Farrell denies she heard talk of garda’s bleeding growth

Marie Farrell has denied she was present at any conversation where a garda allegedly told her husband of having a mark on his stomach which occasionally bled.

In Ian Bailey’s civil action against the State and Garda Commissioner, former shopkeeper Ms Farrell was being cross-examined about her evidence that she saw a growth on Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald’s stomach during an incident where she alleges he stripped naked and asked her for sex.

Paul O’Higgins SC, for the defendants, said Det Fitzgerald, who denies the stripping incident, will say he once had a mark on his stomach that gave him trouble.

Det Fitzgerald would say his doctor had advised him the mark would clear up itself and it had but, prior to that, it gave him trouble and would bleed occasionally, said Mr O’Higgins.

Det Fitzgerald would also say that once when he was in Ms Farrell’s shop in Schull with her and her husband, her husband noticed blood on the garda’s shirt, asked him had he been stabbed, and Det Fitzgerald said he had a growth which bled.

Ms Farrell said no conversation like that took place in her presence and was not the source of allegation.

Ms Farrell was being cross-examined on her eighth day in the witness box in Mr Bailey’s action arising from a garda investigation into the murder of French film-maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier, whose body was found at Toormore, Schull, on December 23, 1996.

The defendants deny all the claims, including wrongful arrest and conspiracy to manufacture evidence.

Yesterday, Ms Farrell denied Mr O’Higgins’s suggestion that she was “a considerable actress” who can “fluently and convincingly” portray whatever she wants unless she is challenged.

She also disagreed she both “courted” and “revelled” in publicity after giving evidence to the detriment of Mr Bailey in libel actions brought by him in 2003.

She said that Det Fitzgerald wanted her to do the media interviews to keep up pressure on Mr Bailey, and that she was happy to do them for Det Fitzgerald, but that regretted them now. She agreed she posed for photos with her children but denied she was paid €1,500 for an interview. She got €150 and it went to her son’s football club, she said.

A recording of a 2004 interview between Ms Farrell and broadcaster Pat Kenny was played and Ms Farrell agreed she sounded fluent and comfortable. When she referred in that and other interviews to Mr Bailey boasting about sexual encounters with hundreds of women and to him talking of “filling barrels with sperm” over the years, she said Det Fitzgerald told her to say that and that the material was in Mr Bailey’s diaries.

Counsel said Det Fitzgerald would deny he “coached” her for interviews but Ms Farrell said he had.

She also denied it was untrue to say Det Fitzgerald told her in March 2004 that Mr Bailey was due to call to Schull garda station and it would be a good time to claim that Mr Bailey had harassed her near her home in Schull.

It was “100% true” Det Fitzgerald had said that and she had rung gardaí and made a complaint about Mr Bailey harassing her that day, she said. She had reported Mr Bailey had said “next time he would cross-examine her” but was later told Mr Bailey had not called to the station as expected and was in his solicitor ’s office in Cork City that day.

When counsel suggested this was “wholly untrue” and “stupid”, that it was very unlikely someone would threaten to “cross-examine” her, and that Det Fitzgerald could not have known when Mr Bailey would come to the station, Ms Farrell said: “That is how it happened, as mad as it seems.”

“The whole thing is stupid, looking back in hindsight,” she said. “Do you not think it would have been a lot easier for me to have kept my mouth shut after the libel trial?

Ms Farrell said she had not wanted to “go to court and tell lies” during the libel trials but was told by three gardaí — Det Fitzgerald, Det Supt Dermot Dwyer, and Garda Kevin Kelleher — that she had to go to court.

She denied a suggestion by Mr O’Higgins that gardaí had told her she should tell the truth and they had not told her to “stick to the story”. When counsel said Det Supt Dwyer would say he gave her money for a taxi after the libel hearing and that money was not in any sense related to her giving evidence, she said: “That was what it felt like.”

‘Garda told me what to say’

Witness Marie Farrell yesterday said in the High Court she was advised by Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald what to say to gardaí from Dublin when they met her in 2002 to review the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Ms Farrell said she was asked was there a garda advising her and she told the Dublin gardai, ‘no’, but her solicitor was.

She also denied a suggestion, her evidence to the court she was with a man named John Reilly in the early hours of December 23, 1996, near Schull was “an invention” and said that was true. She agreed she had named other men previously as that man, including Jan Bartels, with whom she previously had a relationship.

Det Fitzgerald suggested the man was Mr Bartels and she “went along” with that, she said. She agreed she also used the name of a man who lived in Longford and played a bit of music, but said that was a lie. She rejected a suggestion she gave the wrong location of a hand dryer on the wall of the ladies toilets in Schull golf club, where she alleged Det Sgt Maurice Walsh exposed himself to her. She also denied she had not been introduced by Det Garda Fitzgerald to Senator Peter Callinan in relation to housing issues.

When counsel said Garda Anthony Finn would deny he called her youngest son a “little bastard”, she said her son told her of feeling suicidal after Garda Finn harassed him a number of times. Mr O’Higgins said Garda Finn would also say he had not called another of her sons a “little bastard” but called him a “little bollocks” which Garda Finn had apologised for. She agreed it was a real issue that another son, her eldest, had driven without insurance.

Earlier asked about John Reilly, she said he wasn’t very tall. He had a full head of hair, medium build, she could not recall what colour eyes he had.

She could not remember what he was wearing when she met him on the night of December 22/23, 1996. .

The case continues today.