Bailey made cut-throat gestures, claims shopkeeper

A Schull shopkeeper claimed today that she saw Ian Bailey in the early hours of the morning of Sophie Toscan du Plantier’s murder about a mile from the deceased’s home.

Marie Farrell, who ran an ice-cream parlour at the time, said that between 2.30am and 3am on December 23, 1996, she saw a man at Kealfadda Bridge walking along the edge of the road, appearing to stagger and with his arms waving.

She said she later identified this man as Ian Bailey when she saw him in a newsagents in Schull.

She left the shop immediately and identified him to one of the many detectives who were in the town at the time.

She then claimed in the witness box at Cork Circuit Court today where Mr Bailey is suing seven newspapers for libel, that the plaintiff in this case said to her: “There are things we have to discuss. I’m being set up by detectives.”

She said he later came to her shop and said he knew things about her and that if she scratched his back, he would scratch hers.

“I did not kill Sophie but I know you saw me at the bridge,” he said to her, Ms Farrell claimed.

She said she was terrified.

She said he was in her shop after arranging with her to call and he stood up on a chair, put his hands out and asked: “Is this place clean” — a reference to bugs or listening devices.

“I looked at the span of his arms. I thought he could kill me in two minutes and the gardaí are at the other end of the street.”

He told her to withdraw her statement and when she did not he later made cut-throat gestures to her in the street.

Ms Farrell never knew Ian Bailey before she spotted him outside McCarthy’s Butchers on December 21, 1996.

She said that afternoon Sophie Toscan du Plantier came into another of Ms Farrell’s shops, a knitwear store, and browsed around.

She said it was a quiet afternoon.

“As she left the shop I noticed a man in a long, black coat outside McCarthy’s Butchers.”

Ms Farrell saw the same man the following day at Air Hill and she saw him for the third time in the early hours of December 23, 1996.

It was only around January 1997 when she walked into a newsagents and saw this man again that he was identified as Ian Bailey.

Much of this evidence is in total conflict with Mr Bailey’s testimony on a number of key points.

He said he was at home all night on December 23, 1996 and that he did not approach Ms Farrell but that she approached him to say detectives were putting her under pressure to make a false statement.

On the day that Mr Bailey came into her shop Ms Farrell claimed that in cashing a £25 cheque for him Mr Bailey remarked: “That is all her death is worth to me — there is no money in bumping people off.”

Again, Mr Bailey previously denied that allegation.