Journalist Ian Bailey, who says he was wrongly arrested for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996, has told the High Court, her death was like a "mini nuclear device" going off in the west Cork community of Schull.
Mr Bailey has resumed his evidence in his High Court action for damages.
He is suing the Garda Commissioner, Minister for Justice and the Attorney General.
He says his life was destroyed after gardaí manufactured evidence and blamed him for a crime he did not commit.
His claims are denied by the State.
Mr Bailey outlined his early career as a journalist in the UK. He said it was his long term plan to work for Irish newspapers.
He said on 23 December 1996, at about 1.40pm he got a call from a journalist from the Examiner newspaper.
He said he was told there was a suspicious death of a woman in a nearby townland.
He said the 2pm news confirmed she was French.
He was to go ahead and make inquiries and the Examiner journalist was going to liaise with him later.
He said he headed off towards the townland and he later filed a story to two newspapers on the murder.
The previous day he had cut down a Christmas tree and had some welts on his arm.
He had also killed some turkeys, one of which had marked him on the head.
Mr Bailey said the death of Ms du Plantier was like a mini nuclear device going off in the community.
It was a very big shock and everyone seemed to know the details of how she was killed.
He described how after Christmas the storm clouds began to gather.
He told the court that a week after the murder, on New Year's Eve, he came home to find his partner Jules Thomas with a garda called Pat Joy, who was "ripping her hair out" to take hair samples.
He said she was fingerprinted and so was he.
Mr Bailey told the court that he was visited in his home by Detective Superintendent, Dermot Dwyer in January 1997.
He said he had coffee and mince pies with the superintendent, who asked him various questions about his life.
He said the Superintendent asked him if he played poker, which he thought was odd.
He said he did not and the superintendent pointed at him and said "you should".
Mr Bailey said he knew poker was a game of bluff.
He said the superintendent told him he thought Mr Bailey knew more about the murder than he was letting on.
He said Superintendent Dwyer told him he was going to place Mr Bailey at a local landmark, Cealfadda Bridge, in the early hours of 23 December 1996.
Mr Bailey said he was aghast and said that was nonsense.
He said the superintendent said "we'll see".
Mr Bailey also gave evidence about the day of his arrest on 10 February 1997.
He said he was shoved into a garda car and the atmosphere was very hostile, very aggressive and very abusive.
He said one of the garda repeatedly jabbed him in the arm with a finger and told him he should get his act together.
The driver of the car, a garda who is now deceased, said to him "even if we don't pin this one on you, you are finished in Ireland.
You will be found in a ditch with a with a bullet in the back of your head".
He said he interpreted this as a death threat.
Up to his arrest he said he had been cooperative with gardaí and had given hair samples, fingerprints and handed over footwear.
He said he did not believe he had any choice but to do these things.
He said he had cooperated because he had nothing to hide.
Mr Bailey said after his arrest he spent two nights with a friend and when he returned home his house was under media siege with reporters coming up the driveway and knocking on the windows.
He said, as a journalist, he took the decision, perhaps unwisely, to make a statement in the hope he would be left alone.
He said he did not go out much during 1997 and became quite isolated.
He said a false narrative that he had something to do with the murder had permeated the media and many chose to believe the lie.
He was repeatedly referred to in media stories as a self-confessed prime suspect but he knew he could never have been a suspect because he had nothing to do with it.
It had a limiting effect on his life for many years, he said.
He said he was told during his arrest that someone had been saying he was seen at Cealfada Bridge in the early hours of the morning.
At the time he did not know who was saying this but he knew he was being implicated for something he did not do.
He was later approached by a woman in a pub who said she wanted to see him because she had something to say.
She said she had been receiving a lot of visits from the gardaí and neither she nor her husband wanted to see an innocent man framed.
He was later invited to see Marie Farrell in her shop but was later accused by gardaí of intimidating her.
He was later arrested for a second time.
His partner Jules Thomas was also later arrested along with her daughter which came as a great shock to him and was deeply upsetting.
It affected them both greatly and there was clear evidence of an ongoing attempt to put him and his partner in the frame.
Mr Bailey said he wrote to the minister for justice in 1997 to complain about his treatment and was referred to the Garda Complaints Board.
He said he did not pursue it further as he had no faith in that system.
However, he said he had always denied any involvement in the murder and had tried to clear his name.
"I've never stopped fighting this hoping to one day bring out the truth," he said.
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