French decision on Ian Bailey case adjourned for a week

SCHULL resident Ian Bailey will have to wait a further week to find out if he has been successful in an appeal against the decision to charge him in France with the voluntary homicide of Sophie Toscan du Plantier at her holiday home at Toormore, in 1996.

The court in France has adjourned a decision to this day week, Thursday February 1st.

Meanwhile, The Irish Times is reporting that Ms Toscan du Plantier received a phone call from a ‘journalist in Cork’ days before she travelled to Ireland for a holiday that was to end in her murder.

According to a French investigation team inquiring into the murder, the Frenchwoman was surprised to receive a phone call at her workplace from an Irish-based journalist.

The paper is reporting that Sophie’s cousin, Alexandra Lewy, has told French investigators that she remembered a conversation with Ms Toscan du Plantier before she flew to Cork for a vacation in Schull.

She said the man advised Sophie that he was an independent journalist and a writer. He requested a meeting with Sophie ‘for cultural reasons’ but did not specify any further. Sophie’s cousin could not recall the name of the man.

Under Irish law, Ms Lewy’s statement would be deemed to be ‘hearsay’ as Ms Toscan is not alive to confirm the details in court, so the statement would not be admissible as evidence in an Irish court. But French law permits such statements to be introduced as evidence.

The Irish Times says Ian Bailey denies he is the man mentioned, or that he made any calls to Ms du Plantier. ‘It’s a completely erroneous suggestion with no basis in fact,’ he told the newspaper.