Court told Ian Bailey said: ‘I did it, I did it’ and ‘I went too far’

Ian Bailey was upset and crying when he put his arms around a man and said: "I did it, I did it", a High Court jury has been told.

Richie Shelley said, when he asked Mr Bailey what did he do, he said: “I went too far.”

Mr Shelley said this happened sometime after 2am on January 1st, 1999 at Mr Bailey's home at the Prairie, Schull, after Mr Bailey had been looking at newspaper cuttings about the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Asked what he believed Mr Bailey was talking about, he said: “I think the murder was heavy on his mind because it was the main subject of the night.”

Mr Bailey was “obsessed” with the murder and had earlier produced a shoebox of newspaper cuttings about it, he said. His understanding of Mr Bailey’s remarks was that he was admitting to murder.

Mr Shelley, then aged 24, said he was shocked by what Mr Bailey said and would remember it “until I die”.

He did not accept a suggestion by Ronan Munro, for Mr Bailey, what Mr Bailey was upset about was people were saying he had done the murder.

There was no mention that night of violent incidents towards Mr Bailey's partner Jules Thomas, he told counsel. He would not agree with violence towards women, he added.

Asked about Ms Thomas’s evidence Mr Shelley was so drunk he could not have accurately remembered events that night, he said he did not accept that. He had had four or five drinks prior to coming to the house and drank two cans of lager when there.

He described as "absolute lies" evidence by Marie Farrell he had told her he could not remember what Mr Bailey had said and that the guards "twist everything".

He believed his girlfriend Rosie, now his wife, had heard Mr Bailey’s remarks, made to him in the kitchen of the house. She was nervous and they left Mr Bailey’s home by foot shortly afterwards, he said. They were picked up by his father whom he had rung earlier for a lift home but had not said anything to his father because he did not wish to worry him.

He was contacted by RTÉ’s Prime Time in 2014 who said Marie Farrell had told them she had met Mr Shelley on the street some years previously and he had said Bailey did not do it and gardaí “twist everything”.

Mr Shelley said he had not said that. He said his conversation with Ms Farrell was about her saying she had been offered money from newspapers and was going to take it to buy doors and windows for a house she was building.

Mr Shelley was giving evidence in the continuing action by Mr Bailey against the Garda Commissioner and State over the conduct of the investigation into the murder into the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier. Her body was found near Toormore, Schull, on the morning of December 23rd, 1996.

The defendants deny all of Mr Bailey’s claims, including of wrongful arrest and conspiracy.

On Friday, Geraldine O'Brien said she was working in Marie Farrell's shop on June 28th, 1997 when Ian Bailey came in looking to talk to Ms Farrell. Ms Farrell was quite nervous and asked her to contact Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald, she said.

Between November 2013 and February 2014, she said Ms Farrell, during a phone conversation about fees for courses being operated by Ms O’Brien in Cork, had said there was a case coming up in which Ian Bailey was involved. Ms Farrell said she had been told he would get substantial money, maybe a couple of million, and Ms Farrell would get some of that too, Ms O’Brien added.

She agreed Ms Farrell had denied making those comments.

Sergeant Mary Burbage, attached to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, said she was involved in the arrest of Jules Thomas on September 22nd 2000, was not aggressive to her and had not told her she had met some “hopeless” men in her life.

While interviewing Ms Thomas with Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald later, she felt she was “relieved” to talk.

Under cross-examination, she said she would have waited in Ms Thomas bedroom while she got dressed. She did not consider Ms Thomas was upset or scared.

She agreed Ms Thomas’ daughter Fenella, then aged 17, was upset the previous day, September 21st, 2000, when arrested about 7.30am and interviewed during a 12-hour detention.

When Mr Munro said it was “nonsense” to arrest Fenella who had no motive to cover up for Mr Bailey as she did not like him, Sgt Burbage disagreed. She denied Fenella was arrested to get across to Jules Thomas that gardaí could arrest her children and “did not mind if a 17-year-old child got caught in the crossfire”.

Garda Michael Coughlan, attached to Bandon, said his role was to provide operational technical support and he assisted in taping conversations between gardaí and Martin Graham in May and June 1997.

He was shocked when he learned certain phone conversations to and from Bandon Garda station, including calls involving himself, had been recorded. He sai he presumed this occurred as a result of errors made in connecting wires after a decision was made to relocate a recorder from the communications room.

The case resumes on Tuesday.