High Court refuses Ian Bailey extradition over alleged voluntary homicide

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The High Court refused to order Ian Bailey’s extradition to France over the alleged voluntary homicide of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. The proceedings were reported on 24 July 2017.

Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found dead outside her holiday home in Schull in December 1996. Bailey denies any involvement in her death.

Justice Tony Hunt dismissed the Minister for Justice’s surrender application. He said the minister was barred from obtaining an order in light of the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision on identical relevant facts. He also found that seeking surrender on the fresh warrant was an abuse of process.

French authorities first sought Bailey’s surrender in 2010; the Supreme Court refused that application in 2012. A second request sought his surrender for alleged voluntary homicide. Four of the five Supreme Court judges had upheld Bailey’s argument that section 44 prohibited surrender because the alleged offence was committed outside French territory and Irish law did not allow prosecution for the same offence committed outside its territory by a non-Irish citizen.

Among his reasons for finding an abuse of process, Justice Hunt noted that the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions had concluded there was no basis for a charge or trial in Ireland. He said the surrender application did not engage with that finding.