A KEY witness in the Garda investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has agreed to meet a French investigation team but will tell them she never saw English journalist Ian Bailey near the home of Ms Toscan du Plantier on the night of the murder.
Marie Farrell has agreed to meet French detectives next week but said she will be standing over her statement made in 2005 that she did not see Mr Bailey at Kealfadda Bridge in the early hours of December 23rd, 1996.
Ms Farrell originally told the Garda investigation in 1997 that she had seen a man at the bridge – more than a mile from Ms Toscan du Plantier’s holiday home at Dreenane near Toormore – and she later pointed out Ian Bailey to officers as the man she had seen.
She gave evidence to this effect at Mr Bailey’s libel action in 2003 against eight newspaper titles and also alleged he made threatening gestures to her after learning that she had made a statement.
In 2005, she contacted Mr Bailey’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer. He in turn put her in touch with another solicitor and she retracted her original statement, alleging she had been coerced by gardaí into making it.
Mr Buttimer wrote to the then minister for justice, Michael McDowell. Then Garda commissioner Noel Conroy appointed assistant commissioner Ray McAndrew to investigate how gardaí handled the murder investigation. A file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2007 but the DPP did not recommend that anyone be prosecuted.
In all, 27 of 31 witnesses approached by gardaí have agreed to be interviewed by the French while another three have given conditional agreement, with only one refusing. The team being sent by Judge Patrick Gachon is composed of three detectives from the Office Central pour la Répression des Violences Aux Personnes and two scientists from the Laboratoire de Police Technique et Scientifique.
The detectives, who will be accompanied by members of An Garda Síochána and interpreters, will meet witnesses wherever they wish, while the forensic scientists will examine exhibits in the case.
It is understood that officials from the French embassy in Dublin, accompanied by the security attaché from the French embassy in London, Eric Battesti, will host a press conference next Monday in Dublin.
Mr Bailey’s solicitor, Mr Buttimer, has expressed concern at the leaking of the fact that the French investigation team is seeking access to Garda files of assaults by Mr Bailey on his partner, Jules Thomas, and said it called into question the entire investigation.
“It is extraordinary that whether due to the French authorities or the Irish authorities, this matter has come into the public domain – the entire conduct of this matter is becoming more and more bizarre by the day,” Mr Buttimer said.
Legal sources have pointed out that the introduction of both previous and subsequent offences in a case would not be admissible in an Irish court.
Mr Bailey won damages when he was found to have been libelled on the issue of violence to women.