Whether Ian Bailey met Sophie Toscan du Plantier was explored in detail during his 2003 libel action against seven newspapers, writes BARRY ROCHESouthern Correspondent
ENGLISH JOURNALIST Ian Bailey vigorously and repeatedly denied that he ever knew Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier during a libel action that he brought against seven newspaper publishers at Cork Circuit Court in December 2003.
Mr Bailey, of the Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, Co Cork, sued the papers for defamation, claiming that he had been libelled by them in various articles through linking him to the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier at her home at Toormore on the night of December 22nd/23rd, 1996.
Judge Patrick Moran dismissed Mr Bailey’s action against the seven newspaper publishers on the issue of whether he had been defamed by the papers, which he said were justified in describing Mr Bailey as a suspect in their coverage of the murder.
However, he found for Mr Bailey in his claim against the Irish Mirrorand the Irish Sun, and ruled that he had been defamed when they said that he had been violent to his former wife, Sarah Limbrick, and he awarded Mr Bailey damages of €4,000 against each paper, plus costs.
In his judgment, Judge Moran said he accepted on the balance of probabilities evidence given by Ms Toscan du Plantier’s neighbour, Alfie Lyons, that he was “80-90 per cent sure that he had introduced Mr Bailey to Ms Toscan du Plantier”.
Mr Bailey later appealed the decision to the High Court and the matter went to hearing, but Mr Bailey withdrew the appeal and the case was settled when the papers acknowledged that they never intended to suggest that Mr Bailey had murdered Ms Toscan du Plantier.
During the 11-day Cork Circuit Court hearing in 2003, Mr Bailey repeatedly denied that he had ever met Ms Toscan du Plantier when cross-examined on the matter by Paul Gallagher SC, for the newspapers. Mr Gallagher is now the attorney general.
Asked by Mr Gallagher on the fifth day of the libel action whether he was denying ever having met Ms Toscan du Plantier, Mr Bailey replied: “Correct”. When it was suggested to him that Mr Lyons had introduced them, Mr Bailey replied: “Incorrect”.
Mr Bailey then went on to explain that he had been working at Mr Lyons’s house on one occasion, doing some gardening, when he noticed some people at Ms Toscan du Plantier’s cottage, including a woman in the kitchen.
“There were people down in the cottage [Ms Toscan du Plantier’s house].. There were two young lads in the fields. There was another man by the house and there is, I think, a lady in the kitchen. That is all. That is the only point of contact,” Mr Bailey said.
Later, when asked about an article in the Irish Sun on February 14th, 1997, in which he is quoted as saying, “I didn’t know her”, Mr Bailey said this was correct, and when questioned about an entry in his diary, he said: “We were never introduced, or spoke.”
However, speaking on the seventh day of the libel action, Alfie Lyons said he was “at least 90 per cent certain” that he had introduced Ms Toscan du Plantier to Mr Bailey one day, during which he had asked Mr Bailey to help tidy up the garden. “Well I thought about this quite often [whether Mr Bailey had met Ms Toscan du Plantier], and when I think about it, I see Sophie Toscan du Plantier coming up to the house as she invariably did when she arrived, just to say ‘Hello’.
“As best as my memory serves me, she came up to the house and Mr Bailey was working close by in the garden and, as I would at any time if somebody arrived into the house or up to the property, I would always introduced them to the person who was there with me. As far as I can recollect I did introduce him to Sophie Toscan du Plantier,” said Mr Lyons.
Under cross-examination by Mr Bailey’s barrister Jim Duggan, he said he was “at least 90 per cent certain” he introduced them.
During the libel case, the former Paris correspondent of the Guardian, the late Paul Webster, told how he received a phone call in February 1997 from a man who identified himself as Ian Bailey and told him that he knew Ms Toscan du Plantier.
In cross-examination, Mr Duggan said his client’s position was that he told Mr Webster that he knew of Ms Toscan du Plantier, but Mr Webster said the man made it clear that he knew Ms Toscan du Plantier personally and had spoken with her.
Three years later in 2007, during his High Court appeal of the Circuit Court ruling, Mr Bailey said a statement by then Sunday Tribunenews editor Helen Callanan to gardaí saying Mr Bailey had told her he had known Ms Toscan du Plantier was incorrect.
On the same day, February 15th, 2007, Mr Bailey also told the High Court a statement taken by gardaí from another woman, Yvonne Ungerer, was incorrect when she said he told her he had met Ms Toscan du Plantier while at Mr Lyons’s house.