Mr Ian Bailey knew key details of the murder of Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier hours before it became public knowledge, a court heard yesterday.
The freelance journalist was also introduced to the Frenchwoman months before her murder, despite claims that he never met her, according to a neighbour of Mr Bailey's.
Mr Bailey has rejected these claims and said he only saw Ms Toscan du Plantier on one occasion through the window of a neighbour's house.
Mr Alfie Lyons, a neighbour of Ms Toscan du Plantier, who was murdered on December 23rd, 1996, said he was "90 per cent" certain he had introduced her to Mr Bailey when he was working in his garden in June 1995.
He said: "As best as my memory serves me, Mr Bailey was working close by in the garden and I'd always, as with anybody, have introduced her to the person with me."
Mr Bailey said last week that the first he heard of a body being found locally was on receiving a telephone call from an Examiner journalist, Eddie Cassidy, shortly before 2 p.m. on the afternoon of the murder.
However, a local shopkeeper, Ms Caroline Leftwich, told the court yesterday that Mr Bailey telephoned her that morning to say he could not keep an appointment, as he was reporting on the murder case.
"He sounded kind of excited by it, that there had been murder. I asked if there was a victim and he said it was a Frenchwoman, someone on holiday," Ms Leftwich said.
Mr Cassidy also told the court he had contacted Mr Bailey at 1.40 p.m. and said a body, believed to be that of a non-national, had been found. He was adamant he did not know it had been a murder at that stage and only discovered it was a Frenchwoman later that afternoon. He suspected the body might have been that of a New Age traveller.
"I thought perhaps it was a hit-and-run or something else, but certainly not a murder," Mr Cassidy said.
A vegetable stall owner in Goleen, Mr James Camier, also told the court that Mr Bailey's partner, Ms Jules Thomas, had said to him on the morning of December 23rd that Mr Bailey was working on the murder case.
Ms Bailey however, has told the court that she called over to Goleen on Christmas Eve.
