Bailey hurt partner in 'alcoholic madness', court told

The partner of Mr Ian Bailey said assaults she received from him were "moments of alcoholic madness" followed by "total remorse", a court heard yesterday.

Ms Jules Thomas was giving evidence for the first time on the fifth day of a libel trial at Cork Circuit Cork where Mr Bailey is suing seven newspapers for articles linking him to the murder of Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier in December 1996.

Ms Thomas, a Welsh-born artist and mother of three, described injuries she received from Mr Bailey in 1993 as a tussle, and said the extent of her injuries had been exaggerated.

"We were staying in a small bed, we drank too much, a fight ensued and we got into bed. It was over in a minute. It was a moment of alcoholic madness," she said, questioned by Mr Bailey's counsel, Mr James Duggan.

While she required hospital treatment, she said she did not need stitches, and Mr Bailey had later expressed "total remorse". They resumed cohabiting several weeks later.

In another assault in May 1996, she blamed the "demon drink" and said the fight was over in minutes. "It always seems to be around two minutes, and that's it. It's not something that goes on, it's like a temper flash."

The court heard earlier this week that after the 1996 assault, her lip was severed from her gum, her eye was bruised and the "size of a grapefruit", and that she had clumps of hair missing from her head.

However, Ms Thomas said such descriptions had been exaggerated. "My eye was not the size of a grapefruit . . . I'm not sure why everything has to be out of proportion."

Ms Thomas has been in a relationship with Mr Bailey for 14 years. She said she had met him in west Cork when he worked at a fish factory and that he later moved into a studio on the grounds of her house near Schull.

She said a relationship followed some months later and that he had always been extremely helpful to her daughters in areas such as homework.

Ms Thomas's daughter, Saffron (29), told the court yesterday that her mother and Mr Bailey had "cried for about two years" after the allegations of murder arose.

She said their lives had been altered forever as a result and that many locals had stopped speaking to the couple.

"People didn't know whether to talk to them or not. They had a lot less contact, they were out less. I don't think they have had any gathering in the house since."

When asked by Mr Duggan about the effect of the events on their life at home, Ms Thomas said: "It's like a huge weight on us all the time, it's like a dark cloud that never goes way."

She told the court she could not believe the content of some newspapers following Mr Bailey's arrest in February 1997. "I was disgusted, sick to the stomach. I just couldn't believe it. The things that were lies were just blatant."

Mr Bailey's solicitor, Mr Con Murphy, also told the court that "hordes" of journalists and cameramen gathered outside his office after Mr Bailey's second arrest in February 1998.

He said a number of cameramen had scaled a six-foot wall behind the office to capture footage of Mr Bailey.

Ms Jules Thomas's mother, Ms Beryl Thomas, also an artist, told the court that Mr Bailey always seemed like a "normal" man and described the newspaper headlines in the days following his arrest as a "crushing awful thing."

When asked by Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the newspapers, about bringing her daughter to hospital following one of the assaults from Mr Bailey, Ms Beryl Thomas said she remembered she appeared to have "scars and wounds" and thought they were a result of actions from her "previous bloke". She said all men were violent and that the world would be a much better place if women ruled it.