A court in France has found Ian Bailey, a British former journalist, guilty of murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier, a French film-maker who was battered to death in Ireland, reports The Guardian.
The cour d’assises in Paris on Friday sentenced Bailey to 25 years for the brutal murder in west Cork in 1996, an infamous cold case that has confounded Irish authorities and divided public opinion over Bailey’s guilt or innocence.
Toscan du Plantier’s relatives embraced after the verdict was read out. Her only child, Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud, hailed the ruling. “It is a victory for justice, it is a victory for the truth and now Ireland will have to extradite Ian Bailey.”
Bailey, 62, denies any involvement. He lives in Ireland and did not attend the week-long trial and was convicted in absentia. But the family of Toscan du Plantier, who was 39 when she was killed, are likely to see the conviction as long overdue and will hope it paves the way to potential extradition.
“All they’ve done is convict an innocent man who had nothing to do with the crime,” he told the Guardian, speaking from his cottage near Bantry, County Cork, minutes after the verdict was announced. “All they’ve got is a pyrrhic victory.”