Du Plantier witness insists she wrongly identified chief suspect

A PRINCIPAL witness in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation has insisted she wrongly identified a chief suspect nearly nine years ago.

Housewife Marie Farrell has now claimed she did not recognise the man she spotted close to the murder scene.

Two years ago, she testified during a libel action that she saw the chief murder suspect Ian Bailey at Kealfadda Bridge, near Schull, a number of hours before the body of Ms du Plantier was discovered.

But last month she claimed her statements to gardaí at the time were incorrect.

The mother-of-four said, in a television broadcast last night, that her recent withdrawal of statements made to gardaí had lifted an “awful burden” off her mind.

In the interview on RTÉ’s Prime Time, Ms Farrell insisted she was now telling the truth.

During the December 2003 libel trial, Ms Farrell had also denied meeting Mr Bailey in the Galley bar in Schull in 1997 and telling him she was going to withdraw statements made to gardaí.

Ms Farrell, in the broadcast, said she appeared for the newspaper groups as “a witness under protest”.

In the RTÉ interview last night, Ms Farrell admitted she did have a conversation in a pub with Mr Bailey.

Ms Farrell stated Mr Bailey had not been threatening or intimidating to her in the pub and that he seemed relieved she was going to withdraw her statements.

She stated that she was not being intimidated or threatened by anyone to withdrew the statements in which she identified Mr Bailey as the person that followed Ms du Plantier in Schull, the day before her body was found on December 23, 1996.

Ms Farrell became a key witness after identifying a “tall man” in the vicinity of the murder scene some hours before the body was found.

In the broadcast, she stated: “I have made several attempts to rectify it, and now I have done it.”

Asked by the interviewer if she was withdrawing her statements because she was scared, Ms Farrell stated: “This is the truth.”

Last month, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy appointed Assistant Commissioner Ray McAndrew to review the murder investigation following correspondence with the garda authorities and the Justice Minister Mr McDowell by solicitors representing Ms Farrell and Mr Bailey.

The Garda Press Office said yesterday the review was continuing and that no garda statement would be issued until the review was concluded.