Mr Ian Bailey, who is suing several newspapers over reports linking him with the murder of Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier, told as many as seven people he killed her, a court heard today.
Mr Bailey rejected the allegations and said in all cases cited he either jokingly admitting to the murder, or was talking about the circumstances in which he had become a suspect for the murder.
The allegations were made on the third day of the trial at Cork Circuit Court where he was cross-examined by Mr Paul Gallagher, SC, for the newspapers, before Mr Justice Moran.
One of these people, 14-year-old Malachy Reid, was taking a lift home from Mr Bailey at the time of the murder, Mr Gallagher said.
"Did you tell Mr Reid that you went up there one night with a rock and bashed her brains in?," Mr Gallagher asked Mr Bailey.
Mr Bailey refuted this and said he had been discussing rumours which implicated him in the murder, as well as the boy's career interests.
Mr Gallagher also alleged that Mr Bailey admitted to the murder while talking to Ms Helen Callanan, news editor for the Sunday Tribune, a newspaper for which he had been filing articles following the murder.
Again, Mr Bailey rejected this. "It was said in a light-hearted way. I assumed she had taken it as that," Mr Bailey said.
Mr Gallagher also said a neighbour, Ms Yvonne Unger, said that Mr Bailey told her he had killed Ms Toscan du Plantier using a concrete block and washed blood off his boots in a local stream.
Mr Bailey rejected this and said: "I said that it was being said that this was the case. I don't think she took that with any seriousness".
Another alleged admission of murder occurred on New Year's Eve in December 1998, two years after the murder, when Mr Bailey invited local couple, Mr Richard and Rosie Shelley, to his house for a small party after the pubs had closed, the court heard.
A quantity of drink was consumed and Mr Bailey spent much of the night speaking of his poetry and his news coverage of Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder, Mr Gallagher said.
While he had asked if the couple wanted to stay the night, they decided to phone for lift.
When they entered a bedroom where the phone was, an emotional Mr Bailey broke down into tears and confessed to the murder, Mr Gallagher said.
"This was 1998, two years after the murder, and you'd invited them to you house, discussing poetry and murder, telling them, I did it, I did it, I went too far, " Mr Gallagher said.
Mr Bailey refuted this and said did not remember this version of events.
The counsel for the newspapers also said accounts from several local people following Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder on December 23rd, 1996, suggested that he knew about the murder hours before he originally claimed.
Mr Bailey told the court earlier that the first he heard of the allegation was at about lunchtime on the day of the murder, following a phonecall from The Examiner journalist, Mr Eddie Cassidy.
Mr Gallagher asserted that Mr Bailey told locals Mr Paul O Colmain, along with Richard and Christine Leftwick, well before lunch that morning.
His partner, Ms Thomas, also told Mr Richard and Christine Camier, who run a vegetable stall in the nearby village of Goleen, that Mr Bailey was "out on a story" when she visited them prior to lunch on the same day, Mr Gallagher said.
However, Mr Bailey rejected these accounts and said he had no knowledge of the murder at that time and did not remember discussing the event with them.