Bailey reacted to murder rumours as 'black joke'

Ian Bailey took it as a black joke when a news editor said there was a rumour that he murdered Sophie Toscan du Plantier and he said at the time: “Of course I did, I needed a story.”

Bailey, 50, was reporting for various newspapers on the French woman’s murder two days before Christmas 1996. His conversation with the Sunday Tribune news editor, Helen Callanan, about a week after the death was put in evidence at the High Court in Cork today. He said Ms Callanan was one of a number of people who told him it was rumoured that he was the murderer.

“It was very strange, it was bizarre. As someone who was reporting on it, it was very very strange. It made me feel, I don’t know, how can I describe it, it was unsettling and very strange. And knowing that I had absolutely nothing to do with the crime I handled it in a certain way.

“The way I reacted was to treat it as a black joke. I made light of it. This is the way I dealt with it. It was unwise. I said: “Of course I did, I needed a story.” That was my way of glossing it off. Given the circumstances again I would take it far more seriously.

“I was shocked. I was curious to know who was saying this, where was it emanating from. I was beginning to feel people were looking at me in a strange way,” Bailey said yesterday on the second day of the appeal to the High Court of his failed libel action against newspaper coverage of the French woman’s murder in West Cork.

Mr Bailey lost his libel action against The Daily Telegraph, Times (and Sunday Times) Irish Sunday Independent, Independent on Sunday and The Star, three years ago.

Mr Bailey described yesterday how he was a journalist covering the murder but that this changed as rumours spread that he was the killer.

He said: “I found myself watching the detectives watching me. It appeared to me (five days after the crime) that my movements were being closely monitored by officers Bart O’Leary and Kevin Kelleher."