Bailey concludes his evidence

Ian Bailey and his partner Jules Thomas cried every day for two years after the devastation of media coverage linking Mr Bailey to the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, it was claimed yesterday.

Mr Bailey concluded his evidence after the best part of five days in the witness box and one of the witnesses first to testify after him at Cork Circuit Court yesterday afternoon was Saffron Thomas, daughter of Jules Thomas.

She described strained family life after the extensive coverage of the murder.

She referred to one article with a picture of Mr Bailey under a headline, “Devil in the Hills".

She said that article and the coverage in general was very upsetting for the family.

“They cried every day for about two years, Ian and Jules. They felt a lot less sociable. I don’t think they had a single dinner party. Life was strained. It is like a big huge weight on us all the time, it is like a dark cloud that never goes away,” Saffron Thomas, 29, said.

Jules Thomas was in the witness box when Judge Patrick J Moran adjourned the case until Monday.

She said that her relationship with Ian Bailey began 13 years ago and that they had a normal family life with the ups and downs that came with three teenaged daughters and that Mr Bailey had been very good with the girls and helped with homework and so on.

However, James Duggan, barrister for the plaintiff, asked her about assaults on her by Ian Bailey.

Ms Thomas, a painter, said the first incident that occurred when they were in a small bed in a friend’s house in Cork city was “a tussle more than a fight. It was over in a moment. It was a moment of

alcoholic madness".

She described the second assault in a similar vein and it occurred in their car when he was driving.

She said it was related to drink-fuelled temper and again it was over in moments.

Ms Thomas said it took time but she forgave her partner eventually and that he felt deep remorse for what he did.

For the first time since Monday, the defamation case taken by Ian Bailey began to feel like a defamation case, as details of the articles at the centre of the action were examined in detail.