Ian Bailey, who was twice arrested and questioned about the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier near Schull in 1996, is planning to take a civil action against the Garda Síochána and the State for allegedly conspiring to wrongfully convict him of the killing of the 39-year-old French film producer.
Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered on December 23rd, 1996, during a pre-Christmas visit to her holiday cottage at Toormore near Schull in west Cork. Her battered body was found in a laneway near her cottage.
Nobody has ever been charged with her murder.
Mr Bailey's solicitor, Frank Buttimer, yesterday confirmed that his client will be initiating a civil action against the State and other parties in the coming weeks. Mr Bailey's partner, Jules Thomas, also plans to take a separate case against the Garda and the State, he said.
Mr Buttimer said it was "nonsensical" to describe Mr Bailey as the chief suspect for the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.
"People continue to describe him as the chief suspect when there is nothing to base it on. It is appalling."
Last year, a local woman, Marie Farrell, withdrew statements she had made to gardaí linking Mr Bailey to the scene of the murder.
In October 2005, Ms Farrell said that a statement she had made to the Garda investigation team, stating that she saw Mr Bailey at Kealfadda bridge on the night that Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered, was false and inaccurate and that she was no longer standing over it.
Last February, Ms Farrell claimed in a letter sent to the DPP that a named Garda officer told her that she "would never have a day's peace" for as long as she and her family lived in Schull if she refused to stand over her statement about Mr Bailey.
Gardaí have strongly rejected Ms Farrell's suggestions of coercion in the case.
Meanwhile, in papers being prepared for a lawsuit against the Garda and the State, Mr Bailey's legal team will claim that he was physically and mentally mistreated by gardaí in the early stages of the investigation.
Earlier this year the brother of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Bertrand Bouniol, said the family had decided not to proceed with a civil action against Mr Bailey over her death.
A Garda inquiry into the handling of the original investigation is continuing.
Ms Toscan du Plantier's parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, have visited Toormore in the weeks before Christmas every year since their daughter's death.
Ian Bailey took an unsuccessful libel action in 2003 against newspapers for coverage linking him to the case.