Shopkeeper: Male stranger was not Ian Bailey

Shopkeeper Marie Farrell yesterday told the High Court she saw a male stranger on the road between Goleen and Schull at about 2am on December 23, 1996, hours before the body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found near Toormore, Schull.

Ms Farrell said she had seen the same man standing across the road from her shop in Schull the previous Saturday afternoon, December 21, when a woman she now knew was Ms Toscan du Plantier was browsing inside.

She did not know the man but he was “not Ian Bailey”. He “stood out as being a stranger”, was slim, with sallow skin, about 5ft 8in, and wore a beret and long black coat with silver buttons.