Ex-British soldier says gardaí threatened him with ‘Provos’

A former British soldier has denied that he was never threatened by gardaí with the "Provos" after he told a journalist that gardaí gave him with cannabis to get close to Ian Bailey.

When Paul O'Higgins SC, for the State, put to Martin Graham his claim of such a threat was "a fancy", Mr Graham answered: "You put yourself there, someone mentions Provos, you don't bloody argue."

When counsel suggested it was "extraordinary" for Mr Graham to say he left Ireland and remained out of circulation for 18 years as a result of a threat allegedly made in June 1997, he said much of what had happened was extraordinary.

Becoming upset, he said he was forced out of Ireland when he was having a relationship with a woman here who later had his child, whom he had never seen and his life was “ruined”.

The cross-examination of Mr Graham continues Wednesday in the civil action by Mr Bailey against the Garda Commissioner and State arising from the conduct of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier whose body was found at Toormore, Schull, on December 23rd 1996.

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

Mr Graham denied that a May 1997 recording of a conversation between him and gardaí indicated that he, not the gardaí, was the source of information alleging Mr Bailey had made overtures to the same woman but was rejected.

He said the recordings of conversations with him in May 1997 were made when gardaí knew he had made allegations to the media and they were trying to “cover their tracks”.

Mr Graham said he gave an interview to the Irish Mirror in February 2014 after he got an anonymous text, which he later established was from a female friend "Pip", saying the Irish police needed help finding who murdered "the French girl", that he was "a witness" and should help the family put it to rest.

That prompted him to do the interview, which featured his claims gardaí gave him cannabis to get close to Mr Bailey, he said.

Asked about being quoted in the article saying he had overheard Mr Bailey say he saw “a dark cloud” over the house the night of the murder, he said that reflected him overhearing Mr Bailey saying that other people had said they heard him say he saw a dark cloud.

The newspaper had not put the context in, he said.

He had not told the Mirror, as was stated in the article, drugs he got from gardaí were always meant for Mr Bailey, he said.

He took the text from Pip seriously because it used the words murder and witness. He was not a witness to any murder, but rather “a witness to police corruption”.

Asked for Pip’s phone number, Mr Graham said he did not wish to provide it because it was a person’s identity. Mr Justice John Hedigan told him he must disclose it, but could write it down for lawyers and need not read it out in court.

Yesterday, asked whether he had regular phone contact with Mr Bailey, Mr Graham said that only happened after he made Mr Bailey aware the police had “given me drugs to get close to him”.

He might have met Mr Bailey and his partner Jules Thomas up to five times and also had phone conversations.

Mr O'Higgins asked about Mr Graham's evidence that he was threatened with the "Provos" after being put into a car by two gardaí, whom he did not know, when on his way to meet Garda Detectives Jim Fitzgerald and Liam Leahy in Skibbereen on June 7th, 1997.

Mr O’Higgins said the detectives knew by then that Mr Graham had alleged he was being supplied with cannabis, which they “absolutely” denied, and were profoundly suspicious Mr Graham was going to “set them up” and might have drugs on him. For that reason, they arranged the two other gardaí would arrest him and they had to wait for Skibbereen garda station to open after lunch, counsel said.

Mr Graham said the gardaí were “covering their own tracks” and they had given him drugs. He had no drugs on him on June 7th when taken to the gardaí station and all his bags were already there, having been taken from his accommodation, he said.

Counsel said it was decided “traces of cannabis grass” found on him were so minor no prosecution was warranted and he was released.

Earlier, Mr Graham denied a suggestion he and Mr Bailey were trying to “set up” Det Garda Fitzgerald.

Counsel said Det Fitzgerald had arranged to record a conversation with Mr Graham in a Garda car on May 21st, 1997 and in that context, it was “ludicrous” to suggest Mr Graham would have been given cannabis on that occasion.

Mr Graham said he was given cannabis and he believed other gardaí had “rumbled” Det Fitzgerald and Det Leahy, and arranged for the car to be bugged without their knowledge.

Earlier, Mr Graham agreed he asked for money when he met a journalist in 1997 after arranging that he would be photographed getting into a car with Det Fitzgerald and Det Leahy, and leaving that car later. He said a photo of him with a quantity of cannabis was taken after he got out of the car on a street in Skibbereen and the press searched him before he got into the car.

He agreed no tests were carried out to establish the material he was holding in the photo was cannabis. No scientific study was necessary, he said.

When Mr O’Higgins suggested Mr Graham was “well into the drugs scene” in Skibbereen and could easily get anything, he said he was familiar with hippies and “dyke central”, but could not easily have got cannabis and Lebanese flatpress.