Shopkeeper Marie Farrell said she received several calls a day from a detective after she agreed to falsely place Ian Bailey near the scene of Sophie Toscan du Plantier's murder in West Cork.

The married mother of five has told the High Court that 1997 was a 'surreal' 'mad time' and that she gave more than one false statement about Ian Bailey on the instructions of Detective Garda Jim Fitzgerald.

The court has heard in the immediate aftermath of the French film producer's death on Monday, December 23rd 1996 she informed gardai she had seen a strange man wearing a long black coat and beret opposite her shop on the Main Street in Schull, and again the following day.

She said she saw the same man stumbling up the road at Kealfadda Bridge at 3am on the morning of the murder but she originally gave this information to gardai anonymously to hide the fact she had been out with a man who was not her husband.

Ms Farrell gave evidence she believed gardai when they approached her in January 1997 and told her they knew Ian Bailey was responsible for the killing.

She said she was convinced to give a 2 line statement placing the former journalist at Kealfadda Bridge, but because she was in a hurry when she went to Ballydehob Garda Station to give a statement on February 14th, gardai asked her to sign up to 8 blank pages and told her they would take care of the details.

This is Ms Farrell's second day giving evidence in Ian Bailey's action for damages against the State and Garda Commissioner.

Bailey claims gardai conspired to concoct evidence against him and wrongfully arrested him on suspicion of murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

She told the jury that gardai told her Ian Bailey was strange, that he would howl at the moon and had once sat in a rocking chair on Barleycove beach with ten lesbians dancing around him.

She said she believed it.