Never said I'd met du Plantier, says Bailey

Ian Bailey rejected statements made by two women to gardaí that he had told them that he had met and been introduced to murdered French woman, Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork.

Cross-examined by counsel for six newspaper titles, Paul Gallagher SC, Mr Bailey agreed that everything in the statement of former Sunday Tribunenews editor, Helen Callanan was accurate except her assertion that he told her that he knew Ms Toscan du Plantier.

According to the statement made on February 10th, 1997, Ms Callanan told gardaí that Mr Bailey had told her that he had been arrested by gardaí and that "he had spoken to Sophie before she was murdered and that he had met her".

Mr Bailey told the hearing before Mr Justice Brian McGovern that he had told Ms Callanan that he had been arrested by gardaí but he was "absolutely sure" that he had never told her that he had spoken to Ms Toscan du Plantier.

He agreed with Ms Callanan's recall of how she said to him that it was being said that he was the murderer and he replied, "Well, of course, I did - I killed her to resurrect my career as a journalist," but he insisted that he said this "as a joke".

Mr Bailey also rejected as incorrect a statement given to gardaí by his friend, Yvonne Ungerer, in which she said that Mr Bailey had told her that "he knew Sophie - that he had met her up at Alfie's (Alfie Lyons)".

And he also said that Mrs Ungerer was wrong when she told gardaí that he had told her that someone had come forward to say that he had been seen by the Causeway near Kealfadda Bridge and that he told her that "I must have been washing the blood off my clothes".

Mr Gallagher also put it to Mr Bailey that in a statement made to gardaí on February 6th, 1997, then 14-year-old schoolboy Malachi Reid said that Mr Bailey had told him that he had gone "up there one night with a rock and bashed her f--king brains in".

Mr Bailey disputed this and said what had actually happened was that Mr Reid had asked him how things were going and he had replied that "things were going fine until people started to say that I had committed the murder".

Mr Gallagher pointed out that Mr Reid had given sworn testimony to this effect but Mr Bailey countered by saying that he had made this statement under duress and another witness, Marie Farrell had also given sworn testimony but since retracted it.

Mr Bailey then alleged that lawyers acting for the newspapers had called Mrs Farrell to give evidence in his last libel action at Cork Circuit Court in December 2003 despite knowing that her statements to gardaí were "false and fabricated".

Mr Gallagher rejected this allegation and said that it had been anticipated that Mr Bailey would make such an allegation but it was "wholly false and wholly inappropriate that he should use the witness box to make such an allegation".

The case continues.