Editor: Bailey said ‘I did it, I killed her’
Helen Callanan, news editor of the Sunday Tribune in 1996, said she regarded those remarks made in February 1997 as a confession and reported them to gardaí. She knew Mr Bailey had said they were a “regrettable black joke” but she considered it very serious, unusual, and upsetting as Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered weeks earlier.
Jim Duggan, for Mr Bailey, put it to Ms Callanan that Mr Bailey was “very cross” someone had said he was a murder suspect, wanted to find out who, and had mentioned that the information was worth €20,000 for a possible defamation action. Ms Callanan said it would not be incorrect to report he was a suspect because he was a suspect.
If Mr Bailey was saying what he said to her out of exasperation, that was another matter, she said. She agreed what he said was very surprising.
Ms Callanan denied she disliked Mr Bailey and said she had never met him.
She told Mr Bailey in early February 1997 she had been told he was “the suspect in the case”. Mr Bailey’s response was “incredible”; he was “cool and calm”, asked her who told her, and said it was worth €20,000 to him. He seemed unable to see he “had effectively duped me”, Ms Callanan said.
The idea did not occur to him to extricate himself, the “moral compass was broken”, and he had never apologised, she added.
Ms Callanan had previously excised parts of his stories which referred to Ms du Plantier having lovers and, during a “serious” conversation with Mr Bailey, he had said, “It was me”, she told the court. She thought at first he meant he was a lover of Ms du Plantier but he went on to say: “It was me, I did it, I killed her, I did it to resurrect my career.”
She was “flabbergasted”, did not know what to make of what he said, and reported it to gardaí.
Ms Callanan has concluded her evidence in the action by Mr Bailey against the Garda Commissioner and State over the conduct of the investigation into the murder of Ms du Plantier, whose body was found at Toormore, Schull, on December 23, 1996. The defendants deny all his claims, including of wrongful arrest and conspiracy.
Earlier, Ms Callanan said she was asked in winter 1996 by another journalist to give “a chance” to a reporter, named as “Eoin” Bailey. She never met him but spoke to him by phone. Mr Bailey provided one or two stories but was not a regular freelancer.
All the Irish material concerning the murder published in the Sunday Tribune came from Mr Bailey and a number of storIes were run before she learned he was a suspect. That was “probably the single biggest fiasco I had ever encountered, that the reporter I had on a story was in fact the suspect”, Ms Callanan stated.
The case continues.
Ian Bailey was nominated as a “good” suspect for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier four days after her body was found, the High Court heard yesterday.
Martin Malone, a garda based in Schull in 1996, said he got a fright when he saw Mr Bailey arriving at the murder scene about 2.20pm on December 23, 1996, saying he was working on a story for a newspaper.
He had last seen Mr Bailey in June 1996 when he had accompanied his partner Jules Thomas to Schull Garda station when she withdrew a complaint of a serious assault.
He considered it “odd” Mr Bailey had not asked him about the murder victim or relevant questions and was well dressed. It seemed Mr Bailey was “acting the part” of a reporter at the scene.
On December 27, he nominated Mr Bailey as a suspect because he was amazed, furious and suspicious. Mr Bailey went earlier that day to the home of Alfie Lyons, Ms du Plantier’s neighbour at Toormore. Mr Bailey had been turned away from going beyond the Garda cordon on December 23 and he wondered why Mr Bailey had gone to Mr Lyons’s house close to the murder scene and whether he was trying to compromise the scene. Mr Bailey got through the garda cordon after telling a garda he had messages for Mr Lyons.
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