Despair led to suicidal thoughts, says Bailey

- Talk that he had something to do with murder ‘a dreadful, rotten, lie’

Ian Bailey said he contemplated suicide due to “a deep sense of despair and hopelessness” and “collapse of normality” after being twice arrested by gardaí investigating the 1996 murder of French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

The second arrest was on January 20, 1998 — the day of his 41st birthday — and a garda from Dublin, Ted Murphy, allegedly told him there was “a nice little cell waiting for you in Mountjoy”, Mr Bailey said.