LAWYERS FOR Ian Bailey said that new information that had been provided to them by the State would confirm that Mr Bailey had been deliberately and wrongly targeted by gardaí investigating the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
Mr Bailey’s solicitor, Frank Buttimer, said the documentation that he had received from the State when appealing a High Court order allowing his client’s extradition to France clearly indicated that Mr Bailey had been the victim of Garda misbehaviour.
“Mr Bailey has always said that the treatment that he has received at the hands of the Irish police has been corrupt and has been targeted for particular purposes, that’s what this is all about,” said Mr Buttimer after a briefing hearing of the case at the Supreme Court.
Martin Giblin, senior counsel for Mr Bailey (54), told the Supreme Court that the new material released to Mr Bailey’s lawyers revealed “significant Garda misbehaviour” which was “breathtaking even by the lowest standards encountered by the courts”.
The Irish Times understands the material received by Mr Bailey’s lawyers includes a dossier delivered to them on Monday on the direction of the Attorney General and a second dossier from the office of Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, which was delivered on Tuesday.
It’s understood this second dossier includes a review prepared by an individual in the DPP’s office in 2000 which is highly critical of the Garda investigation of the murder and questions the credibility of much of the circumstantial evidence gathered by gardaí.
The material supplied to Mr Bailey’s lawyers was also forwarded in the past few days to French magistrate Patrick Gachon, who is investigating the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier at her holiday home at Dreenane in Toormore near Schull in December 1996.
Mr Bailey, a former journalist who is now doing post-graduate law studies in University College Cork, was twice arrested and questioned about the murder but has always denied any involvement in the killing of the 39-year-old mother of one.
Yesterday a lawyer representing Ms Toscan du Plantier’s parents expressed confidence the Supreme Court would uphold the order to extradite Mr Bailey to France but said he was concerned over the delay likely to ensue from an adjournment sought by Mr Bailey’s lawyers.
Alain Spilliaert said he had reviewed the judgment delivered by Mr Justice Michael Peart in the High Court last March and he still believed it was based on sound principles which would withstand any issues being raised lawyers for Mr Bailey in the Supreme Court.
“For me it is very clear, Mr Justice Peart in his decision said ‘this court must and does presume that the rights of the accused person are protected under French law to the standard required under the convention’ – that is the convention of the European Arrest Warrant.
“Whatever claims Mr Bailey may have against the Irish police are not relevant – Judge Gachon has based his decision to seek his extradition not just of the Irish police file but on other elements including his own inquiries and what was said at Mr Bailey’s libel action.”
Mr Spilliaert said the news that Mr Bailey’s lawyers were seeking an adjournment to further assess the material disclosed to them had come as a blow to Ms Toscan du Plantier’s elderly parents, Georges and Marguerite Bouniol.
