Key quotes from the Ian Bailey case

‘It was a mad time..like something surreal’

"Not only did they tell me that he killed this woman but that he was into all sorts of weird things, that he would sit outside and howl at the moon. When there was a full moon he would sit on the beach in Barleycove naked in a rocking chair and that ten lesbians would dance round him reciting poetry. You know just the strangest things but I believed them, I really believed the things that they told me." .... "It was a mad time..like something surreal." (Marie Farrell in evidence)

"The investigation was carried out in a normal fashion..(Gardaí) would have been negligent if we hadn't arrested Ian Bailey. " (Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald in evidence)

"That is an outrageous lie... I have no understanding of how that woman's mind works." (Sgt Maurice Walsh in evidence denying Marie Farrell's claim he exposed himself to her in Schull golf club in summer 1998 while asking wasn't setting up Bailey a "real turn on").

"It seemed like Ian was resolute to the fact that he was being fitted up. People had been accusing him of stuff like, that's what it sounded like. He is going 'I'm been stitched up here, everything has been compromised in my trial'. This is what he felt… This is his angst, he is screaming his angst of about how he was being victimised and pursued..." (Martin Graham about Bailey's demeanour on the night of February 10th 1997 after his release following his first arrest)

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“Martin, there could be revelations here that could save another life and that’s all we are interested in and do you know that people are scared around here, especially women that he has assaulted in the past including his own wife you know and all we are trying to do is get the truth and save a life. When things die down, things will revert back to the old ways, drink, joints, the moon and everything..” (Taped conversation in Garda patrol car between Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald and informant Martin Graham on May 22nd 1997)

"There are huge issues at stake here. If one side is correct, they have suffered a terrible injustice. If the other side is correct, they have suffered a terrible injustice and in the middle of it all is the interests of the State, you, I and everyone else in the rule of law in our country. Those are the issues that exist in this case and they could scarcely be of greater importance." (Judge John Hedigan January 23rd, 2015 to the jury after they ask how much longer the case will last)

"Det Supt Camon said to me that he understood I had been in college with the then Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, and asked me would I contact the Minister to approach the Director to get him to prefer a charge.. I told him that absolutely no way was I going to do that, that it was completely inappropriate." (Malachy Boohig, State Solicitor for west Cork, on an encounter with gardaí in Bandon Garda station in March 1998)

"..he wanted me to be aware that the Garda investigation was lacking in objectivity and was indeed heavily prejudiced and also to forewarn me of the possibility of further pressure being brought to bear on the office…I am confident that we had a general discussion regarding the case and agreed that the evidence came nowhere near to warranting a charge against Bailey." (Email sent in 2011 by former DPP Eamonn Barnes to his successor Jim Hamilton concerning west Cork State Solicitor Malachy Boohig's report to Barnes of his encounter in Bandon).

"An investigator can act on suspicion but the DPP has to act on evidence." (Former DPP James Hamilton in evidence)

“However unhappy I might have been before has no bearing on the suffering I’ve suffered directly as a result of this false accusation.” (Ian Bailey in evidence) “I’ve never stopped fighting this and hoping to bring out the truth.”

"I told them I would never cover for a murderer." (Jules Thomas in evidence denying a suggestion she was covering up for Mr Bailey)

"The job of gardai was to investigate a murder, that must be done honestly, this was an outrageous and shocking murder, it created panic in the area and gardaí were very concerned about it.." (Retired Chief Supt Dermot Dwyer in evidence)

"I did it, I did it..I went too far" ( Richie Shelley said, when he asked Mr Bailey what did he do, Mr Bailey said: "I went too far." Mr Shelley said this happened in the early hours of 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 there had been newspaper cuttings about it all over the floor of the house earlier, he said. His understanding from what Mr Bailey said was that he was admitting to murder. Mr Shelley said he was then aged 24 and was shocked by what Mr Bailey said and would remember it "until I die".