‘People here are very angry’

LOUISE KENNEDY has known Ian Bailey since she worked with him in the fish factory in Schull in 1992.

Yesterday she said almost everyone in the small west Cork village wants him to leave the area.

“The feeling here is nobody wants him around anymore, I don’t like saying that but it’s the truth,” she said. “I’ve known him for years and never had a problem with him. People here are very angry now.”

The 37-year-old mother of two, who lives less than 300 metres from Mr Bailey, gave evidence in his libel hearing.

She told the court she saw a fire close to Mr Bailey and Jules Thomas’s studio house on St Stephen’s Day 1996.

“I had no fears about giving evidence in the hearing. I told them what I saw and the judge accepted that,” she said.

“We’re close neighbours, not friends. Jules does not talk to me, she turns her head away. He makes more of an effort to speak.”

Ms Kennedy said there is anger in Schull after Bailey was awarded €8,000 in damages from two newspapers, the Sun and the Mirror. “People are happy he didn’t get very much but they are also annoyed he got anything at all from the case,” she said.

Mr Bailey is likely to get a cool reaction from locals next time he walks down the street in Schull, Ms Kennedy said. “His life’s going to be horrible now. It’s his own fault, maybe he should have left well enough alone,” she said.

Ms Kennedy was the neighbour who saw a noose hanging from Bailey’s house recently. “I saw it on a tree. I called the gardaí to get rid of it because it was disgusting.”

However, Mr Bailey’s neighbour believes himself and Ms Thomas might be exaggerating claims they are being intimidated by locals.

“I think they are getting a bit paranoid. I’ve heard Jules didn’t go to the court on Monday because she was frightened the house would be burned down,” she said.

“I can’t believe she’s saying there are people going around there at night.”

Away from Toormore, no one was saying much about the story that has haunted Schull since Christmas 1996. The streets of Schull were almost empty yesterday and locals wondered when Mr Bailey will be seen there again.

Seven miles outside Schull at Dunmanus West there were still fresh flowers around the cross that marks the spot where Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s body was found near her home on December 24, 1996. The fear her killer is on the loose locally remains among residents in the idyllic area which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Ms Kennedy said.