Bailey ‘wants to clear name’

Ian Bailey’s case is about showing, “once and for all” that he had nothing to do with the 1996 murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier and is the victim of an ongoing conspiracy going on more than 18 years, his lawyer, Tom Creed SC, said in his closing address to the jury yesterday.

Although the DPP had said there was no intention to prosecute Mr Bailey, gardaí “are still trying to say ‘it’s him, it’s him’,” said Mr Creed. “That is why we are here, this is him saying to the world ‘will someone please say stop, what you are doing is wrong’.”

This case is about Mr Bailey’s ‘David and Goliath’ battle with “the forces of law and order”, said Mr Creed. The lives of Mr Bailey and Marie Farrell had been “stripped to the bone” and, because she had “turned on” the State, perhaps in an effort to do right by Mr Bailey, she was “squashed like a fly” and gardaí had told “bare-faced lies”.

In his address, Mr Creed said the case was about Mr Bailey and the credibility of gardaí, not the credibility of Ms Farrell, whom gardaí knew “was prepared to say pretty much what they wanted her to say”.

This case was defended with “a total sense of denial” by gardaí but, thanks to tapes and transcripts, the jury had an “insight into what has been going on during this investigation”.

Ms Farrell had said Det Garda Fitzgerald became “her new best friend” and tapes showed they had “an extraordinary relationship”. Det Fitzgerald insisted it was a professional relationship but the jury could easily judge this was “a lie”,” said Mr Creed. One “extraordinary” recorded phonecall between the two was almost like between a husband and wife who had fallen out, but was also “sinister” because Mr Fitzgerald was annoyed Ms Farrell had given a statement to Sgt Maurice Walsh.

This call was evidence of a conspiracy, that statements were concocted by Det Fitzgerald with Ms Farrell for the purpose of getting Mr Bailey arrested a second time, Mr Creed told the court. These were conversations by gardaí who are required to be scrupulous and objective and not “biased” or “corrupt”.

Mr Bailey remains a “person of interest” in the murder investigation and will do so for the rest of his life, said Mr Creed. “That is his life, he cannot leave the country... He is now a prisoner in our green and pleasant land.” Mr Bailey “will always be a pariah” Mr Creed told the jury.