Bailey faces €200,000 legal bill

Ian Bailey faces a legal bill for approximately €200,000 following a decision at Cork Circuit Court today.

Mr Bailey — who was not at today’s court proceedings — sued several newspapers in the Cork Circuit Civil Court over their coverage of the murder of the French filmmaker, Sophie Toscan du Plantier, in West Cork in 1996.

Judge Patrick J Moran said that five newspapers had successfully defended their actions but he was only prepared to award three fifths of the costs, estimated at €200,000.

While he was told that they had pooled resources in defending the actions he said that they could have done more to reduce costs in the case.

In respect of the two cases where Mr Bailey was partially successful, the Judge awarded half of those costs incurred by his legal representatives in bringing those two cases.

They stand to make less than €20,000 which the newspapers, the Sun and the Mirror, will have to pay.

Earlier Ian Bailey’s barrister complained at Cork Circuit Court, that there had been collusion between the gardaí and the defence during his client’s libel trial.

Mr James Duggan, BL, for Ian Bailey, said whatever costs were awarded would fade into insignificance with the money the newspapers had made from the coverage of the case.

He said it was “open season on Ian Bailey for two weeks.” However Judge Moran said his collusion claim was an extremely serious allegation and that the Cork Circuit Court libel trial was not the place to make it.

The newspapers, sued by Ian Bailey, argued today that he should be awarded no costs because they claimed that he fabricated evidence to support his case.

Senior counsel for the newspapers Paul Gallagher today said the defence had to go to great lengths to defend the version of events given by the plaintiff.

He described evidence by the plaintiff as untrue and a fabrication. “There is an element of public interest where people who present evidence in that way be sanctioned by costs against them,” he said.

In making the claims of fabricated evidence, Mr Gallagher was referring in particular to the evidence given by Mr Bailey that shopkeeper Marie Farrell had come to him for help claiming the gardaí were putting her under pressure to make a false statement about him, when in fact her evidence was that it was Mr Bailey who was putting her under pressure.