The former partner of Ian Bailey has declared there is no way he could have murdered French TV producer Sophie Toscan Du Plantier because “he is so hopeless at covering his own tracks.”
Jules Thomas, who split from the Englishman last year after being together for nearly 30 years, also said he hated “killing things” and told how he was in “pretty bad shape” after slaying a “cockerel”.
Jules, who is an artist, also revealed she has directly asked Bailey if he had anything to do with the 39-year-old’s brutal murder on December 23, 1996, in West Cork.
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Asked why she was so sure Bailey had nothing to do with Sophie’s murder, Jules said: “Because he is so hopeless at covering his own tracks. And he is messy. If there had been any blood or anything that was untoward, I would have known.
“And I don't think he would have been able to keep calm afterwards. Or be normal. Because he was in pretty bad shape after he killed a cockerel.”
She continued: “I have no doubt he had nothing to do with that murder.”
When quizzed on whether she directly asked him if he killed Sophie, Jules explained: “Of course, I asked him. He said: ‘Bloody hell, of course not.’
“He told me he didn't even know her. It was a while afterwards (when she asked) and it was put in my head by the guards, who kept saying: ‘He did it, he did it, he did it.’
“I didn't have any suspicion of him doing it. Why would I? He didn't do it.”
Jules added: “I just know him so well. He was useless at keeping any information in. He talked about everything.
“All the time. He wouldn't have been able to keep it quiet. I don't have even a niggle of doubt. I really don't.”
Jules was arrested twice for questioning by gardaí investigating the murder of Sophie at her holiday home at Toormore near Schull in December 1996. She was released without charge on both occasions.
Bailey was twice arrested by gardaí in 1997 and 1998 for questioning about murder but has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing.
But he has never been charged.
But Bailey was convicted in absentia of the murder in Paris in 2019 but the High Court in Ireland refused to extradite him.
Jules said her life has been “completely destroyed” and said when she was first arrested it was the “beginning of the end”.
In an interview with The Sunday Independent, she explained: “It just makes me feel so sick. Sick in the stomach. All the publicity, first of all. The newspapers were desperate.
“When I was first arrested, that was the beginning of the end. It was horrendous.
“I'd never seen her. I'd never noticed her in Schull. I'm good at remembering faces, I'm a visual person. And I never remember seeing her, ever.
“My life has been absolutely destroyed by it. The injustice of it outrages me. They got me into a car with a bean garda.
“They let me phone my mother. She picked my daughter up from school. So they bundled me into the car and all they said the whole way was: ‘He did it, he did it, he did it.’
“And I just told them they were making a big mistake.”
Last week, it emerged Jules began legal proceedings against Netflix over its documentary series on the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier called ‘Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.”
She also issued legal proceedings against the show’s director John Dower and production company Lightbox Media Ltd.
The three-part series on the French filmmaker’s murder was released on the streaming service last year.
Explaining her decision to sue, Jules said: “The reason I'm suing Netflix is because they have portrayed me as an accomplice to a murder.”
Asked why she decided to issue legal proceedings now, Jules said: “Well, you are shocked to start with and you need to clarify things in your head and it just takes time.
“And then you have to get the wheels in motion, and that takes time, too.”
Jules also spoke about domestic violence incidents which involved Bailey and said alcohol changed his entire personality but stressed she was never afraid of him.
She said: “It was related to his drinking, unfortunately. He lost it. He lost his rag. I don't think he even knew himself what he was doing. I don't particularly want to think about it.
“I was in shock at first. I knew it was the 'alcohol' Ian, not sober Ian. That was the cause of it.
"He would just lose his rag. If I crossed him over something he would just go bananas. He didn't have an on-off button when he was drinking.”
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