A Garda Detective who met Marie Farrell a number of times during the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation has denied gardaí asked her to name Ian Bailey as the man she saw on the road near Schull hours before the victim’s body was found.
Jim Slattery, now retired, also denied Ms Farrell’s claims she was told gardaí needed a statement and was asked to sign blank pages when she came to Ballydehob Garda station on February 14th, 1997, four days after Mr Bailey was released without charge following his first arrest in connection with the murder.
Asked about Ms Farrell’s evidence she was told all gardaí needed was a two line statement she had seen Mr Bailey, there would be no court case and there was nothing to worry about, he said that never happened.
He agreed it was unusual no notes were made of an earlier meeting on January 28th, 1997, between Ms Farrell and gardaí at Garda Kevin Kelleher’s house. She asked that no notes be taken and she had driven from the house, followed by a Garda car, to the location near Schull where she said she saw a man on the night of December 22/23rd 1996 to show gardaí that location, he said.
He and Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald had on February 7th, 1997, prepared a memo of that meeting from memory following a request from the investigation incident room for such a memo.
That memo stated Ms Farrell had said she now knew the man she saw on the road near Schull on December 22/23rd 1996 was Ian Bailey.
Asked about her evidence she was told by gardaí to say it was Mr Bailey and he would kill again if he was not stopped and only she could stop him, he said that was not correct.
He said no inducements were offered to her at the January 28th meeting and he had no recollection of Det Garda Fitzgerald referring to a summons concerning her husband.
Asked about her evidence she viewed a video of Ian Bailey reciting poetry at the Christmas Day swim in Schull at that meeting, he said she was already at the house when he got there, the TV was on pause and he did not know what was on it.
Mr Slattery also denied he “rounded up” to 5’10” the height of a man whom Ms Farrell said she saw on December 21st and 22nd in and near Schull.
He is giving evidence in the continuing action by Mr Bailey against the Garda Commissioner and State over the conduct of the investigation into the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier, whose body was found near Toormore, Schull, on December 23rd, 1996.
The defendants deny all of Mr Bailey’s claims, including wrongful arrest and conspiracy to manufacture evidence.
Yesterday, Sgt Frank Looney, now retired, said he filled in a questionnaire based on conversations with Ms Farrell on January 17th 1997 which included references to her seeing a man outside her shop on the afternoon of December 21st, 1996, about the same time Ms du Plantier was in the shop.
Ms Farrell also said she saw the same man the following morning on the road near Schull and had seen him again that very day, January 17th, 1997. Mr Looney said he then went with her to stand outside another shop in Schull and when a man came out, Ms Farrell said “That’s him”. Another Garda identified the man coming out of the shop as Ian Bailey, he said.
He said there were two different dates written in different coloured pens on the questionnaire, one was January 17th, 1997, and the second was February 27th 1997. He believed he wrote the earlier date and the late Det Garda Bart O’Leary was wrong when he told the 2006 McAndrew Garda inquiry he, Mr O’Leary, recorded both those dates as the dates he checked the questionnaire.
Asked by Tom Creed Sc, for Mr Bailey, how there was a reference to Ian Bailey on a page of the questionnaire when Ms Farrell would not have known Mr Bailey on January 17th 1997, he said he could not explain that.
Michael McCarthy, a retired garda, said he identified to Sgt Looney on January 17th 1997 a man coming out of a shop in Schull as Ian Bailey.
Mr McCarthy earlier said he regarded injuries shown to him by Jules Thomas, Mr Bailey’s partner, in June 1996 as one of the worst assaults he had ever seen. he agreed she had not proceeded with a complaint.
When Mr Creed suggested it was perfectly obvious the witness did not particularly like Mr Bailey and had come to court with a “plan” and “extreme prejudice”, Mr McCarthy said he treated everyone the same.
Garda Martin Malone, now retired but stationed in Schull in 1996/1997, said he had not noticed scratches on Mr Bailey’s face and hands when he saw him at the murder scene about 2.20pm on December 23rd 1996.
Earlier, Amanda Reid, known as Irune Reid, said she contacted gardaí after her teenage son Malachi told her on February 5th 1997 he had not told the gardaí everything about getting a lift with Mr Bailey the previous evening. She considered what Malachi then told her was so serious she contacted the gardaí.
The jury was previously told Malachi, aged 14 in 1997, made a statement saying Mr Bailey was drunk when he gave him a lift on February 4th 1997 and told him: “I went up there with a rock one night and bashed her fucking brains in” and also said he did it to get a story for the newspapers.
Mr Bailey has denied he was drunk when he gave the boy a lift and said what he had told the boy was that “they are saying” that he, Mr Bailey, had done those things.
Yesterday, Ms Reid said her son appeared in good form after getting home on February 4th, 1997 after the lift from Mr Bailey. Sgt Kevin Kelleher asked Malachi questions the next day at school before other children about his journey with Mr Bailey and Malachi later seemed agitated and told her he had not told the gardaí everything.
The case continues.
