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Original subtitles

The following programme contains distressing scenes.

It's so much, it's difficult to sum it up simply.

But as everybody knows, 20-odd years ago,

there was a murder in West Cork.

And at the time I was erm...a journalist, a freelance journalist.

And I finished up reporting on the crime.

And within a few weeks,

erm, I had been identified by the guards, falsely, as a suspect.

That began... That was 20-odd years ago,

and I have, throughout that period,

I've done everything that I could to protest my innocence.

Because I know, I know, that I have nothing to do with this,

and I know that the false narrative

that I did have something to do with it is a complete myth.

I can't prove that. I know that.

It's difficult.

A gap between knowing something and being able to prove.

So, I've been left in a situation

where I've been accused in France of the murder.

I can't travel out of the state.

I've already been subjected to two European arrest warrants,

and I don't know, from day to day, how that's going to play out.

All I know is, it's going to be awful.

Yeah, this is all vegetables in the summer,

so we always have something out here that we can pick and eat.

Purple sprouting broccoli!

This is why I have no thumbnails.

It's absolutely delicious, I promise you.

Lovely in stir fries as well.

It's a fucking tragedy. You have a situation

where a lady is murdered,

and then you have this fucking massive cover-up.

The French are assured in 1997...

.."Don't worry, we know who murdered your daughter.

He's an English bastard called Ian Bailey.

The only problem we have is

we don't quite have enough evidence against him.

But don't worry, we'll sort that out."

Ah. Great!

Aw!

Right.

So, what have we got? Witness detail...

I don't really wanna go through this.

But this is right from the beginning.

These are the very earliest newspaper headlines.

Tuesday February 11th.

That's the day after the first arrest.

"Man held over Cork murder freed by Gardai."

16th February, 1997.

That was the photograph of me. That was me then.

Erm...

Oh, for fuck sake.

I met Ian actually the day that Sophie's body was found.

Erm... I was called, I was working mainly as a press photographer.

About 250 metres, yards, turning to the right.

So, I actually picked him up at his house,

and he directed me to Sophie's house.

When was the first day that you became aware

that the cops were looking at Bailey?

Very early in January,

they rang, and said could they come down and interview me.

They kept, sort of, asking me, did I notice anything about Ian,

did I notice if he had scars on his hands or face, or marks,

or anything like that? And I said, genuinely, I didn't.

But I got from it straight away

that they were looking at him.

If I remember rightly,

he was arrested for the first time on a Monday.

I got a call from a journalist, and she said,

"He's being arrested today."

She said, "I think the guards are actually at his house now."

This was about eight o'clock in the morning. To me,

it came from a journalist,

but I'm imagining it came from the guards to her, you know?

So, you went in this way? So, I went in this way.

But in those days you could just freely walk in there,

get to the back of the building and shoot across the car park.

'Before 11 o'clock, Chief Superintendent Noel Smith,

in charge of the investigation,

announced that the man held would be released without charge.'

Are you disappointed?

You look more disappointed than I am.

You thought I was going to be carrying the head out, I suppose.

'Earlier this week a local man, a journalist,

Eoin Bailey, was arrested and questioned

for 12 hours by Gardai about the murder.

And in an unusual development for Ireland,

he was identified in several newspapers...'

Once that photograph hit the newspapers,

everybody knew then whom the guards, at least, believed

perpetrated the crime.

Everybody in Schull had a view.

You were either for Bailey or against him, I think.

The phone didn't stop ringing,

the place was inundated with reporters.

We had the curtains drawn on the house

for about a month after that arrest.

Complete blackout in the house.

So, I get a solicitor, I paid this man called Con Murphy.

And he comes along and he says,

"Don't say anything and stay shtum."

'A small country road beside where Eoin Bailey lives

was blocked with traffic today,

as the media gathered to hear his story.'

My instinct is, if I had nothing to do with the thing I was being accused of,

I'm not going to remain silent.

The Garda Siochana are saying

that they didn't release my name. But who did?

But you're saying to me here you didn't kill Sophie du Plantier,

nor did you have any part in that. I'm saying

I didn't kill her, I had no knowledge of the killing, I'm an innocent man.

After the first arrest, it was fucking hell.

It really was. Dreadful, shocking.

Funny because it creates a ball of fear.

You get this thing of fear right in your guts.

I was 39 when this began. 39.

I'm 62 now. Most of my hair is gone.

A lot of these teeth are not the originals.

Of course, they arrested Jules too.

How are you gonna deal with a situation like that?

Ian Bailey invited me into his house,

and into his warm kitchen,

while Jules Thomas made tea for us, and offered scones, and so on.

It was an extraordinary situation.

But every time I think he gave an interview,

it really just copper-fastened

his associations with the entire investigation.

'In the wake of all of this publicity,

can you stay in West Cork? Do you want to stay in West Cork?

I certainly want to stay in West Cork,

and I believe I will stay in West Cork.'

But the cloud over your name will not be lifted, really,

until someone is charged and convicted

with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

That is correct.'

Pierre Louis is Sophie's son

from her first marriage.

Her only child, he was just 15, when she was murdered.

Throughout his childhood, Pierre Louis spent magical moments

with his mother in Toormore.

After her death, Pierre decided to keep the house,

and he still spends time there every year.

It remains a tangible link to his mother.

We still feel great sadness

at such a tragedy happening in Goleen.

All the neighbours, they would be anxious, you know?

It makes everybody feel rather uneasy.

'During the investigation,

Gardai have arrested people and have interviewed hundreds,

but despite this, the person who killed Madame du Plantier

amid the peace and tranquillity of her West Cork home

still hasn't been found.'

Everybody terrified, women terrified, you know.

And then you start getting reports of, sort of like,

my neighbour's son being told by Bailey in a car

that he'd done the murder, you know.

He was 14. It was on the Wednesday

about two months after Sophie had died.

And Malachi saw Mr Bailey in town,

and he got a lift with him,

which was quite normal here.

He said that he got in the car,

and Mr Bailey was behaving quite agitatedly,

and he turned around and told him

that he had smashed her brains in.

He used the words, "F-ing brains in."

And Malachi was quite distressed at the time.

Well, I think he thought...

He didn't know if he was telling the truth,

or if he was just acting crazily, or whatever.

The police focused in on Bailey very quickly after the crime.

They did, but there was no other males in the area

that came under the radar.

But from what I can figure out,

the Irish police weren't allowed to interrogate anybody in France.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

When they went across to France,

and they, out of courtesy, went to the local Gendarmerie,

they were told to stand there for a minute,

and the officer came to ask what was it about, and they told him.

And he told them straight out that they were not to investigate,

and not to question any French citizen,

to go back to the airport and go back to Ireland.

That's the French system. That's the way it is.

The evidence would have to go back that way,

and then the French would take over.

And it's the fact that where the scene is

that they knew the crime scene, knew the area.

It would've been difficult to know it was there.

That's the way I look at it. I agree with that

unless it's an arranged killing.

What I'm saying is, if we're just going down one road,

and we can't go the other road,

there's no point in investigating anything in France.

Morning.

The guards knew that every contact leaves a trace.

So they sent the forensic tests away in high expectation.

What came back would be highly unusual.

There was so small DNA on the briar thorns

that it wouldn't have been capable of producing evidence.

None of Bailey's DNA was found under Sophie's nails.

And Bailey's hair sample didn't match,

as the hair in Sophie's hands turned out to be her own.

The blood on the door was Sophie's.

The gate was taken off because there was blood along the top of the gate.

-Was that Sophie's blood? -That was Sophie's blood, but that was it.

There was no evidence of a sexual assault.

He would've left fingerprints, no?

They can be cleaned easily. If you rub, fingerprints are gone.

The whole police thing was it was a frenzied attack by a sociopath,

and then you have to turn him into this career criminal

who cleans the scene. They don't work together.

No, they don't, and that's unlikely.

The breeze block with the blood on it,

that wouldn't -have fingerprints on it. -No.

Because the surface of the breeze block won't hold fingerprints.

It won't get it.

This person was very lucky who -killed her. -Oh, absolutely.

Without a shadow of a doubt. No doubt.

There should really have been more evidence than there was

because the theory of forensic science

is that every contact leaves a trace.

Now, you've got to find the traces, too, of course.

There is, effectively, not a scintilla of evidence there

to prosecute Ian Bailey for it.

And Bailey, without it being necessary for him to do so...

..gave samples.

He didn't hide anything.

Statement of Brian Jackson, taken on the 7th of February, 1997.

"I recall that on or about Christmas time,

I smelt a fire and I heard a crackling.

It smelt like a garden fire and it smelt like garden rubbish.

I thought it was unusual for Ian to be cleaning up the garden

that time of year, or, indeed, any time of year.

We had a fire. we were clearing out that house from somebody

who had been there before and hadn't taken all their rubbish.

An old mattress and that sort of thing, you know?

We just put a fire in the back, but that was in November.

Or October even. But people were saying

that the fire at the studio was Christmas time.

I think that was the guards cooking it up, myself.

I investigated the bonfire that was reported by locals,

and we found, in the burned remains,

furniture, bed furniture, beddings.

So, what happened to Ian's big, black overcoat?

They took it. The cops took it.

Apparently, it got cut into inch squares,

and they tested every square inch for blood.

Detective Garda Pat Joy.

"On the 10th of February, 1997,

I went to a house known as the Studio House, Schull.

In the Studio House in a room off the kitchen,

I found a black overcoat on the sofa.

I placed this overcoat in a brown paper bag

which I sealed and marked 'PJ-24'."

Yeah, really.

That's what happened to his coat.

Patchwork quilt maybe one day.

Yeah.

Perhaps there was another black coat

that was burned in the fire.

Oi! No, no, no, no, no. Out! No, no.

I know what you're doing. Out! Out!

Out!

Go on! Isn't she beautiful? She's a Bluebell.

And I was fairly successful as a journalist in another life,

and I wasn't doing too badly here.

I mean, I wrote all of that.

You can see, Daily Star, date and everything, front page.

As a freelance journalist, in effect, you're a pen for hire.

Jokingly, I referred to freelance journalists as "presstitutes".

I reached a point when I was about 28, 29,

where I saw the total empty vacuousness of journalism,

and the damage, because you're in a very powerful position.

Part of what I was doing, I was trained

as a court reporter and other things,

and I was sort of becoming aware of Buddhism.

And I reached the point, I thought, "Fuck this.

I can't do this anymore."

I'm actually making a living

out of writing about other people's misfortunes.

I can't do it anymore."

That was towards the time I... When did I come to Ireland? I was 38.

The guards said you knew a lot about the case, and you knew too much.

Um...you know, you've got your sources as a journalist.

And I was coming out with all the lead stories.

Why? Because I'm down here, and the French are coming in.

I'm liaising with them, and I'm the only journalist doing that.

You know, this was a big story, and I'm reporting on it.

And then I start to get this rumour, people and journalists saying to me,

"You know, it has been said it's you who murdered her."

I said, "Ah, sure, yeah, course I did, I needed a story."

That's irony, by the way. I'm being sarcastic.

That isn't an admission. Mm-hm.

In most cases, what happens is the guards investigate,

and then they pass a file to the DPP.

It's a constitutional matter, so the guards have no power

to prosecute anybody with an indictable offence

unless authorised by the DPP.

The guards in this country are very good.

They're very skilled.

They had done a huge amount of work, a massive amount of work.

They felt they had sufficient evidence collated...

'Around Kealfadda Bridge I saw the man on the road.'

..to have convinced the DPP to press charges.

The DPP took a different view.

From the DPP's point of view,

they had no scientific or forensic evidence

to link Ian Bailey to the scene.

Bailey's reason for getting up

on the night of the murder to write an article

was found plausible.

And, as he was the only local journalist,

he was the first at the scene of the crime.

He said that he had been led directly to Sophie's house

because he was informed that the deceased was French.

The Director of Public Prosecutions accepted his explanation.

Yeah, yeah. No, I was with Ian.

I mean, why buy a Christmas tree,

if you've got a perfectly good ten foot growing in your garden?

Apparently, there was guards climbing the trees

to see had we been chopping tops off them for the last several years.

Detective Garda Pat Joy.

"On the 19th February, 1997, Garda Bart O'Leary pointed out

a Sitka spruce tree near the Studio House to me.

The top had been cut off of this tree.

I photographed it,

then Garda Kevin Kelleher, who was also present, climbed the tree

and when he came down, I photographed his hands."

A number of guards had witnessed the scratches on Ian's hands and face,

but they never took photos.

Instead, they made sketches.

This is their official record of the infamous scratches.

There was another visual reference of Ian's hands

recorded at the Christmas swim.

That day, you remember, Ian performed a poem,

and the woman holding the camcorder made this statement.

"When he finished reciting his poem,

I stopped recording and wished him a happy Christmas

and extended my right hand out to shake hands with him.

He had his hands deep in his pockets

and he took out his right hand and shook hands with me."

The police had to question this,

as Ian's right hand is clearly not in his pocket,

and his left hand is holding a camera.

"The back of his hand was covered in visible scratches."

'Eoin O Balaigh!

Eoin O Balaigh!' Here's his hands.

It's hard to say either way if he had scratches,

but the guards also said he had scratches up his arms.

If he had his coat on, overcoat on like they say at Kealfadda Bridge,

then you have to believe he took it off to kill her and put it back on.

But maybe Ian Bailey was forensically aware

and maybe he took off the coat before he dropped that block...

..for that purpose, to prevent blood spatters.

Memory fades over time,

and I find it questionable that this particular statement

was taken by the Gardai ten years after the event.

Statement taken on the 4th of May, 2006.

All the evidence about scratches, and so on,

that was all very speculative.

Remember in a jury trial, especially for murder, a judge is quite likely

to say "I'm not allowing this evidence in, it's prejudicial."

You can only prosecute if you believe

that there's evidence to support the prosecution.

My second arrest, which was a year after in January

on my birthday when they pretended not to know

it was my fucking birthday. When I said,

"You've got my fucking date of birth there on the fucking forms.

"Oh, well, happy birthday." Fuck off!

They weren't quite as hostile as the first bunch of fuckers

who arrested me, but I wasn't very pleased to see them.

Meanwhile in France,

Sophie's second husband, Daniel, fought to keep the pressure up.

Even with the help of his friend, French President Jacques Chirac,

he couldn't manage to get Bailey charged with murder.

A year and a half after Sophie's death,

Daniel married his fourth wife.

On the same weekend, Sophie's family erected the cross in Toormore.

His new wife, Melita, would have understood his pain.

She herself had been subject to the trauma of a murder,

that of her mother which, like Sophie's murder, remains unsolved.

Despite his criticism of the Guards,

Daniel travelled to Cork in the year 2000 to meet with them.

Inspector Dwyer sent him off.

Thanks so much.

Now...

..a lady came by earlier on and left me with this box.

I asked her for her name.

She said she'd come back and pick it up.

She told me it was Pandora. "Miss Pandora," she said,

and told me to be very careful if I was to open it.

But she told me whatever came out of this box,

at the bottom of the box there'd be a tiny little bit of hope left,

and this is what I'm looking for. Oh.

So, this is the eggs department.

Right.

Good morning, good people.

We haven't thought ahead, you see.

We've kept it in the here and now, and it's healthier, really.

Ian writes and I paint.

So, that's what we've always done, you know.

For the first few years,

we didn't see many people,

and, locally, people were backing off us a lot.

It was like 50-50, actually, we reckoned.

50 percent of people believed that we had nothing to do with it,

and the other 50 thought we had.

So, it was very strange, you know?

-Ha ha ha! -Listen, good luck. Yeah, nice to see you.

Yeah, and if you want advice on chickens,

come to us because we are chicken people.

Nice to see you. All the best.

People come up and they wish the best,

and it gives me a sort of...

You know, it bolsters me.

I'm very appreciative, and I'm very touched by it often.

Such is the life.

I've been forced into becoming a wheeler dealer,

a tangler and a wrangler.

Now, that's the sunset over Dunmanus Bay.

In oil, hardwood frame.

We would negotiate.

I met him about 30 years ago nearly.

I've reared three great girls, and they think I should've left Ian.

That's their honest opinion.

Why?

Because it taints me, being connected to him.

You know?

I went to get paintings into a new gallery in Clonakilty.

So, he was gonna take some when I went in,

and I said I'd come back with some in a week's time.

Ian took 'em in and he said, "Don't want them." Just like that.

"Out! Don't want anything to do with you."

So, that's the tainting I mean, you know?

This...

We collected in one...folder...

all the hate mail Ian Bailey got sent to his house.

"A New Home."

"Move. You'd be really happy there."

"To Ian Bailey, the woman basher,

and Jules, wrinkle-faced witch, rot in hell."

Now it's Ian AND Jules.

"Wrinkled-face witch." Like she's involved.

"Jules Thomas, Schull."

"Neighbourhood witch."

This is a letter from the police about threatening phone calls.

"Hope to visit one of these nights."

Wow.

Wow.

Syringe in the post.

This just looks like...

Bul... Bullets, yeah.

He doesn't seem to believe

that anybody, actually, is against him, you know?

It's kind of like an emotional dyslexia,

that he can't read it, or doesn't want to read it.

But it's complex.

"A thousand arrows they fired at him and failed to kill the spirit.

"A thousand arrows they fired at him and failed to kill the poet within."

And then I go into the spoken word bit of the poem,

and bring the drum back in

"A thousand arrows they fired at me and failed to kill the spirit.

"A thousand arrows they fired at me and failed to kill the flame.

"A thousand arrows they fired at me and failed to kill the poet within.

Sin sin."

Well, I came to Ireland to move a cousin in and never left.

Schull was really sort of laid back.

It was really just a very chill place to be.

Lots of nice traditional music in the courtyard, nice people.

Do you know where you were when you first heard of Sophie's murder?

Erm, I was sitting on a bus,

coming down from Ballinascarty, on the National bus.

The news was on the radio,

and it came on about a woman's body

being found in a boreen in West Cork.

I, actually, thought it was...

My fear was that it was Jules.

You thought it was Jules -that was murdered? -Yeah!

It was six months before the murder.

It was early in the morning, and there was a knock on the door,

and it was Virginia, Jules' daughter, with the doctor,

saying, could I take Jules to the hospital?

And as I walked through the door,

erm...

I could hear these, sort of, animal -

that's the only way you can explain it - animal sounds.

One eye was completely turned in and swollen.

Lumps of hair out of her head.

Gouges in her face.

People who were perhaps in doubt began to change over

to thinking, "Yes, he has beaten a woman.

Perhaps it went too far this time."

Jules, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you about the violence.

Well, the thing was, it was drinking always.

He was fine when he wasn't drinking.

It brings out the worst in...people.

-Yeah. -When they drink too much, especially spirits.

Imagine how bad Ian would get -on spirits, you know? -Yeah.

No, I've blocked it out now.

I-I cured myself of thinking of it, so I don't.

You know, it's only putting myself through more agony. Why bother?

He hasn't been violent since, even though he's drank quite a lot,

he's never touched me. I mean, He was so remorseful afterwards.

So it's no bloody good.

You've just got to drink less and have a bit more self control.

You know? Hm.

There is a nice person in there.

We both drank too much.

Is he that kind of impulsive character

who just, like, acts on a whim?

It's... It's thoughtless.

It's not even a whim, it's...

It's like an impulse just, erm, like a child...

..getting a temper on, you know?

It's just like, pew!

I don't think it's preconceived, -or anything. -Yeah.

My behaviour was very, very bad and...

and erm...

The photos of Jules, they will be forever linked

to the forensics of Sophie du Plantier,

and it's very difficult to get past.

I mean, it's to my total shame.

We did have erm... I did hurt her.

And I think on two or three occasions, we...

Alcohol was a major part of that.

And it's to my eternal shame, erm...

Yeah.

But I have, you know...

I have nothing to do with this crime.

Do you mind me asking, Jules, are you scared of Ian?

No, I'm not.

No, I'm not scared of him.

I'm pissed off with him quite a lot of the time, but I'm not scared.

'Ian Bailey says the newspaper coverage

following his first arrest was the start of his demonisation.'

'His barrister, Jim Duggan, said Mr Bailey

had been subjected to trial by media.'

In 2003, in an effort to clear his name,

Ian Bailey sued eight newspapers.

The newspapers' defence, essentially,

was that they didn't say he killed Sophie Toscan du Plantier,

but that the Gardai had treated him as a suspect,

and that they were entitled to report that.

Bailey was suing the newspaper

for preventing him being able to earn a living, for ruining his life.

They would have to prove that he was capable of murder.

The guards assisted,

and I know this for a fact, they assisted

the newspapers, and this was, as it were,

they got him to trial almost.

The judge in the libel trials at many stages said,

"This is not a murder trial."

'Over 70 witnesses had been subpoenaed.

Less than half took the stand.

The newspaper's defence team produced evidence

of a man who, on several occasions, admitted to killing Sophie.

The most compelling evidence, I thought,

was Richie and Rosie Shelley.

They were out celebrating New Year's Eve, 1998.

They met Jules Thomas and Ian Bailey,

and they were invited back to The Prairie.

Statement of Richie Shelley, taken on the 2nd July, 1999.

"Ian came into the kitchen and was crying and became very emotional.

I found it strange to see a man of his size crying.

He cried, "I did it."

He said and repeated this statement about four or five times.

Each time he said, "I did it."

I said to him, "You did what?"

But he did not answer me.

When I persisted with my question, Ian said,

"I went too far. I went too far."

It was abundantly apparent that they didn't have an axe to grind.

'A local teenager said that, out of the blue, he told him,

"I went up there with a rock one night and bashed her f-ing brains in".

You could've called this section "The People Versus Bailey."

He had confessed to 11 people. Why should they make it up?

Each one of those admissions was backed up

by very credible witnesses.

'Ian Bailey also denies having met Sophie.

However, the French woman's neighbour, Alfie Lyons,

told the court he was 90 percent sure

that he introduced them.'

He was here, doing the gardening.

I had mentioned to him, I said, "Sophie is down in the house now."

And then she came up and I introduced her to Bailey.

I said, "This, is Ian Bailey.

And he's been doing some gardening work for me. You know?

So he came over and shook hands with her, and that was it.

Erm...

When it became important...

..after Sophie was murdered...

..when I was asked about it,

I was...

You know, I could...

I could remember it, and yet...

Memory is such an elusive thing that you can't always be sure

what you're remembering is what happened.

I could only say that I remembered it.

I was 90 percent sure that that was what happened.

The state objected to any of the investigating Gardai

being called to give evidence,

but the newspapers then, under disclosure,

they wanted to see Ian Bailey's diaries,

which, of course, had been taken by the Gardai and examined

as part of their general investigation.

And what sort of stuff was in the diaries?

Well, it's just everything I'd written over the years. I mean...

A lot of it was, like, bad writing, shit writing.

I was keeping all the stuff I'd written and stuff to do with my personal stuff,

and I was going to bundle it,

and put it in a book called "Lessons Part I."

The counsel said to him -

this is how he opened his reference to the diaries -

he said, "Would you describe yourself, Mr Bailey as an animal?"

And Bailey says, "No, I would not describe myself as an animal."

And he said, "I ask you again, would you describe yourself as an animal?"

"No," he says, "I wouldn't describe myself as an animal."

And he says, "Well, that's strange because here I have a diary

in which you describe yourself as an animal

for the assaults that you perpetrated on your partner."

A pin would be heard drop after that statement.

Ian Bailey's diaries were forensically examined.

Writings about violence, about alcohol, substance abuse,

about sexual preferences, personal behaviour.

Enormous attention was focused

on Mr Bailey's history of violence against his partner, Jules Thomas.

I would've used all my writings and personal stuff,

and very, very private, personal stuff,

where I'd actually gone in and analysed

and realised I was drinking too much.

Well, it was whiskey, basically.

I should never have really drunk spirits.

'One of the more interesting pieces of evidence

to emerge during this libel case

centred here on Kealfadda Bridge, about a mile from Sophie's house.

A shopkeeper from Schull told the court that she saw Ian Bailey here

at 3am on the night of Sophie's murder.'

Statement of Marie Farrell.

"I now know this man to be Ian Bailey from Schull."

Marie Farrell was described as the star witness of the libel case.

Her evidence was absolutely central

because Ian Bailey always maintained

that he had never left his house on December 22nd.

I mean, I was in court and it was astonishing

to hear the evidence that she had given.

So now you go -in to the libel trial, yeah? -Yeah.

Oh, I was panicking.

She maintains that she had been harassed by Ian Bailey,

that she felt threatened by him.

'She told the court:'

They said that he was harassing me, and he was calling into the shop,

and threatening me. None of that ever happened.

Did he ever do that to you?

Never. Never.

So, he never threatened -to slit your throat? -Never did.

So...the thing they got from you was a statement to say

that you saw him outside your shop and at Kealfadda Bridge?

Yeah.

'.. to spend Christmas alone in West Cork.'

The murder happened, and the local guard

came to the shop with a video tape,

and he asked me to bring it home

and watch it, and see was that the man that I had seen.

And I brought it to the Garda Station in Schull the next day,

and I said that was not the man that was outside the shop.

Wow.

And they said, "We know that your man there on the tape,

that Ian Bailey, he murdered that woman.

And if he's not stopped, he's going to kill again.

And there is nobody can put him out of his house that night.

But if you say that it was definitely him you saw

and give us two lines of a statement,

that'll be the end of it."

Wow.

And I remember being on the stand and thinking,

"Will I just tell this judge that this is all lies and go?"

And then I looked down at the back of the court,

and there's a lot of the guards that were involved in the case.

So... I said nothing.

It was a civil action. Almost by default, it became a murder trial.

The libel trial was like a murder trial.

The libel trial started a fire...

..and out of the ashes,

the faint glimmer of a murder trial began to emerge in France.

♪Treaty

♪ I haven't said a word

♪ Since you've been gone

♪ That any liar couldn't say as well

♪ I just can't believe the static coming on

♪ You were my ground

♪ My safe and sound...

'Today Judge Patrick Moran ruled against Ian Bailey

on all three points. The newspapers didn't brand him the murderer,

and Judge Moran had no hesitation

in describing Mr Bailey as a violent man.'

♪ Crying out it's jubilee

♪ We sold ourselves for love

♪ But now we're free...

'And where there were conflicts in key aspects of the evidence,

Judge Moran believed the witnesses for the newspaper.'

♪ Only one of us was real

♪ And that was me...

I don't really understand that lyric.

I haven't quite understood that lyric.

♪ I heard the snake was baffled by his sin

♪ He shed his scales to find the snake within...

Ian lost his battle with the papers.

He achieved two technical victories.

Small comfort in that.

He came to clear his name, but left with his reputation in tatters.

Mr Bailey, how do you feel about your reputation now?

♪ And I do not care who takes this bloody hill

♪ I'm angry and I'm tired all the time

♪ And I wish there was a treaty

♪ I wish there was a treaty

♪ Between your love and mine ♪

For 25 years,

Sophie's family believe there is a killer on the loose in Ireland.

Encouraged by the evidence that emerged in the libel trial,

and the failure of the authorities to charge Bailey,

they decided it was time to take matters into their own hands.

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