The Ian Bailey defamation action has been adjourned until tomorrow morning. Mr Bailey took the stand after his counsel Jim Duggan finished making his opening statement.
Mr Bailey gave a brief outline of his training and career as a journalist, his former marriage to a journalist and his move to Ireland.
He had just begun to give evidence of what happened on the day Sophie Toscan du Plantier's body was found when the court was adjourned until tomorrow.
Earlier, Ian Bailey's barrister, Jim Duggan, gave the opening statement in his client's action for damages for defamation against seven newspapers.
Mr Duggan said that his client does not take this case lightly.
He has brought it in the hope he might find some method to convince some ordinary people out there that he is not a murderer and did not murder Sophie Toscan du Plantier, Mr Duggan said.
Mr Duggan said Mr Bailey lives with this hope - it is the only way he can hope to decriminalise himself.
No prosecution - DPP
The court was earlier told that the DPP does not intend to bring a prosecution against anyone for the murder of the French woman.
The DPP wrote to the Du Plantier family on 5 March this year saying that having reviewed the evidence and taken advice of senior counsel he does not intend to bring a prosecution.
However, he added that he could not rule out one in the future in the light of any new evidence coming forward.
The hearing, before Judge Patrick Moran at Cork Circuit Court, opened with an application by the State to exclude the evidence of up to 12 gardaí.
The State argued that if their evidence was to come into the public domain it could prejudice a fair prosecution in the future.
However, Defence Senior Counsel Paul Gallagher said that there is no legal basis to exclude this evidence and that it would be unfair to do so.
Unsolved murder
Sophie Toscan du Plantier was found beaten to death near her holiday home in West Cork in December 1996.
The journalist, Ian Bailey, claims the newspapers libelled him in their coverage of the murder.
Mr Bailey, a journalist based in Schull in West Cork, initially reported on the murder. Later he acknowledged that he had been arrested by gardaí and questioned about the killing himself.
He is suing the publishers of The Sunday Independent, The Sunday Times, The Star, The Mirror, The Sun, The Independent on Sunday, and The Daily Telegraph.
In each case, Mr Bailey is seeking the maximum Circuit Court damages limit of €38,000.
