False Witness Bares All

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90363803Marie Farrell Leaving the Four Courts today

Marie Farrell took the stand today at Ian Bailey’s civil action against the State for framing him for the unsolved murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork in 1996

[Ms] Farrell said she was contacted by gardaí in the middle of February [1997] and asked if she would now make a statement. She agreed.

She said she went to Ballydehob Garda Station on 14 February after work.

She had originally been told gardaí would need only a two-line statement but at the garda station she said they told her they would need more detail.

She said she told them she was in a hurry. They asked her to sign a few pages and said they would work it out.

She said she thought they were just writing out that the man she had seen at a local bridge was Mr Bailey and said she did not give it a lot of thought.

She said she signed four or six or eight blank page. The statement identifies Mr Bailey as the man Ms Farrell saw.

She said she had not made it and the man was not Mr Bailey.

Witness claims gardaí said Bailey had killed Toscan Du Plantier (RTÉ)

Previously: Marie Farrell: ‘Why I Lied About Ian Bailey’

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

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29 thoughts on “False Witness Bares All

  1. Banotti

    Who signs 8 pages of a highly important document in a murder case without looking. Her evidence stinks.

    1. Bobby

      Think about all the terms and conditions you accept blindly without reading them. She says she was in a hurry and she’d hardly be expecting the gardaí to be underhanded. So it’s incredibly plausible.

    1. Alfred E. Neumann

      Well, you could probably get it for a signed piece of paper. “You’re grand, Marie, we can fill the cheque in later.”

  2. DaveW

    And this isn’t an offence?

    Surely someone should be prosecuted for this – both detectives who told her to lie and her for lying (assuming you can get proof). I get that doing that might cause people to not admit to lying in future but there can’t be just no punishment for it.

    1. I am not the moderator

      The sad thing is also that she had to divulge aspects of her private life, such as she went to meet a married man that night and that her husband was unaware of this. It must have had other reprocussions.

  3. Father Filth

    ..on the back of all this malarkey, this umm, solid legal ground, the Government were this close [pinches fingers] to shipping Bailey off to France, whether he liked it or not.

    France has some very archaic definitions of, ‘guilty’ ..if you think our legal system are a bunch are mealy-mouthed so and so’s, you’d be in for a shock over there.

    Husband of the victim was goosing the maid/secretary at the time of her death. Baby born soon after. Husband is deceased now, as well. Oily character. Not likeable.

    1. Alfred E. Neumann

      I don’t know the details of this one, but you’re right about the French system. It’s a horror. People can wait in prison for aeons while sloppy magistrates direct an investigation that makes the Mahon tribunal look like a rush to judgement. That’s what it used to be like, anyway.

  4. Lilly

    Sounds like the man she described was French but who’s to say that’s not just another fabrication. Would a French man stalking his prey wear a beret in Cork?

  5. thesuper

    she sang like a canary, trust of the guards will fill any doubts, force is in a vice, lucky the balls are small

  6. Kieran NYC

    Broadsheet – in a legal trial, it’s unfair to only give only one side’s evidence/case/etc (in this case giving selective support to Bailey’s side).

    Cover both or none and let people make up their own minds.

          1. Kieran NYC

            Someday soon there’s going to be a case where a website is proven to prejudice a trial. And anyway only giving one side as ‘fact’ is unfair.

            Plus, Broadsheet can’t be all “hard-hitting journalism” over something like the death of Kate Fitzgerald or Fr Molloy, and then do another story half-assed with the excuse “Sure we’re only new-media. Don’t take us seriously!”

  7. emily

    The Phoenix did a very good in-depth piece about this about 2 years ago. Seriously dodgy goings on by the gardai. Think this witness said the only reason she was afraid of Ian Bailey was because he knew she was telling a pack of lies in saying she’d seen him.

  8. Melina Harris

    Irish journalism failed Ian Bailey totally. Why no investigation of the obvious French link to the murder?

    As for those nasty old Du Plantier phuckers and their ASOPH.

  9. GiGi

    It’s the bit on the six o clock news about the guard telling her that their suspect used to howl at the moon like a wolf naked on the beach while 15 (or was it 10) lesbians danced around him that made me spill my tea.
    I’d say some people are devils for a bit of Midsomer Murders on Box set. When the presenter in the six o clock news says it this evening I thought I was hearing things.
    Very sad reflection of the level of professionalism of the investigating body. Poor woman who died…

  10. Lilly

    I presume the Gardai checked out her husband and his alibi added up. She got out of bed and let someone into the house so it was likely someone she knew.

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