Actor: Bailey told film crew he ‘knew Sophie’

A woman who had acted the part of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in an RTÉ Crimeline reconstruction of her movements in the days before her murder in December 1996, told the High Court Ian Bailey approached the film crew and said he knew Ms Toscan du Plantier.

Anne Cahalane said the reconstruction was being filmed on Three Castles Head near Schull in mid- January 1997, when Mr Bailey “bounded” over; said he was a journalist covering the story, knew Ms Toscan du Plantier, and had met her on the walk to Three Castles Head.

She was aware at that time, of talk in Schull, Mr Bailey was a suspect for the murder and made a statement to gardaí in 2012 about the encounter after a newspaper reported Mr Bailey had said he did not know Ms Toscan du Plantier.