Woman tells Bailey civil action she saw stranger on road

A woman has told the High Court she saw a male stranger on the road between Goleen and Schull about 2am on December 23rd 1996, some hours before the body of murder victim Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found near Toormore, Schull.

Marie Farrell said she had seen the same man standing across the road from her shop in Schull the previous Saturday afternoon, December 21st, when a woman she now knew was Ms Toscan Du Plantier was browsing inside.

She did not know the man but he was “not Ian Bailey”. He “stood out as being a stranger”, was slim, with sallow skin, about 5 foot 8 inches, and wore a beret and long black coat with silver buttons.

Ms Toscan du Plantier left the shop and turned right and, a minute or two later, the man crossed the road and walked in the same direction as her, she said.

She said she saw the man about 7am the following morning, December 22nd, walking out of Schull when she was driving from Schull into Cork. She saw him a third time about 2am when she was in a car being driven by a friend towards Schull from Goleen.

Ms Farrell began her evidence this afternoon in the civil action by journalist Ian Bailey against the Garda Commisisoner and State who deny his claims, including of wrongful arrest arising from the investigation into the murder of Ms Toscan Du Plantier.

At the outset, asked by Tom Creed SC, for Mr Bailey, had she received any threats or inducements to come to court, Ms Farrell said she had not. She understood she was to tell the truth. When she gave evidence at a 2003 libel action brought by Mr Bailey, she had not told the truth, she said.

Ms Farrell said she and her husband Chris are from Longford but moved to Schull in 1995 with their five children. When they sought to sell knitwear from a market stall in Schull, Garda Kevin Kelleher told them they could not but she told him they could legally do it as as they made the knitwear themselves. Someone else who owned a clothes shop in Schull had complained about them trading there, she added.

Her husband was later stopped by Garda Kelleher who asked him to produce his insurance, which he did, but a week later they got a call from their insurance company. Her husband’s declared business was as a butcher, and he was a butcher, but because he was also using the vehicle for causal trading, his insurance was cancelled and a prosecution ensued. He was stopped around Millstreet at around the same time and a second prosecution ensued, she said.

As a result, they decided to rent a shop in Schull selling knitwear and clothing, later opened a coffee shop and ice cream parlour and also kept their market stall in Cork city, working alternate days in Cork and Schull in the run up to Christmas 1996.

When in Cork on December 22nd, she met a male friend from Longford after 10pm that night. They drove to Goleen where they parked and chatted before heading back towards Schull about 2am when she saw the same man as she had seen outside her shop.

The man appeared to be staggering along the road and wore the same black coat, she said. After learning of the murder, she rang gardaí on Christmas morning and told them about seeing the man on December 21st and the morning of December 22nd.

Earlier, at the close of cross-examination of Mr Bailey's partner Jules Thomas, Ms Thomas denied she had had contact with Ms Farrell.

Counsel suggested a document taken from her home appeared to be a “trial account”, written by her in August 1997, of “what was meant to have happened” on dates including December 23rd 1996. Ms Thomas agreed there was no mention in that of some matters but said it was reasonable to forget some things.

Counsel suggested Ms Thomas’ evidence was “coloured” in various way and what the gardaí did was part of a bona fide investigation of a murder that obliged them to leave no stone unturned. Ms Thomas said she understood they were doing a job but believed they “left a lot of stones unturned.”

Earlier, Ms Thomas was asked about events in her home in the early hours of January 1st 1999 when two friends Richard and Rosie Shelley were there.

Mr O’Higgins said Mr Shelley would give evidence Mr Bailey had produced a scrapbook with articles about the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier and had later said: “I did it”. When Mr Shelley asked Mr Bailey what, Mr Bailey said: “I went too far, I went too far” and became upset.

Ms Thomas said: “Ian was saying, they kept saying he did it and he was upset this was being spread around the countryside,” Ms Thomas said. The Shelleys were “out of it” and she did not think they knew what was going on.

She agreed she signed Garda notes of interviews with her but said they did not reflect what she had said.

Earlier, she denied she put pressure on her daughter Fenella to change a statement saying Ms Thomas had left her home around 11am on the morning of December 23rd 1996. Mr O’Higgins said Fenella had refused to change the statement. Ms Thomas said she had not left her home that morning.

The case continues.