The Ian Bailey murder trial has been hearing evidence from a woman whose son told her the accused had allegedly admitted to killing Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
Mr Bailey is being tried in absentia at the Criminal Court of Paris for the murder of the French film producer in west Cork more than 22 years ago.
The 62-year-old, with an address at The Prairie, Toormore, in Co Cork, has never been charged in Ireland in connection with the death of the mother-of-one, and has repeatedly denied any involvement in her killing.
He was twice arrested and questioned by gardaí - in February 1997 and January 1998 - but was released without charge on both occasions.
Mr Bailey's solicitor has dismissed the proceedings as a show trial and claims they are invalid.
Amanda Reid told the Criminal Court of Paris today that her then 14-year-old son, Malachi, had taken a lift home with Mr Bailey on 4 February 1997.
She said he was "quite agitated" when he got home, and told her that "something had happened in the car", and that he was "terrified".
Malachi told her Mr Bailey had said he had gone to Ms Toscan du Plantier's house on the night of her killing and "bashed her brains in with a rock".
Ms Reid said her son was "very upset" when he got home. She told him they'd have to report what had happened to the gardaí. They both made statements the following day, she said.
She described Ian Bailey as "unpredictable" but said she had not known him well. She said he always wanted to be "the centre of attention", and went around "singing songs and reciting poetry".
Under questioning from the victim's family in court, Ms Reid said Malachi believed Mr Bailey had had "a few drinks" that evening.
Accused had photographs of woman's body, trial hears
Earlier, the trial heard claims that the accused had photographs of a woman's body which he had allegedly tried to get developed at a garage in Clonakilty.
The judge read out a statement to the court outlining the testimony of one of the Irish witnesses in the case - a man named Patrick Lowney who is now deceased.
She said Mr Lowney had told gardaí that in May 2000, a man he would later identify as Ian Bailey had asked him to develop some negatives.
When he examined the images, Mr Lowney said they seemed to feature a woman's body, and that it appeared to be lying on the side of a stony road.
He said the area looked like the laneway where Ms Toscan du Plantier's body had been discovered. He said he thought the photos may have been taken at night.
The court was told that Mr Lowney said the man seemed anxious.
The witness made this statement to gardaí in October 2000. He identified the man as Mr Bailey after being shown photographs by detectives.
The trial has been hearing testimony from witnesses who suggested Mr Bailey had had access to the crime scene when the victim's body was still there, even though detectives had been preventing people from accessing the area.
The court also heard about a conversation then Sunday Times editor, Helen Callanan, had reported to gardaí in February 1997.
She had hired Ian Bailey as a freelance journalist to write an article about new-age travellers for the newspaper in December 1996, and contacted him to ask him to cover the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier after news broke of the killing.
The court heard that Ms Callanan had asked Mr Bailey on 10 February about the rumours that were spreading about him being the main suspect in the case. She said he responded by saying "of course, yes I did it to revive my career as a journalist. It was me who did it".
She said Ian Bailey would phone the paper with weekly updates about the murder investigation, and said he had suggested that the victim had had "lots of lovers".
Trial hears details of second post-mortem
Earlier, the court heard details about a second post-mortem examination carried out on the remains of Ms Toscan du Plantier in France.
Sophie Toscan du Plantier's badly beaten body was discovered by a neighbour in a laneway near her holiday home near Schull on the morning of 23 December 1996.
Ms Toscan du Plantier's body was exhumed from Combret cemetery in the Lozere region of south central France on 2 July 2008.
The examination concluded, as the Irish post-mortem exhamination had, that the victim had died from multiple head wounds.
The court was shown sketches of a fracture to her skull, which was 8cm in length. Ms Toscan du Plantier also sustained serious wounds to her hands, which suggested she had been trying to defend herself before she was killed.
The court was also shown photographs of a blood-stained rock and concrete block found close to the victim's body when it was discovered in a laneway close to her holiday home near Schull.
Agnes Thomas, who was the victim's best friend, told the court Ms Toscan du Plantier had told her that a man in Ireland had contacted her in Paris in the days or weeks before she was killed.
She said he had described himself as a poet and wanted to talk to Ms Toscan du Plantier about "cultural projects".
Ms Thomas said she thought her friend might have been planning to meet this man when she was in Cork.
Ms Thomas also described how she had received a voice message from Ms Toscan du Plantier on 22 December, the evening she was killed.
She had been calling from Cork to say happy birthday. Ms Thomas said she sounded like she was in good form.
She described her friend as a generous, romantic woman who was curious about life and always willing to help anyone who needed her.
She said Ms Toscan du Plantier loved the wildness of the Irish countryside, and particularly the view over Fastnet Rock from her house in west Cork.
Ms Thomas said Ms Toscan du Plantier did not have a huge circle of friends and that her family was very important to her.
She also spoke about her friend's marriage to the well-known French film director, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, who died in 2003.
She said the couple had had difficulties, but were happy at the time Ms Toscan du Plantier died. She also told the court that Daniel liked his comforts, and found the house in Cork to be very cold in the winter. He had only accompanied Ms Toscan du Plantier to the holiday home on one occasion, she said.
Ms Thomas told the court the couple planned to have a child together, and Ms Toscan du Plantier had been trying to find a birthday present for him while she was in Cork.
She said she had stayed with her friend at the holiday home several times, and had met neighbours, and the woman who had looked after the house when Ms Toscan du Plantier was in France.
The pair had gone walking together, gone out for drinks in the local pubs, and visited Schull. She said Ms Toscan du Plantier was very happy in west Cork.
