No pressure on DPP to charge Bailey, former assistant commissioner insists

A retired assistant commissioner has said he was not aware of gardaí putting pressure on the DPP to charge Ian Bailey with the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Noel Smith, who headed up the investigation in to the French film maker's death at her holiday home in Schull, Co Cork in 1996, has been giving evidence in the High Court.

The State denies Ian Bailey's claims that he was wrongfully arrested and that gardaí tried to concoct evidence against him in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation.

Noel Smith, a Chief Superintendent in Cork at the time, headed up the investigation until June 1997 .

He was asked by Mr Bailey's lawyers about claims from former DPP Eamon Barnes that gardaí put pressure on him to charge the journalist over fears he would kill again.

Mr Smith said he was not aware of the meeting and he "certainly did not" sanction it.

On the stand he was critical of the "misquotes and exaggerations" that appeared in the media in relation to the case.

He said he would not have approved of a witness like ex-soldier Martin Graham being given cash, clothes and allegedly cannabis for information but he did say Chief Superintendents – at least in his day – had a secret service fund where small cash sums could be given for information.