The French lawyer for an Irish couple detained in connection with the death of a newborn baby in southern France last week is understood to be seeking the man's release on bail, based on solid character references from fellow educators and his associates in extensive charity work in Ireland and abroad.
The man is described as devoted, humane and hard-working, and there is concern that he will lose his job as a teacher if he is not allowed to return to Ireland. The judge's assessment of the risk of the Irishman jumping bail will be crucial to the decision.
The families of the suspects are upset that he was named by an Irish newspaper at the weekend, although he has not been formally charged with a crime. Under French law, the man is suspected of non-assistance to a person in danger, and of failure to denounce a crime - misdemeanours that carry a maximum 10-year sentence. The woman is accused of murdering her baby boy, which could lead to life imprisonment. Neither has a criminal record in Ireland.
The Irishman maintains he did not know his companion, a former student of his, was pregnant. Staff at the hotel where the couple stayed the night before the baby died said they did not notice she was pregnant.
French investigators have so far held off questioning the woman, who was indicted on Friday evening on the suspicion she smothered her newborn son. She maintains the child was born dead, but the public prosecutor, Mr Raymond Doumas, says forensic examinations show it was born alive and viable. Once she has recovered from the birth, she will be moved from hospital to Nice women's prison.
The baby boy was found by police in a sealed plastic bag in the Miramar Beach Hotel at Théoule-sur-Mer, near Cannes, on February 12th.
