Reporter's life 'ruined' by claims over French film-maker's murder

In the unlikely surroundings of a former garden centre, one of the most hotly contested libel cases in Irish history got underway yesterday as an English journalist began suing eight newspapers for allegedly portraying him as the murderer of a glamourous French documentary maker.

Ian Bailey, 47, is seeking damages of up to €260,000 (£184,000) over articles in the British and Irish press which he claims caused him to be "shunned by society" following his arrest for the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, whose bludgeoned body was found on the driveway of her remote holiday home in County Cork on 23 December 1996.

A judge sitting in court one of the Cork Circuit Court heard that Mr Bailey, who is facing a separate civil prosecution by the dead woman's relatives for unlawful killing, had covered the story of her death as a freelance reporter before he was arrested seven weeks after the killing.

The gaunt 6ft 2in journalist, who had moved to the small West Cork town of Schull in 1991 to write poetry and run a smallholding, was released without charge. Investigations continued, and in March the the Irish Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed that there was "no intention" of bringing charges on the current evidence.

But the court was told a series of newspaper articles published about Mr Bailey had cost him financially and ruined his reputation in the community where he lived. James Duggan, representing Mr Bailey said: "He has no means of earning a living. He has been shunned by society as a result [of the articles]. He is commonly referred to as 'the murderer'. He has endured misinformation, slander and character assassination by the media."

Each of the eight newspapers - The Irish Sunday Independent, The Irish Star, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and The Independent on Sunday, the sister paper of The Independent - denies libelling Mr Bailey, arguing that their reports were true and accurate. In a significant development, the newspapers won a ruling from Judge Patrick Moran that they should have access to statements from the original Gardai investigation and be able to call as witnesses detectives who worked on the case. Both Mr Duggan and counsel for the Gardai had opposed the move by arguing it could prejudice any future criminal trial.

Paul Gallagher, the barrister representing the papers, said that the media would use the evidence to prove key elements of their case - that Mr Bailey was the sole and main suspect in the police enquiry, that he had a history of violence against his partner and that he had sought publicity.

Mr Gallagher said: "[Mr Bailey] has complained because it is alleged that he was violent. We say yes, he was and is violent and the evidence we seek to introduce goes to that.

"Mr Bailey himself courted publicity concerning this murder. He courted publicity relating to the fact that he himself was a suspect and he published a number of articles in which he described details about the murder that we say only Mr Bailey had."

Mrs du Plantier, 38, a documentary producer for a Franco-German arts channel, and her husband, Daniel, had bought a holiday home in Schull early in the 1990s. The area is popular with artists, writers and celebrities, with Lord Puttnam, Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack and Jeremy Paxman among those who own homes in the locality.

But it was the extreme violence of the death of the French woman, who moved in the highest echelons of Parisian society through her husband, a close friend of Jacques Chirac, which brought her to international attention.

Her body, clad in a pair of leggings, a nightdress and a pair of lace-up boots, was found in a large pool of blood at about 10.00am on 23 December. She had suffered multiple blows to the back of her head, which was then crushed by a concrete block.

But the court heard that despite the arrest of Mr Bailey and subsequent examination of his clothes, blood and DNA, his file had been examined three times by the Irish DPP and no charges had been brought against him. Mr Duggan said that the allegations in several of the articles, including claims that he had been seen washing his rubber boots in a stream close to Mrs du Plantier's home in the hours after her death and that when working in England Mr Bailey had posted a naked picture of himself in his office and boasted of his sexual prowess, were simply not true.

In one surreal exchange the lawyer said the alleged inaccuracies had also stretched to the journalist's partner, Jules Thomas, a Welsh artist whom he was convicted two years ago of severely beating. One article had said that, before meeting Mr Bailey, Ms Thomas had lived on an island in a tee-pee with a disreputable local, Indian Joe, with whom she had had a child.

Mr Duggan, who explained that the claims had been the subject of a successful defamation action, said: "Lies and lies. She didn't live in a tee-pee on an island with Indian Joe or any Joe. She had no child with such a man who was a notorious person in the area."

The case continues.