‘One of the prayers I had was that the truth would come out’

Ian Bailey believed the power of prayer would help him out the truth, he told the High Court yesterday.

On his first full day in the witness box in his action against the gardaí, the Department of Justice, and the attorney general over his wrongful arrest, he was asked how he had got through the past 18 years.

“I’ve always believed in the power of prayer and one of the prayers I had was that the truth would come out,” he told the jury of eight men and four women. It was one of a number of occasions during his evidence when he reflected on the impact on his life as a result of what he claims was wrongful arrests for murder and all that flowed from them thereafter.