NATIONAL: Murder suspect Ian Bailey says he is innocent after double heart attack

MURDER suspect Ian Bailey has maintained he is innocent after suffering from two heart attacks in a week. 

The 66-year-old man said that he feared that “the stress of being wrongly associated with the crime” of French filmmaker, Sophie Toscan Du Plantier in 1996, had finally taken a toll on his health. 

Mr Bailey confirmed he suffered two suspected heart attacks in a week. He is being treated in the cardiac unit of Bantry General Hospital, in Cork. 

“My life has been a torture over recent years - I honestly don’t know how I endured it. It felt at times like I was being bonfired,” he said this week. 

"I am very ill and fear I am running out of time. The doctors have not been able to operate because of existing health issues I have. I have some kind of heart issue but at the moment they can’t put stents in.”

The poet and journalist has constantly said he is innocent of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in her holiday home. 

Mr Bailey was arrested twice by gardaí in relation to the murder investigation but was released without charge in both 1997 and 1998. 

He was convicted in absentia by a court in Paris in 2019, however he has maintained his innocence.