Handcuffs photograph changed life, says Bailey

English journalist Ian Bailey yesterday told how his life was changed irrevocably when a photograph was published of him being brought in handcuffs into Bandon Garda station for questioning about the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Mr Bailey told his High Court libel appeal against six newspapers that when he arrived at the Garda station on the morning of February 10th, 1996, there was "a melee" of reporters and photographers awaiting his arrival.

He was driven in to the station yard but one photographer, Mike Brown, caught a photograph of him being led from the Garda car into the station in handcuffs.

"The photograph was published in the Sun the following day and in other papers the day after that and from that moment on, right up until today, I have been put in the frame for a crime that I had absolutely nothing at all to do with," he said.

Mr Bailey had earlier told how he had learned from other journalists that gardaí suspected him of killing Ms Toscan du Plantier. These journalists included then Sunday Tribunenews editor Helen Callanan and reporter Senan Molony, then of the Irish Star.

"It was very unsettling and very strange and knowing that I had absolutely nothing to do with the crime, I handled it in a certain way. I treated it almost as a black joke and I made light of it which, obviously, was very unwise," said Mr Bailey, who called himself Eoin at the time.

"Helen Callanan had told me, 'Eoin, it's being said up here that you are the murderer' . . . I said, 'Yes, of course I did it, I needed a story' - that was my way of laughing it off.

"Given the circumstances again, I would treat it far more seriously," he said.

Led by his counsel, Tom Creed SC, Mr Bailey yesterday went through the various articles complained of and pointed out what he claimed were the inaccuracies in each of them, and which he said had wrongly linked him to Ms Toscan du Plantier's killing and had damaged his reputation.

He said there was no truth to reports that he was seen washing wellington boots in a stream at 4am or that he burned blood-stained clothes or that he had scratches on his face or hands which he told people he sustained killing turkeys and cutting down a Christmas tree.

Mr Bailey said that an article in the Daily Telegraphwhich stated that Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered by an aggrieved scriptwriter enraged by her rejection of a film script clearly suggested that he had killed her as it mentioned that he had made videos.

"It quite clearly links me to the crime - it suggests that I murdered her because she had rejected a film script of mine," said Mr Bailey, adding that he never knew Ms Toscan du Plantier and never had any dealings with her about a film script.