Three Women, Three Statements, And Bailey’s Guilt - How we knew he did it

 

It is almost two years since Ian Bailey, dressed like a tramp, died in a gutter.  Soon the result of the cold case review of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier will be known. Independent experts agree that the French court's guilty verdict was correct. Below is a version of the introduction in Case Closed: Ian Bailey and the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. It shows how just three separate corroborated statements by three women demonstrate Bailey's guilt.

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Introduction: Three Women, Three Statements and Bailey’s Guilt 

An objective and reasoned evaluation of the evidence can lead only to that conclusion. In this book, you will learn about dozens of police statements concerning the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier that have been unknown to most people for over 25 years. They will reveal why An Garda Síochána knew they had a very strong case against Ian Bailey. The statements will help people to understand why Ian Bailey was found guilty of murder by a French court in 2019.

Part one will present a detailed analysis of the evidence showing how Ian Bailey repeatedly lied to investigators and, in doing so, became the prime suspect. It will also show how the statements of dozens of other people can be pieced together to expose Bailey’s culpability for the murder. The second part of the book will explore three important topics in the murder case: scratches, confessions, and whether Bailey knew Sophie. For each topic, the evidence points towards Bailey’s guilt. In the final part of the book, Betrayal of Justice?, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decision will be scrutinised. 

 In this brief introduction, the evidence of three women will highlight why Bailey was culpable. It will not present the full statements made by these women. Instead, in each case, it will be a key revelation that is found in their evidence to investigators. All the women were well known to Bailey. There are important similarities in all these statements. The witnesses have never varied their statements. The only person contradicting these women was Ian Bailey. Their statements have been corroborated by independent parties. Ian Bailey has no such corroboration, it is just his word and nothing else.

The first woman is Shirley Foster. She discovered Sophie’s body on the morning of December 23rd, 1996. She lived in a detached cottage adjacent to the one owned by her French neighbour. Foster and her partner, Alfie Lyons, knew Sophie, and they were also friends of Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas. The second woman is Jules Thomas, Bailey’s long-term partner for over twenty-five years. The third is Saffron Thomas, the eldest daughter of Jules Thomas.

 The statements

When the women were interviewed by French investigators in 2011, they had the right to have legal counsel present. The interviews were recorded and signed off by the interviewee in each case.

1.     He knew about the death before anyone else. Saffron Thomas to the French investigators in 2011

 Saffron Thomas confirmed that she spoke to her mother, Jules Thomas, between 11 am and 12 pm on December 23rd, 1996. This was over 100 minutes earlier than the time Jules Thomas claimed she was told about the death by Bailey, following his conversation with Eddie Cassidy. It is close to the time Jules Thomas told James Camier about the death in Dreenane.

“Called JT on the 23rd wanting a lift, “probably about 11 or 12”. “She (JT) said on the phone there had been a murder and she had either “been there or was going there”  Saffron Thomas 2011

This meant Jules Thomas knew about the murder on the morning of the 23rd. She would have known it when she left her home at or before 10 am. So, she and Bailey knew about the death before the body was discovered, approximately 40 minutes before the Guards arrived at the scene of the crime, and hours before a doctor confirmed the woman was deceased. Saffron Thomas made her original statement on this issue in 2002. It came after the original DPP report but would have been presented to the office. The DPP decided it was not significant.

2.     He knew where the murder took place. Shirley Foster to the French investigators in 2011

Foster has always insisted that she met Bailey and Thomas on Dreenane Lane on December 23rd, 1996. Something that Jules Thomas has always corroborated. This confirms that Ian Bailey knew where to find the deceased woman. He said he knew exactly where to go in his 31.12.1996 statement. He had no legitimate way of knowing where to find the deceased. In an article written for the Irish Times by Dick Hogan in January 1997, it stated that the Gardai found that 410 non-nationals were living in the area. Despite this, Bailey drives straight to an obscure holiday home. Moreover, he went there without checking with his friends, Sophie’s nearest neighbours, that a crime had been committed in that place.

“Subsequently, he lied about it. Later, he said that he had met me at the intersection when in reality, we crossed each other halfway between the intersection and the house, at the bend.”  Shirley Foster 2011

Bailey and Thomas met Foster partway down Dreenane Lane. He had driven down the lane many times. He knew it led to the cottages and no further. If he was on the lane he was going to the cottages. When he said he knew exactly where to go, he did. Bailey gives the same account as Foster and Thomas in his early statements. Later, he tried several times to claim that he had not driven directly to the scene of the crime. He was lying in an attempt to hide the incriminating truth.

3.     He knew the identity of the victim. Jules Thomas to the French investigators in 2011

 In her 2011 statement, Thomas re-affirms information she had provided fifteen years earlier. All of it is damning for Ian Bailey. This included her statements on what she and Bailey did after a brief visit to the scene of the crime. They left and drove to the post office in Toormore. In the original statements, there was full agreement between Bailey, Thomas, and the two post office workers, Ann Dukelow and Nan Jermyn. Bailey went there to get the name of the dead French woman who owned a holiday home in Dreenane. Soon, Bailey would claim he went to the post office without a specific objective, and only on arriving there did someone else volunteer the name of the victim. Dukelow, and Jermyn stood by their original story, and Thomas confirmed it in 2011.

“We weren’t sure of her name. We then went to the post office in Toormore and asked the postwoman if she knew the name of the person who lived next door to Alfie lyons. She said she thought it was BOUNIOL. It must have been around 2.30-3.00 p.m.”  Jules Thomas 2011

 There was nothing to suggest to Bailey that the dead woman in Dreenane must be Sophie. He never explained why he knew she owned the cottage in 1996, did not explain why he knew she was there just before Christmas, nor how he knew the body was that of Sophie. It was possible that Sophie was there with other women or that she had let friends, including other women, use the cottage. With other women at the cottage, it was impossible to be certain who was dead. Despite all these potential unknowns, he did not make any attempt to find out who it may be. He went to the post office and requested the name of the cottage owner.

There is no reason to disbelieve these three pieces of evidence and the corroboration from over a dozen witnesses. This means Bailey knew about the murder many hours before he says he was told. He therefore lied about when he claimed he learned of the death. He knew the exact location of the crime scene and drove straight there. Finally, he knew who the victim was, as he drove to the Post Office. Not only did he have all this guilty knowledge, he sought to cover it up by lying.

He knew about the murder before everyone else; he knew where the murder had taken place, and he knew who the victim was. Three women, three statements, and Bailey’s guilt. 

[To see how Ian Bailey repeatedly changed his story in an attempt to hide his guilt read this -   https://westcorkmurderersfriends.blogspot.com/2023/09/nemesis-how-truths-of-jules-thomas.html  ]