Ian Bailey will ‘speak from beyond the grave’ as secret tapes offered to Sky and Netflix

Main suspect in the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Ian Bailey will soon speak to you on television from beyond the grave.

Hundreds of hours of secret video tapes recorded by the late journalist are set to be offered to Sky and Netflix for a new TV series about the case.

The 66-year-old Englishman, who died of a massive heart attack outside his home in Bantry, County Cork, on January 21, filmed himself almost every day for the past two years.

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He gives his views on life, his love interests, the murder and other possible suspects in the high-profile murder that shocked the nation.

Many of his ramblings also include daily comments about what happened to him that day as well as Irish current affairs of the time.

But Bailey also conducted a full hour-long interview from his bed in Bantry hospital a few weeks before his death when he again declared: “I didn’t kill Sophie.”

It is understood that he gave most of the tapes – video and audio – to a close friend a few months before his death and asked him to broadcast his story after he was gone.

A source said: “Ian spends hundreds of hours on camera and also talks on tape about his whole life and different things that have happened to him.

“When you listen to them, it’s like he’s speaking from the grave.

“He has a lot to say about various things, but particularly about the Sophie case and how it affected his life.

“The only thing that’s not filmed is his admission that he did it. He always said he never killed her.

“We’ll be talking to various international broadcasters later this year to see what they want to do with all this content, because it will make a brilliant TV series. Sky and Netflix will be extremely interested – it’s basically Ian Bailey, according to his own words. “.

Jim Sheridan is currently filming a new film about Sophie’s murder called Re-creation, which will be based on a fictional jury debating the facts.

Colm Meaney will play Bailey while Kin star Aidan Gillen will play one of the lead jurors. They have been filming scenes in west Cork in recent weeks.

Sophie was beaten to death about 100 yards from her holiday home outside Schull, west Cork, at Christmas 1996.

Gardai always believed she knew her killer. Ian Bailey was arrested twice for her murder but was never charged.

Bailey always denied knowing her, although one or two witnesses said otherwise.

A Garda review of the case continued even though Bailey died.

Bailey himself always believed that Sophie was killed by someone connected to her late husband, Daniel, who was then having an affair with a young model. He later married her a few years after Sophie’s death.

Sophie’s son and their French family are absolutely adamant that Bailey was the killer.

The former journalist and poet was convicted by a French court in absentia in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The Irish government refused to extradite him because most of the evidence was based on hearsay and would never be admissible in an Irish court.

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