Ian Bailey is granted access to state files

A High Court judge said “very disturbing” and “unusual” matters related to the Garda investigation into the murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier justified orders requiring the State to hand over documents to Ian Bailey.

Mr Justice John Hedigan yesterday granted an order giving Mr Bailey access to a wide range of documents in state hands for his upcoming compensation action against the State.

As many as 20,000 documents will now be examined by state parties to assess if they are relevant.

The judge said he was very conscious of the very tragic circumstances of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s death in West Cork 16 years ago and the distress of her family.

The very unusual and disturbing circumstances in which the application arose, and the very serious claims by Mr Bailey in his case, justified orders granting more liberal discovery than usual, he ruled.

The material includes all correspondence relating to Mr Bailey between former DPP Eamonn Barnes and his successors, James Hamilton and Claire Loftus; the minister for justice; the attorney general; and gardaí.

Mr Barnes had expressed concern senior gardaí were engaged in a “persistent” and “grossly improper” attempt “to achieve or even force” a prosecution of Mr Bailey for the murder in West Cork in 1996.

Mr Bailey, 56, a law graduate, has always denied any involvement.

He is seeking to establish the identities of gardaí who allegedly attempted to ensure his prosecution with a view to possibly subpoenaing them to give evidence in his action for damages over alleged wrongful arrest and personal injuries.

He may also subpoena Mr Barnes, who sent an email in Oct 2011 to then DPP James Hamilton. That was among material presented to Mr Bailey’s solicitors by state parties in late 2011 just before the hearing of his successful Supreme Court appeal against extradition to France in connection with the murder.

In the email, read in full yesterday, Mr Barnes said the state solicitor for West Cork, Malachy Boohig, told Mr Barnes in 1998 that a senior garda had asked him to ask then minister for justice John O’Donoghue to approach the DPP with a view to securing a prosecution of Mr Bailey.

In his email, Mr Barnes said he was confident he and Mr Boohig had a general discussion regarding the murder and had agreed “the evidence came nowhere near to warranting a charge against Bailey”.

Mr Barnes said he was raising it now as media reports regarding the French investigation of the case caused him concern.

He wrote there was “apparently a real possibility” Mr Bailey may be charged in France and perhaps jailed, “presumably on the basis inter alia of ‘evidence’ and conclusions provided by what I regarded at the time as having been a thoroughly flawed and prejudiced Garda investigation culminating in a grossly improper attempt to achieve or even force a prosecutorial decision which accorded with that prejudice”.

Martin Giblin, counsel for Mr Bailey, said his side wanted to use these and other documents in the civil action, including a 2001 analysis by an official in the DPP’s office of the murder investigation indicating “evidence of innocence on the part of Mr Bailey”.

Paul O’Higgins, counsel for the State, indicated that the State is unlikely to object to Mr Bailey using those materials and other documents given to the Supreme Court, but some of the other categories of documents sought were too wide.