A charity worker and former West End actress has told Ian Bailey's High Court action that she spent a lot of time alone with the journalist and never felt afraid of him.
Claire Wilkinson likened two detectives working on the Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder to ''The Blues Brothers'' and said they tried to make her feel scared of Mr Bailey by telling her 'ridiculous things in strict confidence' about him ''jumping up and down on a stick at moonlight in the middle of the road''.
The cross examination of Schull shopkeeper Marie Farrell was put on hold to accommodate Ms Wilkinson, who travelled over from the UK to give evidence.
Friendship
The court heard the actress, who was born in Northern Ireland but grew up in England, bought a house in Union Hall after falling in love with west Cork.
Ms Wilkinson said she met Ian Bailey in 1995 on a community film project and worked with him on the script.
She said they spent a lot of time alone together at the studio in The Prairie in Schull, and she got to know his partner Jules Thomas.
Murder rumours
The jury heard she was in England in December 1996 when Sophie Toscan du Plantier, the French film producer, was beaten to death at her holiday home in Schull.
Ms Wilkinson said when she returned to Cork in 1997 'rumours abounded' that she had a murderer living with her in Union Hall and she felt she could no longer meet Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas in the area.
She said she received a phone call from a man telling her not to come to Union Hall because of the company she kept.
Blues brothers
Questioned by Martin Giblin SC for Mr Bailey, she said she was approached by Det Garda Liam Leahy and Det Gda Jim Fitzgerald who tried to make her feel afraid of her friend.
She said they told her over 200 women had made statements saying how scared they were of Ian Bailey.
''It was so exaggerated, like people in a desperate situation trying to get themselves out of it,'' Ms Wilkinson said of her meeting with the detectives.
She claims they told her she should be afraid of Ian Bailey and that they would come back to her after she had an opportunity to ''think very deeply about it''.
''I was brought up to believe someone is innocent until proven guilty,'' she told the court.
She described a follow up meeting where the two detectives, one tall and one short, appeared at the window of her home late at night 'like the Blues Brothers'.
The court heard she was told she wasn't going to be of any use to the gardai.
She said the detectives seemed very concerned about whether Ian Bailey had mentioned them and told her 'they'd made a bit of a mess' of the case and 'were in a lot of trouble'.
Still friends
Ms Wilkinson said she offered to be a witness for Mr Bailey because she was shocked at the persecution he and Jules Thomas have suffered. ''They lost 18 years of their lives,'' she said.
Under cross examination by Luan O'Braonain SC for the State, she said in her experience Ian Bailey was 'a bit pathetic' when drunk, rather than aggressive or violent.
Asked about Ian Bailey's assaults on his partner Jules, Claire Wilkinson said Ian Bailey was 'absolutely devastated' when she met him in Skibbereen after one such incident.
She agreed with Mr O'Braonain that she did not identify the short and tall detectives in a garda statement she made in 2006 and that it was Ian Bailey who had told her their names.
Mr O'Braonain put it to her that she was rehearsing what her friend wanted her to say about these detectives who looked like ''The Blues Brothers''.
''Were there lesbians?'' he quipped before telling the court that Det Garda Jim Fitzgerald will say he has no recollection of visiting her.
Claire Wilkinson finished her testimony by saying she was still perfectly happy to be friends with Ian Bailey and Jules Thomas.
Ian Bailey is suing the State and Garda Commissioner for damages over claims he was wrongfully arrested on suspicion of murdering Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
