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The ex-partner of Ian Bailey has revealed she is battling an “incurable illness” and says she would like to go to scatter his ashes with his sisters “to say goodbye”.
Jules Thomas was in a relationship with Mr Bailey – who was accused of killing French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier on December 23, 1996 – for more than 30 years before splitting with him in 2021.
She revealed she has been battling an “incurable illness” since 2021, which she said she was diagnosed with soon after Netflix released its “biased” and “disgusting” documentary, Sophie: A Murder in West Cork.
The Welsh-born artist told us the stress of the unsolved murder case had taken a serious toll on her body. Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, she revealed: “My consultant asked, ‘were you under much stress?’ I said, ‘unbelievable stress.’
“It’s not public knowledge but my daughters know. It was an unbelievable amount of stress. I began to feel unwell around the time the Netflix documentary came out. My immune system became very low. I was picking up every cold and flu.”
She credits daily floor exercises she learned during her modern dance classes in boarding school to keep her body flexible and also gardening daily.
Ms Thomas admitted: “I’m feeling fine. I tire easily. I’ve a big garden. I do it on my own. I’ve an acre of grass to cut, I’ve about 10,000 plants in pots. I’ve a big front garden full of veg. There are ponds to clean.”
In 1996, the bludgeoned body of Ms Toscan du Plantier was found outside her home in a remote part of West Cork.
Mr Bailey was accused of her murder but was never charged with her killing.
Ms Thomas believes she should never have been subjected to such stress over the murder, which she adamantly denies having any involvement in or knowledge of.
She also backed Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan’s claim in his new movie, Re-Creation, that Gardaí never had a “shred of evidence” on Mr Bailey, saying authorities wrongfully arrested the pair.
Starring Colm Meaney, Aidan Gilles and Vicky Krieps, Re-Creation – which premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival – imagines what could have unfolded if the unresolved murder had gone before a jury in Ireland.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday, Mr Sheridan said: “A man who probably was 100% innocent has been castigated through life; he lived a horrible life and died a horrible death and has a horrible name.
“I don’t think he killed her, and there’s not a shred of evidence to say he did.” He was on two occasions detained by Gardaí for questioning in relation to the murder but was never charged.
Mr Bailey – who always denied any involvement in her murder – was convicted in absentia after a trial in France in 2015. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Ms Thomas said of the case: “I should never have been subjected to that level of stress, when there was never a shred of evidence. There were two wrongful arrests.
“They had not a shred of evidence that we had anything to do with that woman. I never saw her, I never knew her. I knew of her from the people in the area.
“We knew of her but that was only because Ian worked up with [one of]the neighbours. It’s a very remote track. You wouldn’t know anyone unless you lived up there.”
The unsolved murder was subject to many documentaries, including Netflix’s Sophie: A Murder in West Cork, which aired in 2021.
Earlier this year, Ms Thomas revealed she was suing Netflix and production company Lightbox Media over their 2021 documentary.
She alleges filming for the production took place at her home without her permission, while also alleging that it contains falsehoods and made her a social pariah in the community she lives in West Cork. Both parties, represented by Matheson, are fully defending the claims in the case.
Speaking about the Netflix documentary, Ms Thomas fumed to the Sunday Mirror: “That shocking documentary they did was so biased. I thought it was disgusting.”
Earlier this year, it was revealed Mr Bailey’s sister, Kay Reynolds, would scatter her dead brother’s ashes in a place he loved in West Cork.
Ms Thomas also said she would’ve gone along with his sister to help scatter his ashes to say goodbye to the late UK journalist.
And while Ms Reynolds hasn’t contacted her, she said: “She wants to keep it low key as possible.. but I would go and say goodbye.”
Ms Thomas said Mr Bailey drank and took drugs to “block out the hell he was living” after being accused of the murder. In January 2024, Mr Bailey collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack aged 66.
She added: “He had a big group of friends in Bantry. He apparently resorted to cocaine in the end because the drink wasn’t doing anything.
“He needed to block out the hell he was living with so that is what he resorted to apparently.”
Speaking about her own relationship with him, the 75-year-old said she couldn’t live with him anymore after he would incessantly talk about the case all day. She said: “It was ghastly what he went through but I couldn’t live with him anymore.
“He never shut up about it, he went on and on and on, morning, noon and night. I couldn’t sleep then.
“Before going to bed, he’d be on about, ‘Oh the French are coming to get me in the middle of the night’. It went on and on and on. It was a nightmare.”
It emerged Mr Bailey had been “seriously violent” towards his Welsh-born artist girlfriend three times, which saw her also take out a protection order against him. Ms Thomas said she would regularly be stared at by people in the Schull Market on Sundays where she would sell her paintings.
She said the case hindered her from earning a decent living as people were afraid to approach her.
She added: “I think it put an awful lot of people near me because they believed what the guards were saying.
“I got horrible stares at the market for years from people from Dublin or wherever in the country. The locals were lovely.”
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