A detective involved in the investigation of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier started ringing Marie Farrell several times a day after she was identified as the woman who had seen a man near Kealfadda Bridge on the night of the murder, Ms Farrell has told the court.
Ms Farrell said that she first met Det Jim Fitzgerald when another officer, Garda Kevin Kelleher, asked her to call out to his house on January 28th, 1997, to view a video recording of the 1996 Christmas Day swim in Schull and Det Garda Fitzgerald explained how important a witness she was.
"I recognised one of the detectives as Jim Slattery and the other introduced himself as Jim Fitzgerald – they were really friendly and said they understood my difficulty and they knew Ian Bailey had killed that lady and if we didn't do something, he would kill again," said Ms Farrell."After that I started getting daily phone calls from Jim Fitzgerald – it was like he had become my best friend – they were friendly phone calls, just checking everything was okay, 'how's everything going at home'? – there was nothing nasty or threatening about it," she added.
Insurance convictions
Ms Farrell said Det Garda Fitzgerald advised her to go to solicitor Flor Murphy in Bantry to ask him to lodge an appeal over some insurance convictions imposed on her husband, Chris, which she did, and gardaí didn’t offer any evidence on the appeals and the appeals were allowed.
She also told of another instance where she and her husband were having difficulty with a man in the locality whom they suspected was prowling around their house, looking in at their children and stealing her underwear from a tumble dryer in their shed.
Ms Farrell told how one evening she and her husband saw the man around their home and Chris went after the man and came back into the house with his hands covered in blood and Ms Farrell contacted gardaí as she feared her husband was after killing the man.
Gardaí called and went to the man who denied he was at the Farrell house but when Ms Farrell described to gardaí what he was wearing, gardaí confirmed that she was correct but informed her that man was going to make a complaint of assault against Mr Farrell.
Ms Farrell told how she mentioned the matter to Det Garda Fitzgerald and the jury were played a tape recording of a phone call between Det Garda Fitzgerald and Ms Farrell in which he informed her and her husband that there would be no complaint against her husband.
In the recording, Det Garda Fitzgerald tells the Farrells that he had written to the investigating officer in the case, Garda Billy Byrne, advising him to invite the complainant in to make a statement, but then to advise him that he too could face charges.
Prowling around
Det Garda Fitzgerald tells the Farrells that it was pointed out to the individual the Farrell children had been intimidated by him prowling around the house and, although he denied trespass, it was their word against him and they outnumbered him two to one.
In the phone call, which Ms Farrell said she did not realise was being recorded, Det Garda Fitzgerald says her husband was wrong to assault the man but there would be no statement of complaint and no charges and the man would not be looking for any money from them.
The case continues.
