Mr Ian Bailey rejected claims heard in court yesterday that he subjected a witness, who allegedly saw him acting suspiciously on the morning of the murder, to a "campaign of intimidation and harassment". Carl O'Brien reports.
He also dismissed allegations that, after cashing a £25 cheque for an article he wrote in The Examiner about the murder of Ms Sophie Toscan du Plantier, he said: "There's no money in knocking people off."
Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for the newspapers, said Mr Bailey had made the remark to Ms Marie O'Farrell, a shopkeeper in Schull, west Cork.
Mr Bailey, however, said he did not recall doing anything of the sort and dismissed the allegation.
The court also heard that Mr Bailey subjected Ms O'Farrell to threats in order to pressure her into withdrawing a statement she made to gardaí about seeing him acting suspiciously on the morning of the murder.
In a statement to gardaí, Ms O'Farrell claimed to have seen Mr Bailey early that morning washing his boots in a stream in the area, a charge also rejected by Mr Bailey. A letter from Ms O'Farrell's solicitor to Mr Bailey's solicitor, read out in court by Mr Gallagher, gave details of a "campaign of intimidation and harassment" by Mr Bailey.
The allegations included claims that Mr Bailey had drawn his finger across his throat to her in a threatening gesture; placed his finger against his temple in another gesture; approached her several times to pressurise her into withdrawing her statement; parked regularly outside her premises and stayed in the car.
Mr Bailey dismissed these claims and said, if anything, the opposite was the case.
He said Ms O'Farrell had approached him at a party in a pub to say she was under pressure to give a false statement to the gardaí about seeing him at the stream and "didn't want to see an innocent man blamed" for the murder.
They met shortly afterwards at her shop to discuss the matters and Mr Bailey said he took a tape recorder, in case she wanted to formally withdraw the statement.
However, Mr Gallagher said that on one occasion Mr Bailey had threatened to go to the "DSS" [The Department of Social Services] and tell them Ms O'Farrell had been working in England for a time, if she did not withdraw her statement.
Mr Bailey rejected this and said: "I knew nothing about her background."
Mr Gallagher, however, also alleged that Mr Bailey told Ms O'Farrell that he was an "investigative journalist" and had found out details of her husband's business in England. Mr Bailey also said he knew nothing about this.
"I had a number of visits from gardaí alleging that I had somehow contacted her or made threats, all of which were bogus," Mr Bailey said.
Mr Gallagher also alleged that Mr Bailey had told a local landscape gardener, Mr Bill Fuller, about murdering Ms Toscan du Plantier and had stabbed a knife into a melon as he did so.
Mr Fuller had said he arrived at Mr Bailey's house shortly before Mr Bailey's first arrest on February 10th, 1997, where they discussed how his name was being linked to the murder.
Mr Gallagher said Mr Fuller had said Mr Bailey was wearing "a black skirt". Over a glass of cider, Mr Bailey talked about his involvement in the murder and pulled out a melon and began to stab it, Mr Gallagher said.
Mr Bailey, who said he was wearing a "black kilt" at the time, rejected Mr Fuller's account.