Bailey and newspapers ask for judge to hear appeal

ENGLISH journalist Ian Bailey and the newspapers he sued unsuccessfully over their coverage of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork nine years ago both asked yesterday for a High Court judge to hear the appeal of the action.

Legal representatives for Mr Bailey and the newspapers asked Cork county registrar Deirdre O’Mahony yesterday to request President of the High Court Mr Justice Finnegan, to assign a High Court judge to hear the case.

Solicitor Emmet Boyle said this application was on behalf of Mr Bailey. Jane Ann Rothwell, barrister for the newspapers, confirmed that they were also making the same application.

A date will be fixed at a later stage for the hearing of the appeal.

The original case took two weeks to hear in December 2003 and judgment was given in January 2004.

Judge Patrick J Moran ruled at Cork Circuit Court at that time that there was nothing defamatory in the coverage of Mr Bailey that linked him to the murder of Ms du Plantier.

He said the coverage did not identify him as a murderer. They reported correctly that he was a suspect and they reported his assertions that he had nothing to do with the murder.

Mr Bailey was awarded €8,000 against The Sun and The Mirror, but not for their coverage of the murder.

The money, €4,000 against each, was awarded because of unsubstantiated reports that he had assaulted his ex-wife Sarah Limbrick.

Other than this finding, the judge ruled in favour of the newspapers’ defence and he dismissed the cases against The Daily Telegraph, Times (and Sunday Times), Irish Sunday Independent, Independent on Sunday and The Star.

Late last year there was an extraordinary development in the case, when Marie Farrell, said that eye witness evidence that she gave during the libel action was false.

Ms Farrell testified during a libel action by Ian Bailey that she saw him at Kealfadda Bridge on the night that Ms du Plantier was murdered.

Ms Farrell’s solicitor Donal Daly said last October: “The instructions she has given us are to the effect that the central allegation which she made linking Mr Bailey to this murder is incorrect.”

This development in the case prompted solicitor for Mr Bailey, Frank Buttimer, to write to the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner asking them to enquire into the case.