IT SOUNDED like a plot from a bad soap opera. The middle-aged man embarking on an affair with his massage therapist and telling her that his marriage was unhappy.
But this was no scriptwriter’s fantasy. The middle-aged man was Eamonn Lillis who is now on trial for the murder of his wife Celine Cawley on December 15th, 2008.
He sat emotionless in a packed courtroom which heard how the affair with therapist Jean Tracey began 10 weeks before his wife’s death. The admission came just after the court heard Lillis’s claims that his personal and professional relationship with Ms Cawley was “very, very close” and they were “really good friends”.
Det Garda Paul Donoghue told Mr Justice Barry White the claims emerged in an interview with gardaí after he was arrested on December 20th.
He told gardaí his wife was a tower of strength to him. “I didn’t kill her. I swear before God,” he said.
Then he was asked if he knew the Howth Haven beauty salon. He did, he had a massage there every Friday with a girl called Jean but he couldn’t remember her surname, he said.
You could have heard a pin drop in the court as people in the public gallery exchanged glances.
Did he ever have sex with her? asked gardaí. “No, Jesus, absolutely not,” he said. But then he was told that Ms Tracey had spoken to gardaí just days before.
She had told gardaí how the affair started when he had a massage one day and he asked her what she was thinking about. She took his hand, placed it on her pulse and said: “That’s what I’m thinking about”.
On his next visit they kissed in a treatment room and then later had sex at his home on Windgate Road. She said he had bought her a mobile phone and she had been in the house three times. It was then that Lillis admitted to the affair. “I did have an affair but it had absolutely nothing to do with this,” he said.
Was he infatuated? asked gardaí. “Yes, I suppose it was a sort of mid-life crisis,” he said.
Was he jealous that she was to be married in the following year? “I don’t do jealous,” was the curt reply.
Mr Lillis listened intently as the evidence was heard but betrayed little emotion. Any embarrassment at hearing details of his affair being outlined in a packed courtroom, which included his in-laws, did not show on his face.
It was a trying day in court for Celine Cawley’s father James, sister Susanna, brother Chris and his wife Sorcha.
Earlier they watched silently as the court was taken by video on a guided tour of the house, in what felt like a grisly version of property show Location Location Location.
The footage was taken by gardaí almost one week after Celine Cawley’s death. Mr Lillis peered over his glasses as the vast garden came into view and the camera focused on a giant sculpture of a cow.
The remnants of breakfast were still on display in the kitchen, with cups, plates and a box of cereal on the counter.
Strings of tinsel that were draped over pictures at a happier time now looked forlorn. A black and white dog stared silently at the video camera in one room which also featured a rocking horse and a Santa ornament.
A bottle of cleaning agent Cillit Bang sat on a toilet cistern in an ensuite and clothes were draped over an exercise bike in another room. There were no indications of anything out of the ordinary, other than the fact that two beds had been stripped and the bedclothes piled in the middle of the bed.
Then the camera peered into the attic. A white doll’s house and a dehumidifier drifted into view. This was where the suitcase was found.
The suitcase in question, a black Rip Curl case on wheels, contained a refuse bag with blood-stained clothes. The prosecution is claiming that he was wearing those clothes on the morning his wife was killed, but later changed into other clothes.
A man’s blue jeans were held aloft, their right leg heavily stained and torn. A stained black jumper, a blue and white tea towel with red marks, striped boxer shorts in an evidence bag, bundles of stained kitchen roll and rubber gloves were produced. The black bag also contained a jar of sauce and a yoghurt pot.
Celine Cawley’s family turned towards each other for comfort at the sight of the darkened bloodstains. Mr Lillis continued to peer over his glasses as the pieces of evidence were fished from brown bags.
