ENGLISHMAN IAN Bailey was first introduced to Sophie Toscan du Plantier when he was doing some gardening work at the home of one of her neighbours, a local resident has told The Irish Times.
Leo Bolger said he had been hired by Ms Toscan du Plantier to carry out some repair work on the dormer cottage she had bought at Toormore, near Schull, in 1993. He said he was working on the house when Mr Bailey was working at Alfie Lyons’s home, located less than 100 yards away.
Mr Lyons’s home shares a common entrance with Ms Toscan du Plantier’s holiday home and a third house, also a holiday home. The track to Mr Lyons’s home is a continuation of the lane leading to Ms Toscan du Plantier’s house and passes immediately behind it.
Mr Bolger said he was working on Ms Toscan du Plantier’s house during one of her visits to Ireland and, as she returned to the house, Mr Lyons introduced her to Mr Bailey in the common area between the two houses.
“I was working on Sophie’s house on that particular day – some time in the early 1990s – it’s difficult to pinpoint a year, maybe 1993. Ian was up at Alfie’s and during the day, Sophie was out, and Alfie invited me up for a cup of coffee,” Mr Bolger said.
“Ian was there and Sophie arrived back during the lunch break and I can recall her coming up into the yard because her back door is more or less in Alfie’s kind of yard and I can recall Alfie going down the yard to meet her.
“Ian went with him and there a formal introduction happened – they shook hands – ‘This is Ian’, ‘This is Sophie’, and talked for a couple of minutes and then we all drifted back to work – it all happened more or less between the two houses.”
Mr Bolger said he would be willing to travel to France to testify that he was present when Mr Bailey was introduced to Ms Toscan du Plantier if investigating French magistrate Judge Patrick Gachon requested him to.
The Irish Times has learned from reliable sources that another local man from Schull made a statement to gardaí in 1997 in which he said that he saw Mr Bailey speaking to Ms Toscan du Plantier at a storytelling festival on Cape Clear in September 1995.
The man told gardaí he noticed Mr Bailey speaking to an attractive blonde woman for a couple of minutes outside the Club Bar near the pier on the island, but that he didn’t pay any particular attention to them at the time other than that they spoke for a few minutes.
He had known Mr Bailey for a number of years but he didn't know the blonde woman. He later recognised her from newspaper photographs and coverage of the murder as Ms Toscan du Plantier. The man declined to comment on the matter when contacted by The Irish Times.
