An English journalist who was twice arrested for questioning about the murder of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier is to make an application in the High Court for the Garda files on the murder investigation to be made available to him.
Mr Ian Bailey (47), the Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, Co Cork is to make the application in the High Court in Dublin on November 22nd when he will also appeal the ruling at Cork Circuit Court last year in relation to five civil actions for libel which he lost against six newspapers.
Mr Bailey's legal team didn't apply for the Garda file on the investigation into Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder prior to the libel action, but the legal team for the eight defendant newspapers successfully applied to Judge Patrick Moran for witness statements at the outset.
For the State Mr Don McCarthy BL had argued to have the Garda file excluded from the civil case on the grounds that it would prejudice any future criminal prosecution, while Mr Bailey's barrister, Mr Jim Duggan BL, also made a similar application to have it excluded.
But Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the papers, argued that excluding the evidence would in effect amount to a freezing order that went beyond what was provided for in the Constitution.
Judge Moran ruled in favour of the papers and ordered production of the relevant statements being relied upon by the defendants. As the case proceeded and evidence was introduced, copied statements from the Garda file were made available to both legal teams.
It is expected that Mr Bailey's legal team will argue that he would be at a disadvantage in his appeal against Judge Moran's ruling against him on the five actions that he lost if he did not have access to the statements made by witnesses in the Garda investigation.
According to one legal source, it is difficult to see how Mr Bailey's application can be opposed, given that the newspapers were granted access to the statements of more than 30 witnesses interviewed by gardaí as part of their inquiry into the killing.
The body of Ms Toscan du Plantier (38) was found near the gateway of a track leading to her dormer cottage holiday home at Toormore, outside Schull in west Cork, on the morning of December 23rd, 1996.
Gardaí twice arrested and questioned Mr Bailey about the killing while they also arrested and questioned his partner, Ms Jules Thomas (53). No one has ever been charged with the murder, and the matter remains under active investigation.
Mr Bailey sued seven publishers of eight newspaper titles over a number of articles which he claimed wrongly and falsely linked him to the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier and which he claimed had branded him as a murderer.
Judge Moran said he did not believe that the papers had branded Mr Bailey a murderer but had simply reported that he was a suspect.