Ian Bailey convicted of murder in French trial

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

Ian Bailey was convicted of murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier by the High Court of Paris on 31 May 2019 and sentenced to 25 years’ detention.

The Irish Director of Public Prosecutions decided there should be no prosecution against Mr Bailey for any charge relating to the killing, and no prosecution was brought against him in Ireland. The file was reviewed several times and the decision not to prosecute was confirmed.

The Irish High Court judgment delivered by Mr Justice Paul Burns on 12 October 2020 concerned France’s request for Mr Bailey’s surrender to serve the French sentence.

The judgment records that Mr Bailey was tried, convicted and sentenced in his absence and was not represented at the French trial. The warrant stated that he had a right to appeal or seek a retrial.

The court also recorded that this was the third European arrest warrant issued by France seeking his surrender over the murder in Schull, County Cork, in 1996.