Ex-‘Tribune’ news editor says Ian Bailey told her killing was to ‘resurrect’ career

A former newspaper news editor has told the High Court she did not consider Ian Bailey was engaging in "black humour" when he told her: "It was me, I did it, I killed her to resurrect my career." Helen Callanan, news editor of the Sunday Tribune in 1996, said she regarded those remarks made in February 1997 as a confession and reported them to gardaí.

She knew Mr Bailey had said they were a “regrettable black joke” but she considered it very serious, unusual and upsetting as Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered weeks earlier.

Jim Duggan, for Mr Bailey, suggested he was "very cross" that someone had said he was a murder suspect, he wanted to find out who and mentioned that information was worth €20,000 for a possible defamation action. Ms Callanan said it would not be incorrect to report he was a suspect because he was a suspect.

She agreed that what Mr Bailey said to her was “very surprising” and, if he was saying what he said out of exasperation, that was another matter. Her level of shock also rose because a person reporting the murder for her newspaper was a suspect and was saying to her he did it. She denied she disliked Mr Bailey and said she had never met him.

She told Mr Bailey in early February 1997 that she had been told he was “the suspect in the case”. His response was “incredible”, he was “cool and calm”, asked her who told her and said it was worth €20,000 to him and seemed unable to see he “had effectively duped me”. The idea did not occur to him to extricate himself, the “moral compass was broken” and he had never apologised, she added.

Ms Callanan had previously cut parts of his stories which referred to Ms du Plantier having lovers and, during a “serious” conversation with Mr Bailey, he had said “it was me,” she said. She thought at first he meant he was a lover of Ms du Plantier but he went on to say: “It was me, I did it, I killed her, I did it to resurrect my career.” She was “flabbergasted”, did not know what to make of what he said and reported it to gardaí.

Ms Callanan has concluded her evidence in the action by Mr Bailey against the Garda Commissioner and State over the conduct of the investigation into the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier whose body was found at Toormore on December 23rd, 1996. The defendants deny all his claims, including of wrongful arrest and conspiracy.

Earlier, Ms Callanan said she was asked in winter 1996 by another journalist to give "a chance" to a reporter, named as "Eoin" Bailey. She never met him but spoke to him by phone and Mr Bailey provided one or two stories, but was not a regular freelancer. All the Irish material concerning the murder published in the Sunday Tribune came from Mr Bailey and a number of stories were run before she learned he was a suspect.

That was “probably the single biggest fiasco I had ever encountered, that the reporter I had on a story was in fact the suspect”.

Under cross-examination, she agreed she was a niece of Senator Peter Callanan and that she had first heard in this case that Marie Farrell had said Senator Callanan had helped Ms Farrell's family with housing issues.