I spoke to Ian Bailey last week ahead of the launch of his poetry collection at Electric Picnic.
I’ve thought a lot about Ian Bailey over the past couple of years – his various legal cases hit the news regularly – and I’ve wondered, as I’m sure everyone has, what the hell the truth is. We’ll probably never know.
One thing we do know is that if Ian Bailey had murdered Sophie Toscan duPlantier, had been prosecuted, found guilty and sentenced… he’d more than likely be coming out of prison around now and free to get on with his life, here, in the UK where he’s from, or elsewhere.
Even though he has never so much as been charged with murder, he’s known widely because of the case, automatically connected with it in many people’s minds, and can’t leave Ireland because of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the French government. That’s a life sentence.
As someone said to me lately “well, if he had a chance to prove his innocence then we’d believe him”… but our judicial system rests on the fundamental basis that we are all innocent of any crime until proven guilty of one.
I’d love to know your thought on this… you can have a listen to the interview at this link (from 2h07m).