The long-running libel case brought by an English journalist against six newspapers came to a dramatic and abrupt end at the High Court in Cork, Ireland, last week.
Ian Bailey, a Manchester-born journalist, had been appealing against a court's rejection of his claim that he had been libelled by several newspapers. After a 10-year fight for damages, he called off the case on Friday last after less than a day of cross-examination by counsel for the newspapers, the Independent reported.
Bailey had claimed the newspapers had wrongly linked him to the 1996 murder of the French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork. Bailey’s libel action over newspaper coverage of the du Plantier murder, 10 years ago, had failed in 2004.
Although the case ended suddenly after what was described as an agreement between Bailey, 50, and the papers, his solicitor and a newspaper representative later became involved in heated exchanges on radio.
The papers concerned are the Sunday Independent, the Irish Star, the Independent on Sunday, the Times, the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph. They agreed to put up a little more than £47,000 towards his lawyers' costs but paid no damages, saying they never intended to suggest he had killed Toscan du Plantier. No one has been charged with her death.
Brendan Nix, Bailey’s senior counsel, told the Irish Examiner that the defendant newspapers confirmed "nothing in any of these articles was ever intended to suggest that Ian Bailey murdered Sophie Toscon du Plantier. The defendants are not saying now, nor did they ever say that he was a murderer.”
The newspapers welcomed the decision which they described as a victory for the industry. “No damages will be paid to Bailey,” said solicitor Paula Mullooly on behalf of Independent Newspapers, representing the Sunday Independent. Karyn Harty for the Sunday Times also welcomed the withdrawal of the claims by Bailey.
Solicitor Frank Buttimer said the libel actions had preoccupied Bailey’s life for years, but he could now put that aside. “Now he can concentrate on battles to come. We are initiating proceedings against the State. He has cooperated with the garda enquiry, which is ongoing, and about to report in relation to garda misbehaviour to do with this case.”
