A Dream of Death Read online

  This project would not have been possible without the help, support and understanding of my colleagues at Independent News & Media. Special mention to Gareth Morgan, Claire Murphy, Rory Tevlin, Breda Heffernan, Kirsty Blake Knox, Eimear Rabbitte, Paul Sheridan, Fionnan Sheahan, Denise Calnan, Cormac Bourke and Alan Steenson.

  On a personal note, my wife, Mary, and children, Rachel, Rebecca and Ralph, as well as my mother, Nora, were staunch supporters, as always. I am very grateful for their help and understanding as I vanished for days on end to research and write material for this book.

  There are no winners in this story. The killer of Sophie Toscan du Plantier – an individual responsible for one of the most brutal murders in the history of the State – was never identified and brought to justice in Ireland. A French family, who placed their trust in the Irish justice system, is still waiting for that trust to be repaid. Ian Bailey, a man entirely innocent under Irish law, has endured a twenty-three-year nightmare that shows absolutely no sign of ending. Having moved to Ireland to forge a bright new life, Mr Bailey has, in his own words, been ‘bonfired’ since 1997, and believes that the ‘torture’ of being wrongly associated with the crime will only end with his death.

  It is my sincere hope that those still haunted by the awful pain inflicted on that Christmas evening, on a dark, lonely west Cork hillside in 1996, will eventually find the peace they deserve.

  Gill Books

  Hume Avenue

  Park West

  Dublin 12

  www.gillbooks.ie

  Gill Books is an imprint of M.H. Gill & Co.

  © Ralph Riegel 2020

  First published in 2020. This ebook edition published in 2020.

  978 0 7171 8671 6 (PB)

  978 0 7171 86761 (epub)

  978 0 7171 8677 8 (mobi)

  Proofread by Jane Rogers

  Cover design by www.grahamthew.com

  ‘In the Eye’ from A John Wayne State of Mind by Ian Bailey © Ian Bailey 2020.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publishers.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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  Ralph Riegel is the southern correspondent for Independent Newspapers, Ireland’s biggest newspaper group, covering the region for the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald and Independent.ie. His work has also featured in the Independent (UK), the Daily Telegraph, the Belfast Telegraph and the Cork Examiner. He is a regular contributor to RTÉ, Virgin Media One, the BBC, Channel 4 and Newstalk. He is a graduate of DIT.

  A Dream of Death is his ninth book. Four were bestsellers, including the Number 1 bestseller My Brother Jason, published by Gill Books. His book Commando was the focus of a Sky TV documentary. Hidden Soldier inspired the RTÉ series Hostile Environment, starring Liam Cunningham.

  A native of Kilworth, he lives in Fermoy, Co. Cork, with his wife, Mary, and three children.

  ABOUT GILL BOOKS

  Gill Books’ story begins in 1856 when Michael Henry Gill, then printer for Dublin University, purchased the publishing and bookselling business of James McGlashan, forming McGlashan & Gill. Some years later, in 1875, the company name was changed to M.H. Gill & Son. Gill & Macmillan was established in 1968 as a result of an association with Macmillan of London. There was also a bookshop, popularly known as Gills, located on Dublin’s O’Connell Street for 123 years until it eventually closed in 1979.

  Today our bookshop can be found online at www.gillbooks.ie. Gill Books is proud to publish a broad range of non-fiction books of Irish interest, from history to economics, politics to cookery and biography to children’s. Since 1968, we have published outstanding authors and groundbreaking books such as Fatti and John Burke’s Irelandopedia, David McWilliams’ The Pope’s Children, Noël Browne’s Against the Tide, Garret FitzGerald’s All in a Life and Augustine Martin’s Soundings – not to mention our award-winning cookery list. We also publish a wide range of educational books and resources, and we provide a distribution service for the majority of Ireland’s independent publishers. For more information about us, our titles, or to join our mailing list, please visit www.gillbooks.ie.

  Photo section

  A delighted seven-year-old Sophie poses outside Notre-Dame Cathedral after her First Holy Communion. The lady adjusting her veil is her adored aunt, Marie-Madeleine Opalka, who would later play a crucial role in supporting Sophie’s parents after her brutal murder. (© Shutterstock)

  Beautiful, intelligent and fiercely independent, Sophie Bouniol strikes a pensive pose. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Sophie cuts a striking figure as she poses by the window of her Paris apartment. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  A youthful Sophie demonstrates the natural warmth and happiness that captivated everyone she met. (© Shutterstock)

  Sophie poses for the camera as she is hugged by her nine-year-old son during a family holiday. The focus of Sophie’s world was her beloved son, Pierre-Louis. (© Shutterstock)

  Sophie smiles happily in 1995, flanked by the two beloved men in her life: her husband, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, and her son, Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud. (© Pool BENAINOUS/HIRES/Getty Images)

  Daniel Toscan du Plantier and Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud follow Sophie’s coffin out of the church after her requiem Mass in France in January 1997. Her parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, and her first husband, Pierre-Jean Baudey, are partially obscured in the background. (© Gilles Bouquillon/Getty Images)

  The laneway leading to Sophie’s Toormore property. Sophie’s body was found by a gate in the far left of the photo, where the laneway curves uphill towards her house. (© STR/AFP via Getty Images)

  Tall, raven-haired and handsome, Manchester-born journalist Ian Bailey in west Cork in February 1997. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  The simple stone Celtic cross that marks the spot where Sophie’s body was found. The cross is inscribed ‘Sophie’. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Georges and Marguerite Bouniol lovingly place white lilies at the cross. For 15 years, Sophie’s parents visited Toormore for her anniversary. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Daniel Toscan du Plantier and his solicitor, Paul Haennig, right, address the media at a Cork hotel in July 2000 during his single visit to Ireland after the murder of his wife. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Paul Gallagher SC, who was lead counsel for the Irish and UK newspapers in the libel action. He would go on to become Ireland’s Attorney General. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Ian Bailey and his partner, Jules Thomas, walk back into the Camden Quay court premises carrying flowers and Christmas presents during a lunchtime break in his December 2003 libel action against eight Irish and UK newspapers. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Schull shopkeeper Marie Farrell leaves the Cork Circuit Court premises on Camden Quay during the 2003 libel action. She was dubbed the ‘star witness’ of the two-week hearing. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Senior gardaí greet members of the French detective unit working with Magistrate Patrick Gachon during their investigative trip to west Cork in 2011. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  French detectives and forensic experts conduct a site visit at Toormore as part of their Irish investigation. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Georges and Marguerite Bouniol leave Goleen church after a memorial Mass for Sophie in 2012. Marie-Madeleine Opalka can be seen in the background. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Jules Thomas, Ian Bailey and his solicitor, Frank Buttimer, speak to the assembled media outside the Four Courts in Dublin in 2012 after his landmark Supreme Court victory against a French extradition bid. That’s my hand coming in from the left with a tape recorder. (© Peter Muhly/AFP via Getty Images)

  Jules Thomas gazes proudly up at her partner, Ian Bailey, as he displays his UCC law thesis on ‘Poli
cing the Police – Garda Accountability in Ireland’. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Ian Bailey poses for the camera as he delivers a special lecture for the West Cork Debating Society in Skibbereen in 2013. (Courtesy of Niall Duffy)

  Jean-Pierre Gazeau, left, and Jean-Antoine Bloc of ASSOPH at a 2014 press conference to urge the Irish authorities to continue cooperation with the French investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. They hold copies of a book about the murder, entitled A Denial of Justice. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud pictured in west Cork during one of his trips to his mother’s Toormore home. He refused to sell Sophie’s beloved property and retained it for holidays with his family and friends. (© Daragh McSweeney/Provision)

  Pierre-Louis Baudey-Vignaud photographed attending the May 2019 opening of the Paris trial over his mother’s murder. (© Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)

  Jean-Antoine Bloc, a key figure in ASSOPH’s decade-long campaign for justice for Sophie, attending the Paris trial. (© Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images)

  Pierre-Jean Baudey, right, talks to the Bouniol family’s long-standing lawyer, Alain Spilliaert, during a break in proceedings at the Paris trial. (© Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images)

  Ian Bailey works on a wood carving at a west Cork farmers’ market. (© aphperspective/Alamy)

  A remarkable image of Ian Bailey surrounded by wildflowers in the garden of his Liscaha home on 31 May 2019, the day he learned he had been convicted in absentia of Sophie’s murder at the Paris trial. (© Mark Condren/Irish Independent)

  A sombre Ian Bailey leaves the Four Courts in Dublin in December 2019 after a judge endorsed a third French extradition warrant and listed it for a full hearing before the High Court in 2020. (© Damien Eagers/AFP via Getty Images)