Sophie: The Final Verdict

‘This is the book that puts all the evidence before the people’ Jean-Pierre Gazeau, uncle of Sophie Toscan du Plantier

‘Arriving in West Cork to cover the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier, our man on the ground was local journalist Ian Bailey. His level of insight into the killing was extraordinary . . .’

So began the journey of journalist Senan Molony, first national crime correspondent on the scene of Sophie’s brutal murder in December 1996, in a saga that would shock the nation.

The 2024 death of prime suspect Ian Bailey reopens the case for Molony, who goes behind the scenes to tell the full chilling story, as never before – from first seeing the Englishman as someone with impressive inside sources, to his moment of awakening at Bailey’s arrest for a murder the suspect freely wrote about in the national press.

The book charts the astonishing early days of a doomed investigation and times thereafter, as Bailey – a violent misogynist and pathological liar – escaped charge or trial in Ireland despite compelling evidence.

Including interviews with Sophie’s family, key garda investigators, local witnesses and Bailey himself, with shocking excerpts from his ‘black diaries’, it unpacks the truth and categorically dismantles Bailey’s mainstay defence that he did not know Sophie. It also explodes commonly held myths – often seeded by the suspect himself – bringing to light astounding new information, along with fresh and disturbing proof of guilt.

This is the book that lets all the evidence speak.