was this week finishing works she hopes to sell at Schull market, where she shared a stall with Bailey for many years, which resumes today.