Freelance journalist Ian Bailey (60) said he believes the French will convict him of murder in absentia over the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier (39) in west Cork 22 years ago.

The British journalist, poet and law graduate said he now feels “greatly imperilled” over the decision by the French authorities to press ahead with a Paris murder trial on May 27 next despite their failure to have him extradited from Ireland.

Mr Bailey, who has been living here for 27 years, said he is now facing into “a very grim, dark period of my life.”

Last week the Irish Independent revealed the majority of the surviving witnesses interviewed by gardaí over the murder of Ms du Plantier in 1996 have indicated they will co-operate with a French trial planned for next May.

The French criminal high court will mount a Paris trial from May 27 in which Mr Bailey is charged with the murder of the French mother-of-one at her holiday home outside Toormore, Schull in west Cork on December 23 1996.

Mr Bailey will be tried in absentia – with his legal team slating the Paris prosecution as both “a show trial” and “farcical.”

In an interview with Virgin Media, Mr Bailey warned that the French seem intent on convicting a totally innocent man.

“I am greatly, greatly imperilled here,” he said. “I know that I had nothing to do with this and I am going to finish up a convicted murderer.

“I am actually an innocent man and what will happen in France is that they will probably celebrate the fact that I have been convicted and believe me to be the killer.

“But all they will have succeeded in doing is convicting an innocent man.”

Mr Bailey – who is now retraining as a specialist wood artist – has consistently protested his innocence and maintained that “sinister attempts” were made to frame him for the brutal killing.

However, French prosecutors have received the go-ahead to proceed with a murder trial before the Paris Assizes or criminal high court.

The trial will take place before a panel of three judges and is expected to last at least a week.

Under France’s Napoleonic Code, prosecutions can be taken against individuals who are not within the French jurisdiction and for alleged offences which occurred overseas.

French prosecutors believe the majority of 40 Irish witnesses, the bulk of whom were interviewed as part of the original garda murder probe, will either agree to travel to Paris for the planned trial or co-operate with video-link evidence. None can be compelled to attend.

French authorities will cover all travel and subsistence costs for those who agree to attend in person.

Under France’s Napoleonic Code, evidence such as witness statements can be offered from individuals who have died in the 22 years since the shocking murder. Several of those interviewed in west Cork as part of the original garda murder investigation have since died.

If Irish witnesses decline to travel to Paris for the hearing, their statements can still be offered in evidence.

The French received special permission from Ireland to allow an elite team of Paris detectives to visit west Cork multiple times over the past decade and re-interview the original garda murder file witnesses. Those interviews were also video-recorded.

Full access was also given by Ireland to the forensic data obtained by gardaí in 1996.

The French investigation involved the exhumation of Sophie’s body, a battery of fresh forensic tests and re-interviewing all the original Garda witnesses.

Mr Bailey, who moved to Ireland in 1991, was twice arrested by gardaí for questioning. He was released without charge on both occasions in 1997 and 1998.

He successfully fought one French attempt to extradite him in 2012 but a second European Arrest Warrant (EAW) has been issued but not acted upon.

Mr Bailey said the past 22 years had been rendered “a nightmare and a torture” for him through being wrongly linked to the case.

The French investigation and prosecution followed a confirmation by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) almost a decade ago that a charge was extremely unlikely to be levelled in Ireland.

Paris-based Magistrate Patrick Gachon was appointed to lead the investigation. His report formed the basis for the planned trial next May.

Sophie’s family have welcomed the impending Paris trial and urged Ireland to offer every assistance to the French prosecutors.

Mr Bailey has signalled a European Court of Human Rights challenge to the French action but acknowledged it would not stall the Paris trial.

Sophie was found battered to death on an isolated laneway leading to her holiday home at Toormore outside Schull on December 23 1996.

She was apparently confronted at her property by an intruder and attempted to flee on foot before being caught and beaten to death.

Sophie had been due to fly back to Paris just hours later to spend Christmas with her family.

Gardaí acknowledged that the petite woman had been subjected to an horrific level of violence.

The last potential obstacle to a French trial – a Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) investigation – was cleared last August.

The Gsoc probe was ordered amid claims by Mr Bailey that elements within the gardaí had acted unfairly or corruptly towards him.

However, French solicitor, Alain Spilliaert, who acts for the du Plantier/Bouniol family, insisted the Gsoc report verified what they always knew – that “the garda criminal investigation was not corrupted.”

The Paris-based advocate also insisted that the Gsoc report would ultimately prove to “go in our favour.”

Mr Bailey lost his last legal avenue of challenge in France to the proposed trial last May.

“I know there are people here in Ireland, in Bantry, (who) know I have nothing to do with this,” he said.

“Short of a miracle or an intervention or some new information coming out, it would appear inevitable that at a point later this year I will become a convicted murderer in France.

“I am looking at a date in May when the tectonic plates in my life are going to shift hugely. I do not know how I am going to handle it.

“Even if I am tried for murder in France and found guilty under their Napoleonic Code of law all they will have done is convict an innocent person and merely managed in France what the members of An Garda Siochana tried to and failed,” Mr Bailey added.

The Manchester-born journalist and poet also warned it was “astonishing” that the French could proceed with a prosecution based on material already rejected by Ireland’s DPP.

Gsoc did raise what it called “grave concerns” over various aspects of the garda investigation ranging from potentially key evidence having gone missing to deliberate changes to official reports and documents.

The commission was also scathing over issues it highlighted with the management oversight and administration of the original murder investigation.

However, it found no evidence of corruption in respect of the du Plantier investigation as claimed by Mr Bailey.

Gsoc said Mr Bailey’s original arrest and questioning was not, as he claimed, in any way unlawful.

Its ruling came after Mr Bailey lost a high-profile High Court action against the State for wrongful arrest.

He warned he fears his 22 year “nightmare” will now only end with his death.

The group set up to support the du Plantier family, ASSOPH, founded by Sophie’s uncle, Jean-Pierre Gazeau, bluntly warned the Irish authorities that they would now be expected to fully adhere to their judicial commitments under European law.

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