Court hears Ian Bailey is suffering from stress

IAN Bailey’s trial for alleged drug driving, which was due to be heard at Bantry District Court on Thursday, has been adjourned.

Defence  solicitor Ray Hennessy asked Judge James McNulty at Clonakilty District Court this week for an adjournment as he said that he was involved in four trials that day himself at the Circuit Court appeals hearings.

He also handed into court a doctor’s letter for his client which outlined that Mr Bailey was suffering from stress.

Judge McNulty said that given the multiplicity of trials and the medical note, he would postpone the trial for a month and that a new hearing date would be scheduled.

Mr Bailey of The Prairie at Lissacaha, Schull faces four charges after he was stopped at a routine checkpoint in Schull on August 25th 2019.

They include drug driving, the possession of cannabis on his person, the possession of cannabis in his car and also that he did knowingly permit the possession of a controlled drug in his vehicle. The case has been adjourned on numerous occasions owing to Covid-19.

Ian Bailey was found guilty in absentia by a court in France last year of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier near her holiday home in Schull in December 1996. He has consistently denied any involvement in her death.