A woman accused of hiring a hitman to kill her partner and his two sons has told a jury in the Central Criminal Court that the contents of a letter she sent to the Gerry Ryan show were not motive to kill anyone.
Ms Sharon Collins (45), with an address at Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road and Mr Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address Ennis have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill P.J., Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st 2006 and 26 September 2006. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to kill the three men.
Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Mr Robert Howard to cancel the contracts. He also denies breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing two computers, some computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish money and then handling the stolen items.
Speaking in her own defence Ms Collins told prosecuting counsel Ms Una Ni Raifeartaigh BL that the e-mail, which claimed that her partner Mr Howard pestered her to have sex with strangers and enjoyed sex with transvestites, was not a reason to kill someone.
"I know you need a motive to kill somebody but that sort of this in a motive to leave somebody, it isn't a motive to kill somebody."
She agreed that some of the allegations contained in the letter were true but she said that after she and P.J argued about them in April they ceased to be an issue.
"You could love somebody and not like every single thing that person could do."
She said that the prosecution should not have used the letter as evidence since not all of it had been recovered by gardaí computer experts. She said she regretted the humiliation it had caused Mr Howard who had been in the country at the time.
When asked by Ms Ni Raifeartaigh how much of the letter was true she said that Mr Howard would have sex with transvestites and had asked her to work as a prostitute.
Ms Collins told Ms Ni Raifeartaigh that she absolutely denied that she was the person who had set up the lyingeyes98_at_yahoo.ie address.
"I suppose you can say that, it's your job to bring in a guilty verdict but I am not Lying eyes."
She said the name Lying eyes meant nothing to her and said she did not know the Eagles song of that name. Ms Ni Raifeartaigh pointed out that the song was about a "young beautiful woman moving in with an older man and cheating on him."
Ms Collins said she had been unaware of that meaning. "If somebody actually composed that e-mail address that was quite a bad minded thing to do."
She denied that P.J believed in her to spare himself the humiliation of being betrayed by a much younger woman and said that he had wanted her to take the stand.
She pointed out that it was Robert Howard who liked "old music", she herself preferred Justin Timberlake.
Ms Collins said that she had been shocked to learn that whoever had set up that e-mail address had also hacked into her personal Eircom account. She said that she had written to the DPP asking them to investigate the "theft of my life".
She suggested that Maria Marconi, the woman who she claims offered to teach her to write over the Internet and who may have been involved in an attempt to blackmail her, could have been based in Ireland. She said that an American accent meant nothing and she could easily have been local.
"The woman I met in June could very well live in Ireland and I don't think her name was Maria Marconi."
Ms Collins refused to say who else could have written the emails to Hire_hitman_at_yahoo.com from the Advent computer in reception at the offices of Downes & Howard but she agreed that Mr Howard's sons would have had an opportunity.
Asked if she thought they had a motive to set her up because they wanted her out of their father's life to protect their inheritance she replied "it's possible."
However, she refused to directly accuse either Robert or Niall Howard.
Ms Collins denied that she had made up a story about being blackmailed and the character of Maria Marconi when she had learnt that her plan had failed. She insisted it was absolutely true
The trial will continue tomorrow before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and the jury of eight men and four women.