Murder at the Cottage | Sky

so lets totally dismiss the merits of whether the main suspect for a lot of people may be responsible for the murder and indulge ourselves in hair brain theories allied to some good ould Garda bashing because.....

You are not telling us something about Bailey, you are telling us about yourself and projecting on someone else what is your own fantasy. Given your obsession and resistance to reason that isn't surprising. This has to be understood in the context of this investigation where you had some inadequate male fantasists deciding on the motivation of someone who didn't suffer from their kind of insecurity.

After sharing *a* bottle of wine with Bailey, Jules turned off the television and sat on the floor to go through her pocketbook. Out of nowhere Jules is struck across her right eye by Ian Bailey, using his crutch. He continues to reign blows to her face, head, cheeks, chin, with the crutch, until she lay on her side and then Ian Bailey kicks his partner in THE FACE and ribs with his plaster-cast leg and foot, until she manages to escape down the hall. Wanna know what happened next?

Not my kink. I prefer the written word.

Going on... Jules flees the madman, tries to summon her friend Sue Hill...not happening..garda ring the Prairie ? ..who answers? Bailey does and says nothing to do here lads..but Wait! Jules manages to alert gards to the attack..And her attacker.. seems like there must be more like?

mm I would say it was Bailey's whose interests were "prurient", No? (Not that that sways me. Don't care.) You bring up his sketches, perhaps those speak for themselves Par example? Envy as well? I don't recall much thunder being made about any of Bailey's.. 'doddles', literal, actual, or exaggerated. 😏

Ah the good Con Murphy, rest him.. Bailey said some heavy stuff through Con, didn't he then? You left out some of the good Con`s quotes for Bailey.. some whoppers..

I'd like you to keep talking, read: typing. I'm interested in seeing what you adress

and what you don't.

If the guards had arrested the Ungerers or Alfie and Shirley then told the female Alfie/Tomi has admitted to it would any evidence resultant on that lie be accepted?

The only difference between Alfie,Tomi and Ian is their partners not under Garda duress gave them an alibi.

One of these days you'll think of something funny. Somehow she doesn't strike me as someone who stands meekly waiting to be punished

Agreed. It poopood the fundamentals of time being one of the critical factors in such an investigation.

Further, it was not a case of not being sure if foul play being a factor or not.

Not saying that was his decision. No doubt his duties were mandated.

It was Christmas, he could have been bringing Alfie a surprise. "when he was cross-examined, he agreed that Mr Bailey could have been trying to get information out of Mr Lyons as a journalist."

There appears to have been no fury or suspicion about Alfie, Shirley, Finbar Hellen and whoever else coming and going past the cordon as they pleased.

The 'most interesting of all' is that there might be some hope with the Garda's PR guy, Nick Foster, talking about the crime scene being compromised, because something has come out in the preliminary investigation that has some people desperately trying to come up with reasons for not carrying out a proper investigation and framing Bailey.

Yes, I wasn't sure if that was a photo from the day or from another time. That's why I said they showed a photo in the (Netflix) documentary of him peering in the window, but the voiceover says he went around the "back" of the house. Edited it.

I thought it would be useful to pin down the exact day of the Briquettes delivery in relation to what he was writing in his Star articles at the time and in relation to the discussion about someone contaminating the crime scene. Bailey testified in court at some point, when pressured, that Alfie Lyons was the source of his reporting about Sophie having many lovers.

There is no big reveal. I was trying to pin down when he went up to Alfie's because there is confusion in the reporting. It doesn't prove anything or disprove anything about Bailey's guilt or innocence.

On this day in 1996: (22 Dec 1996)

Morning - Ian Bailey was sleeping on the sofa of his friend, Mark Murphy in the Murphys' house.

Around 7:00am - Marie Farrell claims she was out driving when saw the mysterious man in the long black coat hitchhiking on the road outside Schull. This was within 100 yards of the Murphys' house.

"Morning" - Daniel Du Plantier claims he spoke to Sophie by phone and she told him of her decision to return to France on the 24th.

Before 2pm - Sophie drove from Toormore through Goleen and out towards Mizen Head, on the tip of the peninsula, where she went for a walk. 

Between 2.00pm and 4.00pm - Sophie visited a French-speaking couple, Thomas and Yvonne Ungerer, with whom she had become friendly on one of her previous visits. 

Around 4:00pm - Sophie drove to Crookhaven where she called into a bar and restaurant owned by Billy and Angela O’Sullivan. She ordered a pot of tea and chatted with them, the O'Sullivans estimate for an hour, then left and drove back to Dunmanus West.

After 2pm - Ian Bailey got a lift back to The Prairie. DPP: "Mark Murphy states that he drove Bailey home at about 2pm." Jules says according to the DPP: "around midday that Sunday 22nd December 1996 I met Mark Murphy’s van as I drove towards Schull and I saw Ian Bailey in front of the van and presumed that Mark was bringing him home to my place. I returned home from Schull and I spoke to Ian at home. He had shorts on him and he was going killing the turkeys for Christmas and me and the girls were stringing up the turkeys. Ian and Saffi went down to cut the top off a Christmas tree for the Christmas. Following the cutting of the tree his forearms were scratched”.

From Ian Bailey in The Big Issue: "I climbed the 30ft tree bare, armed with and old bow saw and set about cutting the top 5 feet off. [Saffron] was with me throughout... in the process of which I got a few light scratch marks on my arms."

Ginny Thomas said in her statement "I did see his hands scratched when he came down". Saffron Thomas said in her statement: "I can verify as I was a witness to him receiving cuts and scratches to his hands, arms and legs from more specifically the cutting down of the tree... We had to kill three turkeys and in doing so Ian was cut by the turkey wings flapping when their heads were cut off."

Saffron Thomas would later allegedly tell Mark McCarthy that it was she, and not Bailey, who had cut down the tree and he was lying if he said otherwise. She allegedly told her father, Michael Oliver, that Ian Bailey was “a lazy bastard” and that he did not even want to get them a Christmas tree and that she had to cut the tree and bring it into the house herself. (In his report, the DPP casts doubt on Michael Oliver's statement).

5.30pm - Sophie tried to call her friend Agnes in Paris and left a message on the answering machine wishing her a happy birthday. 

6:00pm - A man passing by said he saw lights on upstairs and downstairs in Sophie’s house. (It was suggested elsewhere that this was a postman delivering something to Alfie's house).

7.30pm Sophie telephoned Josephine Hellen, but Josephine’s daughter, Catherine, told her that her mother was not at home. She then rang a local tradesman, Pat Hegarty, who was also unavailable. 

"Sunday Night" - Ian Bailey says in The Big Issue: "On Sunday night after the turkeys had been gutted and plucked, we went in two cars to Schull where a number of bars had pre-Christmas music sessions. Jules and myself went to [the Courtyard Bar] and then on to [the Waterside] where there was a traditional session. With the invitation of a group of visiting musicians I had joined in with the bodhran and threw a few poems into the session." Venita Roche-Galvin, whose husband David owned the Waterside pub, told gardaí she had spoken to Bailey for 15 minutes and had not noticed any marks on his hands or face. 

9.10pm - Sophie again rang the Hellens and again spoke to Catherine, as Josephine had still not returned.

9.20pm - Sophie’s neighbour, Shirley Foster, was pulling the curtains before going to bed. She said she noticed that the outside light on the gable end of Sophie’s house was on.

9.45pm - Josephine Hellen had returned home, heard that Sophie had been looking for her and rang the house. She spoke with Sophie and they made arrangements to meet at noon the following day. They chatted for 15 minutes.

Between 10:30 p.m and 11:00am (Irish Time) - Daniel claims he received a call from Sophie. He was in a work meeting and called her back about 12 minutes later. The conversation lasted a few minutes and he said it sounded like she was in bed about to go to sleep.

11:00pm - Chris Lynch, who had worked with Bailey in a fish factory in Schull for several months, told gardaí he saw him in the Galley Bar at about 11pm and spoke to him, but he again could not remember seeing any scratches on his hands or arms.

11:00pm-12:00am - Sisters, Bernie and Sinead Kelly, were both in the Galley Pub and near Bailey when he was playing the bodhrán and neither of them noticed any marks or scratches on his hands and face.

12:30am - Barman John McGowan, who served Bailey five times during the night, also did not notice any marks on his hands or face. The Barman says Bailey and Jules left around this time.

Does anyone have any more important details we can add to this timeline or corrections we should make?

You suggest Michael Oliver is credible.

DPP's report;

"He was also involved in taking a statement from Michael Oliver on 10 February 1998 on which date Oliver was awaiting sentence on a serious harm conviction.

The statement flatly contradicts a questionnaire completed by Oliver a year earlier. This questionnaire was not volunteered by the Gardaí – it had to be sought. It could certainly be argued that Oliver in an attempt to avoid a heavy sentence was anxious to please the Gardaí at the time of making the statement on 10 February 1998.

Little if any incriminating weight can be attached to it."

Michael's a bit like yourself