English journalist-turned poet trapped in Ireland
| Updated: 10 Feb 2026
English journalist-turned poet trapped in Ireland - An English journalist-turned poet Ian Bailey, has said he is trapped in Ireland because of an attempt to extradite him to France where he faces 25 years in jail for allegedly murdering a French film-maker, Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
Du Plantier was bludgeoned to death outside her holiday home in rural west Cork on 23 December 1996. Bailey, 62, who lives a few miles from the murder scene, denies any involvement and said he was a victim of persecution by blinkered authorities who let the real murderer slip away. “I never murdered anyone,” he said in an interview.