This article is from page 14 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
ROBERT Howard phoned a secu- rity firm in a nervous disposition and asked for personal security, claiming that he had been threatened.
The director of an Ennis-based se- curity firm, Kevin Cooper told the court yesterday that Robert phoned him on September 26, 2006, asking for him to provide security for him.
Mr Cooper, who provides security to homes and businesses, said, “He rang me in the evening time, ask- ing me if I could supply him with security, personal security. He said he’d been threatened. I said, ‘Ya.’ He
sounded urgent,” he said.
He said that Mr Howard asked to meet him the following day and they met at the Howards’ family business at Westgate Business Park in Ennis.
“He said, ‘I just want someone to be around me and mind me. Someone made a threat.’ He said that the offic- es had been broken into. He seemed very nervous,’ said Mr Cooper.
However, he said that Mr Howard did not follow up on it. He never con- tacted me again after that,” he said.
The court also heard yesterday from an employee of the Howards, who said that PJ had a temper.
Dan Fitzgerald, who provides gen-
eral maintenance and support to the Howard family business, agreed with counsel for Sharon Collins, Michael Bowman, BL, that PJ had a “bit of a temper’ and was someone you “wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of”.
He also agreed that PJ was a “par- ticular man, with exacting stand- ards” and who took pride in his be- longings.
Mr Bowman put it to him that a cabinet had been damaged at Bal- lybeg House, at a party that Sharon Collins’ two sons Gary and David had hosted in August or September 2006.
Mr Fitzgerald agreed that Sharon was concerned about the damage and had made several attempts to get it repaired, prior to PJ returning home from Spain.
The witness also agreed that PJ still spends much of his time in Spain, while Robert has moved back into the family home, Ballybeg House.
Mr Bowman put it to Mr Fitzgerald that Sharon would say that house was too big and he agreed. “Yes, some- times she would say the house was too big,” he said.
Another witness, Gerard O’Donoghue — a company direc- tor with Ennis-based computer firm
Boots Systems Ltd — told the court that Sharon Collins grasped the workings of computers, but wasn’t competent on the technical side.
He said he went to the Downes and Howard business in Ennis on May 11, 2006, on foot of a request from Sharon Collins. He said that she wanted to be able to view documents pertaining to the business, while she was in Spain.
“T installed ftp (file transfer proto- col) so there would be two identical copies, so she could access it in Spain and Niall and Robert (could access the same information) in the office at the same time,’ he told the court.