Judgement is due to be delivered in Cork today in the libel action taken by Ian Bailey, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent
Today Judge Patrick Moran is due to deliver his judgment in Cork Circuit Court on whether seven newspapers were justified in what they wrote about Mr Ian Bailey six years ago, following his arrest in connection with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
The judge will have to consider the articles in the light of what emerged in evidence last month in the libel case taken by Mr Bailey against the seven newspapers.
This was not, as was repeatedly pointed out, a murder trial, and the plaintiff, Mr Bailey, was not asked to prove his innocence of the murder.
He enjoys the presumption of innocence, and has never even been charged. But inevitably his actions around that time, and the recollections of other people about it, were intensively examined.
When the libel trial opened on December 8th, Mr Bailey's counsel, Mr James Duggan, painted a picture of a man whose life had been ruined by hostile newspaper coverage.
He had been described as "the murderer," he said, had been shunned by society, was unable to rebuild his journalistic career, and he and his partner, a mother of three daughters, had suffered greatly since he was linked to the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
Mr Duggan acknowledged that his client had been arrested and questioned about the murder, and that he had afterwards given interviews to a number of newspapers in which he acknowledged that he was the chief suspect. Neither his client nor anyone else was ever charged with the murder. He also acknowledged that Mr Bailey had physically mistreated his partner.
But, according to Mr Duggan, none of this justified the articles that had been written.
These included an allegation that he had "a stormy relationship with his ex-wife"; that he had boasted of his sexual prowess in an English newsroom and pinned up nude photographs of himself; that he had burned clothing in the days following the murder; that he had been introduced to the murder victim and that he had caused one journalist to be afraid of him.
Some of these articles linked him to the murdered woman and suggested he had burned evidence. Others suggested he was violent towards women.
None of this was true, Mr Duggan said, and it was greatly damaging to his client.
Counsel for the seven newspapers sued by Mr Bailey, Mr Paul Gallagher SC and Mr David Holland SC, fought back, not by calling the individual journalists to justify the individual articles, but by questioning Mr Bailey about his actions and behaviour, and by calling witnesses to back up the substance of what had been published about him.
In the course of the trial in Cork, a lot of information emerged about Mr Bailey's behaviour around the time of the murder that had not been previously published.
Mr Gallagher questioned Mr Bailey for three days, during which he asked him about claims that he had told as many as seven people that he had killed Ms Toscan du Plantier. Most of these people were later called to give evidence of hearing such admissions from Mr Bailey.
In response, Mr Bailey said that he had either been talking about the circumstances in which he came to be seen as a suspect, or he had joked about the subject.
"It was said in a light-hearted way," was a typical response from the plaintiff to a question about these alleged confessions.
"I said that it was being said that this was the case. I don't think she took that with any seriousness," was another reply.
Mr Gallagher also put it to him that he had left the bed he shared with his partner, Ms Jules Thomas, on the night of the murder and returned the next morning with a mark on his face. This emerged from a statement Ms Thomas gave to gardaí and which the defence team for the newspapers had obtained.
Mr Bailey said he had left the bed in the middle of the night to write, as he did frequently. He also said he received scratches to his face and hands while cutting down a Christmas tree.
The most damaging evidence to emerge from Mr Bailey's point of view was the extent of the violence he inflicted on his partner, Ms Jules Thomas.
During lengthy cross-examination, Mr Gallagher got him to accept that what was originally described as a push involved her hair being pulled out and her lip being severed from her gum. Extracts were read from his diary describing the violence and expressing his remorse.
However, Ms Thomas gave evidence claiming that gardaí had put pressure on her to make a statement that would link her partner to the murder, and also to seek a barring order against him.
The defence then called a number of people to describe conversations they had with Mr Bailey, in which they said he confessed to the murder. He rejects their interpretation of these conversations.
While this is not a murder trial, and Mr Bailey is not being tried for murder, these allegations have now been aired in court and Judge Moran must decide whose evidence he believes.