The New Episode.
Episode 14. He Sees Sophie Everywhere
An Englishman is on trial in a French court for a murder committed in Ireland. With no defendant present. And no defense.
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It was the Ian Bailey trial. But this story is about Sophie.
A lot has happened since the French charged Ian Bailey with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier back in 2016. The French tried to extradite Ian but they were blocked by Ireland. Ian contested the charge, but France denied his appeals.
And so a date was set for an unusual trial. An Englishman on trial in a French court for a murder committed in Ireland.
We went to Paris for the trial in May of 2019. Lots was different about the trial … evidence that you wouldn’t have heard in Ireland, arguments that weren’t made in France. But it was strange in one respect most of all. In every other point in this 25 year saga, Ian Bailey has loomed large but this trial wasn’t like that. Because, Ian Bailey wasn’t there.
And so while Ian’s fate hung in the balance, the focus shifted to Sophie. This woman, so often in the shadow of her own story, to us that week was about her.
The Palais de Justice, on day one of the trial
Pierre-Louis, Sophie’s son, and prosecuting lawyer Marie Dosé on the courthouse steps
Gendarmes guard the Salle de Victor Hugo
Pierre-Louis heading back into the courtroom to hear the verdict
“Meticulous and thoughtful reporting … A show can attempt to justify its value apart from the core facts, beats, and twists of the crime in question. To that end, West Cork is intermittently sublime. The podcast is vastly more soulful than so many of its peers, in large part by functioning as an exploration of how a tragedy, mixed with spectacle, can redefine and consume the terms of a place, a person, and a time.”.
— New York Magazine