A CLARE woman accused of hiring a hitman to kill her partner and his two sons told gardaí she obtained a passport with her partner's surname as a "gesture" to him, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Sharon Collins (45), Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, and Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st, 2006 and September 26th, 2006. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to kill the three men.
Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from 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.
Det Sgt Michael Mahony told Una Ní Raifeartaigh BL, prosecuting, that in an interview on June 25th, 2007, Ms Collins said she had wanted to get a passport in the name Sharon Howard to show her partner PJ Howard that she was happy to take his name.
"I thought he would like it. I liked the idea. I wanted to belong. There was nothing sinister about it. I wanted it for myself." She disagreed when it was suggested that Mr Howard had not wanted to be married to her, pointing out that they had signed a document to leave with his solicitor stating that they would never marry.
She admitted paying $1,295 to buy a Mexican proxy marriage over the internet, but said that it was a fake. "It's just a con job." She said she had attempted to change her name by deed poll in April 2005 but the form had not been processed correctly.
Ms Collins told gardaí that she used the proxy marriage certificate to get a passport.
She said she had felt bad about being deceitful and had burned the marriage certificate. She agreed with gardaí that PJ had not known what she was doing at the time, but said she told him in April 2007 when she learned the subject would be appearing in press reports.
She said she had told him when they met in Dublin. They had booked into the Westbury Hotel and she had been upset. When she told him, "he said to me at the time, 'is that what the big deal was about'?" She told gardaí, "he didn't seem to think it was a big deal".
She said she had discussed the matter with him on several occasions but he had always shrugged it off. However, gardaí told her that Mr Howard had told them in an interview he had no knowledge of the proxy marriage.
She agreed that she had conducted correspondence with Proxymarriages.com and signed Mr Howard's name to e-mails. One e-mail, read out to the jury, was sent from PJ Howard's eircom.net address and signed PJ.
Another e-mail asked: "What about inheritance? If one of us were to die we are worried about our respective children arguing whether the marriage actually existed." A further e-mail from the Irish Embassy in Mexico sent to Ms Collins in September 2005 read: "I have never come across a proxy marriage in Mexico and I doubt strongly that it would be possible."
The trial continues today.