Jules Thomas got to say private goodbye to her long-time lover Ian Bailey
She and his sister Kay Reynolds met up several days after a memorial service for the former journalist and long-time suspect in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder, was held for his friends in West Cork.
Artist Jules, who lived with Bailey for more than 30 years until they split up in 2021, got very upset when she discovered she wasn't invited to the original service.
She revealed: 'It was all a bit of a misunderstanding. I heard from a journalist up in Dublin the day before that this get-together for Ian was going ahead and I could not believe I wasn't asked.
'It turned out that his sister Kay did not have a telephone number for me and a few days later she made contact.
'One of Ian's dying wishes was to have his ashes released in Dunmanus Bay. So Kay and I met up and went up to the Cliff Road to do it. However the tide was out so we had to come back the next day and scatter his ashes when the sea was in.
'I said my final goodbye to him, it was very emotional because we had been through so much together. The whole Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder had ruined all our lives.
'I got to throw most of his ashes into the sea – the bag was very heavy, but he was a very tall man after all. We laid him to rest and that's all that matters.' Ian Bailey. (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The self-professed poet, 66, dropped dead from a massive heart attack as he walked down the street near his home in Bantry, Co Cork in January 2024.
Jules, who has an incurable disease, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, a form of blood cancer, said Ian adored his little sister Kay.
She stated: 'Kay had no idea how sick Ian was in the months before he died. She knew nothing about his heart condition and that his life was in danger because they couldn't operate.
'He was very protective of her and didn't want to tell her in case it caused her worry. So when he died Ian's death came as a great shock to her and she found it very difficult to cope and deal with.
'I enjoyed our time together and we gave him the proper send-off that he deserved.'
But Jules told how she is writing a new book on the Sophie murder and is determined to tell her side of the story before she dies. The French film-maker, 39, was found battered to death on a lane 100 yards from her holiday home in Christmas 1996.
Nobody has ever been charged with the murder. Bailey was arrested twice but never charged. Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas in 2017
A French court found him guilty of the murder in absentia in. 2019 and sentenced him to 25 years jail. Bailey always denied any involvement and didn't do a day behind bars after the Irish courts refused to extradite him to France.
Jules, who provided Bailey with an alibi on the night of the murder, was also arrested as part of the investigation.
She said: 'I actually think I know who carried out the murder – someone with very powerful connections in this country. I will be writing everything in the book. I want to set the record straight once and for all.
'The truth is Ian may not have been perfect because he was not a killer. I kept telling them that but the Gardaí wouldn't listen. Ian couldn't even kill a turkey for God sake, let alone a human being.'
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