Buttsey not holding back in the IT:
Mr Bailey’s lawyer, Frank Buttimer, who represented him during the French attempts to extradite him as well as in his High Court action against the State, said he believed Mr Bailey was innocent.
“I first met Ian Bailey in March 1997 when he came into my office to ask me would I represent him if he was ever prosecuted for the crime he didn’t commit - the murder of Madame Toscan du Plantier,” he said.
“I felt immediately it was clear that he hadn’t committed the crime and that in my view, it was subsequently established by information I acquired, that he had been the victim of State persecution.
“There is no question in my mind but that there is an association between his untimely death and recent ill health with what was done to him by State in wrongly associating him with the murder.”
Asked how he found Mr Bailey on personal level, whom he said “he helped along the way” ever since that initial meeting in 1997, Mr Buttimer replied: “How long have you got?”
Ian Bailey continued to protest his innocence over the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier to the end. Photograph: Alan Betson
He added: “Having said that, I found him to be very interesting, very read, overly talkative, difficult to advise at times but always trying to rise above the consequences of the grievous wrong inflicted on him.
“He was a remarkably resilient man. I always found he was always extraordinarily positive in his outlook on life given everything that had been done to him by the State over the last 27 years.”
Mr Bailey’s lawyer, Frank Buttimer, who represented him during the French attempts to extradite him as well as in his High Court action against the State, said he believed Mr Bailey was innocent.
“I first met Ian Bailey in March 1997 when he came into my office to ask me would I represent him if he was ever prosecuted for the crime he didn’t commit - the murder of Madame Toscan du Plantier,” he said.
“I felt immediately it was clear that he hadn’t committed the crime and that in my view, it was subsequently established by information I acquired, that he had been the victim of State persecution.
“There is no question in my mind but that there is an association between his untimely death and recent ill health with what was done to him by State in wrongly associating him with the murder.”
Asked how he found Mr Bailey on personal level, whom he said “he helped along the way” ever since that initial meeting in 1997, Mr Buttimer replied: “How long have you got?”
Ian Bailey continued to protest his innocence over the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier to the end. Photograph: Alan Betson
He added: “Having said that, I found him to be very interesting, very read, overly talkative, difficult to advise at times but always trying to rise above the consequences of the grievous wrong inflicted on him.
“He was a remarkably resilient man. I always found he was always extraordinarily positive in his outlook on life given everything that had been done to him by the State over the last 27 years.”
