Ian Bailey's ex-partner shares she is battling 'incurable illness'
The ex-partner of Ian Bailey has revealed she is battling an 'incurable illness' and says she would like to go to scatter his ashes with his sisters 'to say goodbye'.
Jules Thomas was in a relationship with Mr Bailey – who was accused of killing French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier on December 23, 1996 – for more than 30 years before splitting with him in 2021.
She revealed she has been battling an 'incurable illness' since 2021, which she said she was diagnosed with soon after Netflix released its 'biased' and 'disgusting' documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.
The Welsh-born artist told us the stress of the unsolved murder case had taken a serious toll on her body. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, she revealed: 'My consultant asked, 'were you under much stress?' I said, 'unbelievable stress.'
'It's not public knowledge but my daughters know. It was an unbelievable amount of stress. I began to feel unwell around the time the Netflix documentary came out. My immune system became very low. I was picking up every cold and flu.'
She credits daily floor exercises she learned during her modern dance classes in boarding school to keep her body flexible and also gardening daily.
Ms Thomas admitted: 'I'm feeling fine. I tire easily. I've a big garden. I do it on my own. I've an acre of grass to cut, I've about 10,000 plants in pots. I've a big front garden full of veg. There are ponds to clean.'
In 1996, the bludgeoned body of Ms Toscan du Plantier was found outside her home in a remote part of West Cork.
Mr Bailey was accused of her murder but was never charged with her killing.
Ms Thomas believes she should never have been subjected to such stress over the murder, which she adamantly denies having any involvement in or knowledge of.
She also backed Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan's claim in his new movie, Re-Creation, that Gardaí never had a 'shred of evidence' on Mr Bailey, saying authorities wrongfully arrested the pair.
Starring Colm Meaney, Aidan Gilles and Vicky Krieps, Re-Creation – which premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival – imagines what could have unfolded if the unresolved murder had gone before a jury in Ireland.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday, Mr Sheridan said: 'A man who probably was 100% innocent has been castigated through life; he lived a horrible life and died a horrible death and has a horrible name.
'I don't think he killed her, and there's not a shred of evidence to say he did.' He was on two occasions detained by Gardaí for questioning in relation to the murder but was never charged.
Mr Bailey – who always denied any involvement in her murder – was convicted in absentia after a trial in France in 2015. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Ms Thomas said of the case: 'I should never have been subjected to that level of stress, when there was never a shred of evidence. There were two wrongful arrests.
'They had not a shred of evidence that we had anything to do with that woman. I never saw her, I never knew her. I knew of her from the people in the area.
'We knew of her but that was only because Ian worked up with [one of]the neighbours. It's a very remote track. You wouldn't know anyone unless you lived up there.'
The unsolved murder was subject to many documentaries, including Netflix's Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, which aired in 2021.
Earlier this year, Ms Thomas revealed she was suing Netflix and production company Lightbox Media over their 2021 documentary.
She alleges filming for the production took place at her home without her permission, while also alleging that it contains falsehoods and made her a social pariah in the community she lives in West Cork. Both parties, represented by Matheson, are fully defending the claims in the case.
Speaking about the Netflix documentary, Ms Thomas fumed to the Sunday Mirror: 'That shocking documentary they did was so biased. I thought it was disgusting.'
Earlier this year, it was revealed Mr Bailey's sister, Kay Reynolds, would scatter her dead brother's ashes in a place he loved in West Cork.
Ms Thomas also said she would've gone along with his sister to help scatter his ashes to say goodbye to the late UK journalist.
And while Ms Reynolds hasn't contacted her, she said: 'She wants to keep it low key as possible.. but I would go and say goodbye.'
Ms Thomas said Mr Bailey drank and took drugs to 'block out the hell he was living' after being accused of the murder. In January 2024, Mr Bailey collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack aged 66.
She added: 'He had a big group of friends in Bantry. He apparently resorted to cocaine in the end because the drink wasn't doing anything.
'He needed to block out the hell he was living with so that is what he resorted to apparently.'
Speaking about her own relationship with him, the 75-year-old said she couldn't live with him anymore after he would incessantly talk about the case all day. She said: 'It was ghastly what he went through but I couldn't live with him anymore.
'He never shut up about it, he went on and on and on, morning, noon and night. I couldn't sleep then.
'Before going to bed, he'd be on about, 'Oh the French are coming to get me in the middle of the night'. It went on and on and on. It was a nightmare.'
It emerged Mr Bailey had been 'seriously violent' towards his Welsh-born artist girlfriend three times, which saw her also take out a protection order against him. Ms Thomas said she would regularly be stared at by people in the Schull Market on Sundays where she would sell her paintings.
She said the case hindered her from earning a decent living as people were afraid to approach her.
She added: 'I think it put an awful lot of people near me because they believed what the guards were saying.
'I got horrible stares at the market for years from people from Dublin or wherever in the country. The locals were lovely.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sunday World
2 hours ago
- Sunday World
Man who was banned from road after fatal crash jailed for driving while disqualified
Francis Carey will serve a year and five months in prison after he failed to overturn convictions for driving without a licence and insurance A man who was caught driving while serving a three-year disqualification for dangerous driving causing death has been sent to prison for a year and five months after losing a recent appeal at Tralee Circuit Criminal Court. Francis Carey, of 18 William O'Brien Street in Mallow, failed to overturn District Court convictions for driving without a licence and driving without insurance at Ballymacthomas, Tralee on October 9, 2024. Mr Carey was sentenced at the District Court on October 24 last year to five months in prison and put off the road for four years for driving without a licence. He was ordered to pay a fine of €350 and received a two-year disqualification for driving without insurance. The District Court ruling triggered a suspended sentence of one year in prison which Mr Carey had received on July 29, 2023 after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Patrick Martin in Kilmorna in North Kerry in 2017. Defence barrister Richard Liston said Mr Carey's appeal was a plea to not activate the suspended sentence. Mr Liston said the dangerous driving incident in Kilmorna had taken place as Mr Carey drove on a wet and dark night. He had edged his vehicle onto a junction as the victim Mr Martin approached on a motorbike with deficiencies. The victim had attempted to stop and slid into the side of Mr Carey's vehicle. Tralee Circuit Criminal Court. File photo News in 90 Seconds - 15th June 2025 Mr Liston said Mr Carey was found to have driven carelessly because he had inched onto the road even though Gardaí admit inching is necessary at the Kilmorna junction. Mr Carey was convicted of driving dangerously causing death. He was disqualified from driving for three years and received a one year prison sentence suspended for two years. Tralee Circuit Criminal Court last week heard that Gardaí found Mr Carey driving while he was serving his disqualification on October 9 last year. Mr Liston said his client had received a call on that day which indicated that a daughter of his, who has been diagnosed with autism and ADHD, was in distress and had been brought to A&E. The barrister said his client had altered his life completely to stay off the road and sometimes walked 11km to work. He said Mr Carey made a 'drastic, terribly stupid decision' to get into a vehicle he owned after receiving this call. While driving this vehicle in Tralee, Mr Carey was stopped by Gardaí. Mr Liston said his client never got to see his daughter because of this. Judge Sinead Behan questioned why the defendant had a vehicle in his possession while serving a disqualification from driving. Mr Liston replied that his client would have been entitled to apply for a driving licence after serving a period of his three-year disqualification. Judge Behan said she understood Mr Carey's reason for driving was to go to his daughter in A&E. She asked if there was documentary evidence to prove this. The Judge said the incident was 'really serious' given that Mr Carey had previously pled guilty to dangerous driving causing death. In response, Mr Carey spoke up and said that he was told his daughter was in A&E in the phone call he received. Mr Liston said his client was 'informed of where she was brought'. Judge Behan said that was a 'different thing' to what he had argued earlier. 'He is now indicating that he was told that,' she said. 'A medical emergency is one thing. 'Other than that he is in some difficulty.' The Judge remanded Mr Carey in custody until the following day, and instructed the defence to produce evidence that his daughter had visited A&E. On Friday morning, Mr Liston told Judge Behan that he did not have documentary proof that his client's daughter had been in A&E. 'It was his understanding that the child had been taken to A&E,' Mr Liston said. 'That is his firm belief.' Judge Behan was not convinced. She said a five month sentence had been imposed by the District Court for driving without a licence and she was not going to set this aside. The Judge said she appreciated that the defendant's life is not straightforward but said he had committed a 'serious offence' after previously pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death. She imposed the five month sentence Mr Carey received at the District Court and refused to vary the one-year suspended sentence that had been activated. Mr Carey's prison sentence was backdated to the day previous.
Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy stripped of Legion of Honour medal
France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been stripped of his Legion of Honour medal after being convicted last year of corruption and influence peddling while he was the country's head of state. The decision was made via a decree released in the Journal Officiel that publishes the government's major legal information. It comes in line with the rules of the Legion of Honour. Nicolas Sarkozy was president of France from 2007 to 2012 (Dan Kitwood/PA) The conservative politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has been at the heart of a series of legal cases since leaving office. He was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling by both a Paris court in 2021 and an appeals court in 2023 for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated. He was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for one year, a verdict upheld by France's highest court, the Court of Cassation, in December. Earlier this year, Sarkozy stood trial over allegations he received millions of dollars from Libya for his successful presidential campaign in 2007. He denies the claims. Prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence. The verdict is expected in September. Sarkozy becomes the second former head of state to be stripped of the Legion of Honour – France's highest distinction – after Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain, who was convicted in 1945 for treason and conspiring with the enemy for his actions as leader of Vichy France from 1940-1944. Former cyclist Lance Armstrong also had his French Legion of Honour award revoked (Julien Behal/PA) Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was stripped of his Legion of Honour award in the wake of widespread sexual misconduct allegations against him in 2017. Disgraced cyclist and former Tour de France star Lance Armstrong also had his French Legion of Honour award revoked. Sarkozy retired from public life in 2017 though still plays an influential role in French conservative politics.
Sunday World
7 hours ago
- Sunday World
Thug who had hand blown off in ‘pipe-bomb' incident was violent gang member
Violent thug who had hand blown off in 'pipe-bomb' incident was member of gang that terrorised a mother and her three-year-old daughter This is the 35-year-old thug whose hand was blown off in an incident involving a suspected pipe-bomb in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A gruesome image of the horrific injuries sustained by career criminal Dean Fagan have circulated on WhatsApp and show how his hand was completely obliterated prior to his arrival at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin. In a statement, Gardaí confirmed they had 'attended the scene following report of an incident of criminal damage at a residential location in Coolock that occurred in the early hours of Wednesday.' The statement continued: 'A man, aged in his 30s, subsequently received treatment for serious injuries at Beaumont Hospital Dublin.' Gardaí are investigating whether the incident of criminal damage is linked to a low-level feud in which Fagan has become embroiled. Fagan, with an address on Kildare Road in Crumlin, is known to Gardaí as a prolific criminal, having clocked up more than 80 convictions over the past two decades. One of his most serious convictions dates back to 2017, when he was jailed for five years after he admitted being a member of a gang who terrorised a woman and her three-year-old daughter during a burglary in Co. Meath. During the ordeal which lasted over an hour, a knife was held to the woman's throat for several minutes, while a gun was later pointed at her head. Fagan pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated burglary in May 2014 at Irishtown, Rathfeigh, Co. Meath. He later admitted his involvement when fingerprints found on a piece of paper linked him to the crime. In 2016, Fagan received a six-year-sentence after a court heard how during a separate robbery, he was armed with a garden shears when he and an accomplice tied up a woman and destroyed her home looking for cash. Dean Fagan told the other man 'don't f*cking kill her' after this man hit the victim with a hammer while demanding cash. They had already taken €1,500 they had found in the sitting room of the house. They also told the woman they were in the Real IRA and that they had been responsible for burning her car out a month previously. The woman managed to escape through a back door and locked the intruders inside. Fagan was involved in another high-profile incident in which two sisters, Amy and Nicole Rice, were tied up and assaulted in Co. Kildare in 2015. Fagan later went on Dublin radio station 98FM and admitted to tying the girls up and to hitting them. Dean Fagan News in 90 Seconds - 15th June 2025 The sisters had come forward a month earlier to tell the story of how they were brutally attacked by two men they met on Facebook in a 20-hour ordeal in Newbridge. Fagan, who had almost 60 convictions for offences including possession of a firearm and criminal damage at that stage, called the station to claim that the incident did not happen as it was portrayed. Fagan told the radio station that he was fighting with a man who was known to the girls and this was why trouble had broken out. At the time, sources said that Fagan and his associate owed a debt to this other man. Despite admitting to hitting and tying up the girls, Fagan tried to claim they made up the story to get paid money from newspapers for their story. However, the girls did not receive any payment for their story. He went on to say that he attacked the girls because they wouldn't calm down. 'I had no choice but to do that [hit them a few slaps] it's a horrible thing to say. ' 'At this time, I was wanted. I had warrants for a separate thing,' he said. 'I am not saying I'm an angel in anyone's eyes. I've got convictions for some serious sh*t, but I didn't do this,' he added. 'When you go to jail, and people think you have done sh*t like this you get boiling water and p*ss thrown at you. And when you are on the wings people throw shapes at you. 'I couldn't throw them out and call the cops because I had warrants out for my arrest.' A month before his radio appearance, Fagan was convicted in his absence over an incident where he ploughed into a Garda patrol van and car after crashing into three other vehicles in traffic during a road rampage in west Dublin in August the previous year. The previous March he was convicted of possession of a stolen shotgun, ammunition, and other items. While in custody in Cloverhill Prison in October 2014, Fagan was the 'victim' of a hostage taking situation in his cell which led to a lockdown of the prison. Convicted murderer Ciaran Moran tied Fagan up and threatened to slit his throat. Moran had knocked Fagan unconscious before tying him up and cutting his head with a homemade bladed weapon or shiv. The hostage situation ended after 90 minutes when Moran walked out of the prison cell. At Moran's subsequent trial, at the conclusion of which the convicted killer received a three-year sentence, Garda Kevin Mullahy agreed that gardaí harboured some suspicions about the incident after counsel said there may have been some sort of collusion between the victim and Moran and that the incident was possibly connected with a claim against the State. Fagan remained in the care of doctors at Beaumont hospital yesterday where its understood he underwent surgery for his injuries to his hand. Gardai are continuing their investigations into the incident that cost him his hand early Wednesday. Anyone with information relating to the incident is asked to contact Coolock Garda Station on 01 6664200.
