A WOMAN accused of hiring a hitman to kill her partner and his two sons has denied writing e-mails that plotted the killing.
Sharon Collins (45), of Kildysart Road, Ennis, and Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian with a Las Vegas address, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to kill the men.
Ms Collins told prosecuting counsel Una Ní Raifeartaigh yesterday that the e-mails sent from the address lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie to hire_hitman@yahoo.com were shocking.
She said the e-mails did not reflect the way she felt about her partner, PJ Howard, or about his sons. Suggestions in an e-mail that PJ might kill himself when hearing of the death of his sons were “horrible”.
“I will never get over the shock of this but I certainly didn’t write that. It’s terrible,” she said.
Ms Collins denied she had been the internet user who, on August 2nd 2006, logged into her personal Eircom e-mail account within moments of logging into the lyingeyes account on a computer at the Downes Howard offices.
She denied using the computer to search the internet at this time.
Ms Collins agreed that she had visited firstchoice.com and the easyJet website in the past, but had not on this occasion. Searches had also been carried out on the subjects of inheritance rights and on domestic violence, as well as for the word “hitman” during this period.
Ms Ní Raifeartaigh commented that it was unusually considerate for someone setting up Ms Collins to delete junk mail from her e-mail account. “Either it’s you or it’s someone setting you up by impersonating the kind of searches and interests that you have, then going into lyingeyes.”
Ms Collins replied: “It’s not me anyway.” She agreed that on August 8th the user of the office computer had visited weight loss websites and ordered the weight loss drug, Reductil. Ms Collins said that she had only taken Reductil in May and June 2006 and never re-ordered it.
Ms Collins broke down in tears as she gave her evidence.
She said she was accused of a “horrendous” crime of plotting to kill people she cared about and this had destroyed her life and those of her two sons.
Ms Ní Raifeartaigh put it to her that she was putting forward a ludicrous theory of an invisible mystery person using the internet in both Downs Howard and Ballybeg House, where Ms Collins lived with Mr Howard.
She told Ms Collins someone had accessed the FedEx website on August 15th and 16th on the Iridium laptop seized from Ballybeg House after Ms Collins was arrested. The user had checked on a parcel containing €15,000 sent to Mr Eid’s Las Vegas address. Ms Collins says she sent the money to a person blackmailing her.
Ms Collins said the laptop had been missing from Ballybeg House at the time, but Ms Ní Raifeartaigh told her the internet dial-up times for the location corresponded exactly with the times the Iridium accessed the FedEx website.
Ms Collins said she had not been the one using the Iridium, and she had given the tracking number to the blackmailer.
Ms Ní Raifeartaigh asked her: “Did you notice a blackmailer walking round your house at 8.10 that morning?” Ms Collins could not explain why e-mails sent from lyingeyes to hire_hitman stopped when she had been visiting the religious retreat at Lough Derg and also when she was in Spain. She could not explain phone calls between her Spanish mobile phone and a number registered to Mr Eid. She said she had never called Mr Eid.
Ms Collins denied that she had taken the stand to try to manipulate the jury. “I am not trying to manipulate. I am telling the truth. I have always always told the truth about this. I am not here to manipulate anybody.”
Mr Eid’s defence is expected to start today.