IAN BAILEY has hit out at Sinéad O'Connor's claim that he became "quite aggressive" after a few drinks when the two met up for lunch, by insisting that the singer was intentionally plying him with booze.
The 64-year-old has suggested the Nothing Compares 2 U singer was trying to loosen his tongue by offering him "loads of drink" during an interview for the Irish Sunday Independent.
The two met outside a restaurant in Cork on Wednesday and reportedly spoke for hours, most notably about the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, of which Bailey is the self-confessed prime suspect.
Sinéad said afterwards that she found Bailey to be "charming while sober", but after a few drinks she felt frightened by his behaviour.
"The man I met at lunch was a different story to the man I met five hours later with a pile of drink on him. I can certainly see how someone other than myself would have felt very threatened," O'Connor told the Irish Sun.
But Bailey appeared to insist that the Irish singer knew exactly what she was doing.
"Sinéad was offering to buy me loads and loads of drink," he said, and while O'Connor didn't deny this, she stressed that Bailey was completely in charge of how much alcohol he put away.
"I paid for the lunch but I had no control of what Ian Bailey drank. He was drinking Guinness, then he was drinking wine, lots and lots of wine," Sinéad said.
During the interview, O'Connor claims she asked Bailey five questions that no reporter had ever asked him before about the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier.
She says Bailey "lost it" when she asked him 'what should happen to the person who did it (the murder)'.
Though the Manchester-born former journalist says that he "strongly disagrees" with Sinéad’s version of events.
French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier was murdered outside her home near the town of Schull, Co. Cork on December 23, 1996.
Bailey, who lived a stone's throw away from Sophie's house at the time, was arrested twice by gardaí in the month's following the killing, but was never charged.
He has always professed his innocence, despite an overwhelming amount of evidence suggesting otherwise.
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