Ian Bailey has said his younger fans show him “adulation”, admitting he feels like he is the “antihero” - as he has decided to charge followers for video shout outs.
Mr Bailey is cashing in on “shout out” videos to fans who are willing to cough up €15 for the 15 second clips on TikTok.
Bailey, who acknowledges that he is a suspect in the murder of French filmmaker, Sophie Toscan du Plantier, took to the social media app TikTok to launch the new venture.
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Speaking to The Star, Mr Bailey – who has always denied any involvement in Sophie’s murder – said business is “brisk” as he becomes inundated with requests.
He told us: “It’s a bit too brisk, actually. I keep trying to get on with other stuff and people ask me to do these shout outs.
“I’ve done a few of them. I’ve done about 20 over the last week or so. Most of them I’ve done for nothing. I don’t mind. It’s a bit of fun.
“It’s only recently I turned to TikTok.
“I’ve got this army – particularly in West Cork – the young ones, they’re only over 20… but they’re really into their TikTok and everybody seems to like me. I’ve somehow become an antihero figure with a lot of young people who weren’t even alive 25 years ago.
“But I get a great deal of support from them and having been vilified and turned into a pariah for many, many years, to have this sort of adulation from the TikTok generation is very nice.”
Opening up about his new venture, he told us: “The way it works is I’m using my journalistic background to do little 15-second or 30-second little shout outs. I get as much information as I can about the person, what it’s about and I write a little script and I do a piece to camera.
“Sporting events and weddings and special occasions…”
But he quashed suggestions that his new business was making him wealthy.
“I get by. Sometimes we don’t even know how we are going to get by, but we get by, don’t we? Just about. I mean, my financial situation is private, really, but if anyone thinks I’m making a fortune out of this, they’re wrong. It’s very small potatoes.”
He said he didn’t receive a penny from producers last year for the docuseries by Netflix and another Sky doc by Jim Sheridan.
“I don’t know. I mean, all I know is I didn’t actually receive any payments. I received some small legitimate expenses… but I don’t know, I think some people thought I was doing very well out of it. But I wasn’t.”
Previously, Mr Bailey sold T-shirts with an image of himself on them for €20 each as he flogged the clothing on his Facebook page.
Mr Bailey rose to prominence as he fought his innocence when he became the suspect in Ms Toscan du Plantier’s murder. She was bludgeoned to death outside her home in Schull, west Cork on December 23, 1996.
Gardai believe she sustained approximately 50 blows to the head.
Mr Bailey has twice been arrested in connection with the French filmmaker’s death, but he has never been charged.
However, he was tried for her murder in absentia in a French Court, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
However, the Irish Government has refused to extradite him.
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