Watch: Ian Bailey discusses Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder in new interview

Ian Bailey on The Big Interview. Picture: Virgin Media.

Some sneak peeks of   Ian Bailey:The Big Interview have been released ahead of tonight's airing. 

In one of the clips, the former journalist again claims that the person who murdered Sophie Toscan du Plantier is deceased.

Speaking about the recent appeal from Toscan du Plantier’s son on The Late Late Show, Bailey says: “He says that the killer is still alive. I have my own theory that the killer is actually dead.” 

“It’s sad for him. I know he believes that I murdered her. I have nothing to do with it.” 

The body of Toscan du Plantier, a French filmmaker, was found near her holiday home in Goleen just days before Christmas in 1996. No one has been charged with the crime in Ireland, but Bailey (64) was convicted in absentia in Paris in 2019.

The English expat, who lives near Schull in west Cork, has been the subject of headlines surrounding the case for decades but has always maintained his innocence.

He faced a renewed spotlight this year with the release of two popular series, Jim Sheridan’s Murder At The Cottage, and Sophie: A Murder in West Cork on Netflix.

Bailey discusses the documentaries with Virgin Media News anchor Colette Fitzpatrick, as well as the "low, dark, periods" in his life and his relationship with former partner Jules Thomas.

When pressed about the issue of domestic abuse, Bailey agreed that Thomas had ended up in the hospital at one point in their relationship, but says that the description of her eye being “the size of a grapefruit" is a “gross exaggeration”.

“Her lip was almost completely severed from her gum. She had to get eight stitches,” Fitzpatrick says in one of the clips. 

“I know. It’s shameful," Bailey replies. 

Fitzpatrick also brings up the subject of Toscan du Plantier’s appearance in the interview. Bailey has long claimed that he had not been introduced to her and again states that he only knew her from photographs.

“All I know is from the photographs I’ve seen of her. To my eye she wouldn't have been the most beautiful of people,” he says. “She was attractive, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” 

Bailey has recently called on Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to open a cold case review of the crime.

“The only thing I can do is to keep on doing what I’ve been doing and hoping, praying, that the truth will come out.” 

• Watch Ian Bailey: The Big Interview on Virgin Media One at 9pm tonight.