Gardaí gave me cannabis to befriend Ian Bailey, former soldier tells court
A former British soldier has told the High Court Gardaí gave him clothes and cannabis to befriend Ian Bailey in a bid to find anything that would link the journalist to Sophie Toscan du Plantier's murder.
Martin Graham was giving evidence in Mr Bailey's action for damages against the State and Garda authorities for alleged wrongful arrest on suspicion of killing the French film producer in 1996.
Mr Graham said he first met Mr Bailey after the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier when the journalist called to visit a friend in a house he was living in in Skibbereen.
He said Mr Bailey appeared very stressed and while he did not want to be seen as a "rat" he thought it his civic duty to report the incident to Gardaí.
He said he met with detectives Liam Leahy and Jim Fitzgerald who came up with a plan that he would befriend Ian Bailey to find anything that would link him to the French film maker - but he said when he turned up at the journalist's house unannounced, he was flatly turned away.
Martin Graham said afterwards he told the detectives that Ian Bailey needed to chill out and have a good smoke, which led to him being given seven ounces of hash, which he smoked with friends at Kilcrohane festival.
He said he thought detectives "weren't really interested in the truth".
