'Hard to see that somebody will be prosecuted' for Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder, Ian Bailey's solicitor says

IAN Bailey’s solicitor expressed doubt about whether the murder suspect’s name will ever be cleared following his sudden death last Sunday.

Frank Buttimer was speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland today, a day after Mr Bailey collapsed in Bantry from a suspected heart attack. He had been suffering from poor health that led to a number of hospitalisations before the fatal incident. 

The years leading up to that had been steeped in controversy due to his suspected involvement in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier case.

It comes 27 years after Ms Du Plantier’s body was discovered outside her holiday home in Toormore on the outskirts of Schull in West Cork.

Bailey was sentenced in absentia to 25 years in jail by a French court in 2019 for the murder which dates back to 1996.

Mr Buttimer described the UCC law graduate as a “complicated” individual. 

He described their first encounter in an interview on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland. 

“He came into my office. At that point of time he was the principal suspect in relation to the crime. He had heard of me in some other context and just came in and spoke to me. He had his own solicitor at the time. 

"I met him and spoke to him and my immediate reaction was that he was in no way involved in this particular crime. I did say to him that if he was ever prosecuted I would represent him. That transpired never to be necessary.” 

He acknowledged Mr Bailey’s interest in the limelight. Mr Buttimer admitted he found Ian Bailey’s reaction to the attention frustrating at times.

“The whole perception of Ian Bailey was generated by himself in the manner in which he spoke about his own case and his own circumstances,” he said. “It really didn’t help him. The whole idea of his status was a creation to ensure that somebody was identified as the offender in this awful case. 

"It self-perpetuated the state of affairs. That’s what I would say about the whole thing. I have to confess that I found some of the stuff going on a little bit frustrating. 

"He brought a lot of the attention on himself but all of that was because it was his method of reacting to what had been done to him. Different people react in different ways to circumstances. The circumstances which he found himself in were very challenging for him. 

"It was really hard to process what was going on. It turned into a spiral of mental problems that he had with regard to what had been done to him and his method of reaction. Sometimes he became proactive instead of reactive. The proactive element I found difficult but I always understood it.” 

The solicitor cast doubt over whether the case will ever be solved.

“The reality is that he always wanted that to happen but he died before it ever would have happened. I suppose there’s a possibility, like with anything else in life, but with the passage of time it is very hard to see that somebody will be identified and prosecuted.”