Ian Bailey Case: ‘Bailey did not appear troubled at Christmas’

Ian Bailey did not appear to be a “very troubled individual” when reciting a poem for a video of the Christmas Day swim in Schull in 1996, a local woman told the High Court.

Florence Newman said she got a fright when she saw scratches “like squiggles” on Mr Bailey’s right hand after he responded to her extending a hand to him to wish him a Happy Christmas. He had recited a poem for her while she was using a camcorder.

She believed the tape of the film was later given by her father to the gardaí.

Ms Newman agreed with Jim Duggan, for Mr Bailey, he did not seem “very troubled” on the video. She agreed she made various statements to gardaí but none of those referred to scratches on Mr Bailey until one made in 2009. She denied someone later “put scratches into your head” and said she had spoken about them to friends in the days after seeing them. She agreed Mr Bailey’s hands were visible in the video.

“I knew when I shook hands with him that I got a fright.” The scratches struck her as unusual, she wondered how they got there and, in view of the climate in Schull following the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, thought: “Wow, what’s that?”

Mr Duggan said Mr Bailey was a farmer and “every farmer has scratches”.

Ms Newman agreed with counsel there was a “massive anti-Bailey climate” later but not on Christmas Day 1996. She said she still speaks to Mr Bailey but it was “not the same”. There was not “a conscious shunning” but people did not want to get involved and it was “human” for that to happen, she said.

Ms Newman was giving evidence in the continuing action by Mr Bailey against the Garda Commissioner and State over the conduct of the investigation into the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier whose body was found near Toomore, Schull, on December 23, 1996. The defendants deny all of Mr Bailey’s claims including wrongful arrest and conspiracy.

Caroline Leftwick, from Skibbereen, said Mr Bailey was due to collect seed garlic from her on December 23, 1996 but phoned sometime before 1pm to say he wasn’t coming; there had been a murder and he had the story. She had asked who was killed and Mr Bailey said it was no one she knew, a French woman.

Under cross-examination, she agreed gardaí first interviewed her in May 1997 some months after the phone call. When Mr Duggan said Mr Bailey had said he made two calls to her home, one saying he would collect the garlic and a second to say he would not, Ms Leftwick said she only took one call but he may have spoken to another member of her family. When told her husband gave a time of the call between 12pm and 2pm, she said her husband was not very good in relation to times.

Linda Morgan, owner with her husband of the Schull golf clubhouse in the late 1990s, said Marie Farrell worked for another woman at the clubhouse restaurant and had no responsibility for locking up the premises.

Ms Morgan said she knew nothing about an alleged incident where Ms Farrell said Sgt Maurice Walsh exposed himself to her in the ladies toilets. Sgt Walsh has denied any such incident occurred.

Under cross-examination, when Mr Munro suggested Ms Morgan was here to contradict Ms Farrell’s evidence about the location of a hand dryer in the ladies toilets, Ms Morgan said she had been asked to provide drawings of the clubhouse premises. While Ms Farrell testified she reported the alleged incident with Sgt Walsh to Ms Morgan, that “never happened”, she added.

In a statement to the court, Bernie O’Shea said she employed Ms Farrell from 1997 at the clubhouse restaurant. It was not a regular occurrence for Ms Farrell to lock up the premises and she knew of no reason she would be cleaning the toilets. Ms Farrell never told her she was attacked in the ladies toilets.

Ms Farrell was “always blabbing” and, if that had happened, she believed Ms Farrell would have told her, Ms O’Shea said.

Nina Hickey said she and her husband were good friends with Sgt Maurice Walsh in the late 1990s and went for dinner with him and his wife at Schull golf club one evening. There was no incident of any kind at all and Sgt Walsh was “most definitely the most upright citizen I could wish to meet”.

The case continues.