The Clare People Archive

SHARON Collins was interested in inheritance and often sought infor- mation on this on computer websites, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutor Tom O’Connell told the jury on the second day of the trial last Thursday, that Ms Collins ar- ranged a marriage to PJ Howard, but he did not go through with it.

“She was keen to get married to Mr Howard. She was very much

concerned with inheritance and fre- quently visited various websites in- terrogating the computer about her position,’ said Mr O’Connell.

He said that after Mr Howard’s wife died in 2003, Ms Collins was “anx- ious and agitating to get married to Mr Howard.

“It seems he didn’t wish to marry her as it would complicate inherit- ance matters. He wanted whatever fortunes he had to go to his two sons.”

“Apparently a marriage was. ar- ranged, at her instigation, to take place in Rome in 2005,” he said.

However, PJ Howard “pulled out” of this, but the couple went to Sor- rento in Italy, where they pledged themselves to each other, “but no marriage took place”.

When the couple returned home, Ms Collins told people that they had got married and a wedding reception took place in Spanish Point in No- vember 2005.

The same year, she “conceived and organised through the internet, a proxy marriage, under Mexican law, that was done without the knowledge of PJ Howard,” said counsel.

He said that Ms Collins paid $US1,295 for a certificate testify- ing to the proxy marriage. The cer- tificate was sent to her accountant in Kilrush, Matt Heslin, and she later collected it there.

On February 22, 2006, she trav- elled to Cork and in due course she

obtained a passport under the name of Sharon Howard.

“She admits obtaining the proxy marriage certificate,” said Mr O’Connell. “It is the State’s case that she intended to use the marriage cer- tificate to stake a claim in PJ’s estate on the death of him and his sons,’ he added.

“It could be inferred by using the documents, she was trying them out to see if they would pass official scrutiny,’ said Mr O’Connell.

A MAN called ‘Tony’ called to Rob- ert Howard’s home and informed him there were contracts on the lives of himself, his brother and his father and sought €100,000 to cancel them, the court heard on Friday.

Robert Howard was at home at Ballaghboy, Doora, on the outskirts of Ennis on September 26, 2006, when he received a phone call on his mobile, at around 10.30pm.

“A male voice on the phone said, ‘T heard you lost a few computers’. I said, ‘I did’. He said, ‘I’ll be at your house in five minutes.’ That was it,” Mr Howard told the trial, during his 25-minute spell in the witness box on Friday.

“The next thing, I heard a knock on the door, five minutes later,’ he added.

Asked by prosecution counsel Tom O’Connell had he considered phon- ing the gardai, he said he had, but, “I didn’t know if someone was going to show.”

On hearing the knock at around 10.35pm, he answered the door.

A man standing at the door said to him, “Hello, I’m Tony.”

“I stood outside the door of the house. He picked up the blue Toshiba laptop computer and handed it to me,” he said.

Mr Howard said he then went into the house and told his brother Niall to call the gardai. He returned outside and was then told about the contracts on the three lives.

“He said there were contracts on the three of our lives, for €130,000. He said he didn’t want to do it. He wanted me to buy the contract out for € 100,000,” he said.

He said that ‘Tony’ also had paper- work in his hand, including directions

to his house and also to PJ’s house and to an address in Kilkee.

The conversation, he said, lasted about 20 minutes, during which time his brother Niall was inside the door “keeping watch.”

He said ‘Tony’ had a print-out from a computer, featuring two photo- graphs. One was a photograph of PJ Howard and Sharon Collins, while the other was a photograph of PJ ona

boat. “It looks like Spain,” he said.

‘He showed me the photograph. I took it from him. I wouldn’t give it back to him,” he said.

Mr Howard said he returned inside the house to enquire where the gardai were. When he went outside again, ‘Tony’ was leaving in a car.

He tried to follow him in his jeep, but the lights were switched off in ‘Tony’s’ car and he did not manage to

get the registration number. He said he “lost him at the crossroads.”

Asked to describe the man, he said he was about 5 foot 11, in his mid- 40s, wore a baseball cap and track- Suit, was clean shaven with sallow skin and wore glasses.

He said he thought his accent was Algerian, “even though he told me he was Italian.”

Later that night, at around 12.30am,

he said ‘Tony’ phoned him again, asking him if he had “started to get the money together” for him yet.

“T said ‘Yes’. He said he would give me a ring tomorrow,” recalled Mr Howard.

Mr Howard told the court that he was a director of a company, Downes and Howard property investment business, located at 7A Westgate Business Park, Kilrush Road, Ennis, of which his father PJ was the prin- leet e

His younger brother Niall also worked in the business, as did Sha- ron Collins.

He told the jury that on Septem- ber 25, 2006 – the day before he was visited by “Tony’ – he worked in the company’s office. His brother Ni- all was the last person to leave that Aon nenee

The following morning he returned to work and noticed that of the two locks on the door, the Chubb lock was not locked.

He went upstairs to the office and noticed that the alarm was not on.

“T had a quick look around. There was a laptop and computer missing,” he said. Also missing was a picture of old Irish money, a digital clock and computer cables.

He said the laptop, Toshiba brand, was worth around €1,000 and be- longed to himself. A desktop com- puter had also been taken from the reception area.

He said that just six people had keys to the premises and knew the alarm code – himself, his brother Niall, his father PJ, Sharon Collins, their handyman Dan Fitzgerald and their cleaner Kathleen McMahon.

“When the burglary took place, PJ and Sharon were in Spain,” he said.

SHARON Collins claimed to gardai that she had been the victim of black- mail and denied being part of a con- spiracy.

However, Prosecution for the State, Tom O’Connell said, “The State says this was a lie. She admitted filing pictures that Essam Eid had in his possession. She admitted obtaining a proxy marriage certificate that was unknown to PJ Howard.”

In her statements to gardai, de- scribed by Mr O’Connell as “volu- minous’, Ms Collins said a woman named Maria Marconi visited Ennis in June 2006.

She said that Ms Marconi visited her at the Howards’ office in Ennis, where she was left on her own at re- ception. She said that Ms Marconi had asked to use the computer at the reception.

“She claims she received emails that she would pay €20,000 so that

an attachment would not be sent to her husband.

‘That was an email she had sent to Maria, saying things about PJ that She didn’t want PJ to see,’ said Mr O’Connell.

“She got in contact with Maria Marconi, who told her her computer had been stolen,’ he added.

He said that Ms Collins sent money by FedEx. She denied that she knew Essam Eid and told gardai she no longer had an email address for Mar-

1a Marcon.

Mr O’Connell said that Ms Collins “denied anything to do with ‘lyin- geyes’ email”.

He said she had taken steps to change her name by deed poll to Howard.

He said that in April 2006, Ms Col- lins had a row with PJ Howard “over personal matters”.

“She told Maria on email and the attachment was about this and she was afraid if PJ found out, it would

end their relationship and that was why she sent the money,” said Mr O’Connell.

The trial was told that Essam Eid claimed to know Sharon Collins and told gardai he used to date her.

“He then changed his tune and denied having certain communica- tions with Sharon Collins,” said Mr O’Connell.

“A lot of what was said by Sharon Collins and Essam Eid was confabu- lation and lies,” he added.

FLANKED by her sons, Gary and David, Sharon Collins sits at the back of the packed courtroom. Wear- ing a black trousers suit and white blouse, the petite blonde clutches a bottle of water and chews gum. She looks around, regularly focusing her gaze on Prosecutor Tom O’Connell, as he outlines the bizarre details of the case.

Just a few people separate her from her co-accused, Essam Eid, who sits to her right, wearing a cream-col- oured shirt and red and blue striped tie under a Nike sports jacket.

And another couple of bodies sepa- rate him from the alleged targets. PJ, Robert and Niall Howard sit together quietly in the middle of the single row of seating.

Like the other 50 or so other peo- ple in courtroom number 16 on the second floor of the Four Courts, they listen silently as the court hears that Ms Collins had been “anxious and agitating” to marry her lover, busi- nessman PJ Howard.

Ms Collins, who turned 45 just 10 days before the trial opened, wanted to wipe out the Howard family in or- der to gain from PJ’s inheritance. Or so the prosecution claims.

References to ‘the devil in the red dress’, a mysterious woman called Maria Marconi, killing ‘three birds in one stone’ for $US90,000, com- puter searches for a hitman, email discussions on how best to wipe out a family, the discovery of ricin in a prison cell and plans to poison two young men in their 20s, all cap- ture the attention of the jury over a lengthy opening statement.

Even before the outline of the al- legations 1s presented to the packed court, Mr Justice Roderick Murphy

warns the 12 jurors — sitting diago- nally across the room from the ac- cused — to refrain from reading the

newspapers and instead concentrate on the evidence presented. And given the extraordinary de-

tail contained in Prosecutor Tom O’Connell’s opening statement, there is no doubt but that this case will cre-

ate a high level of publicity.

Silence descends upon the packed courtroom as Mr O’Connell tells the jury it is ‘an unusual and rather com- plex case with many elements’.

He acknowledges that it has taken ‘unusually’ long to open the case, noting that “because of the complex- ity of the case it’s essential’.

Repeated Keds Ks Neh Ke) hitmanforhire@yahoo.com prompt Mr O’Connell to tell the jury it will be engraved in their memories by the end of the case. The eight men and four women seated in the jury box listen intently as Mr O’Connell describes, in detail, email contact between ‘hit- man’ and lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie and agreement on how the three Howards were to be murdered.

Such is the level of detail that sev- eral of the jurors begin to take notes, only for Mr O’Connell to point out that they will be supplied with copies of the exact contents of those emails at a later stage.

And all of this presented in a court- room where space is in short supply. Seated behind the jury box is the me- dia area, which accommodates up to a dozen journalists each day.

Several of the gardai involved in the case are forced to stand close to the witness box, as the single row of seating in the room is occupied by both accused, the alleged targets and the few gardai fortunate enough to have seats.

But, after three days of the cramped conditions, the presiding judge makes it known that a more spacious courtroom, court number two in the Round Hall of the Four Courts, will be available for the remainder of the vated

Relief all round.

ROBERT Howard told the trial yes- terday (Monday) that following a series of phone calls, he arranged a meeting with the man who had called to his house seeking €100,000 to cancel the contracts on the three Taerse

He told the court that “Tony’ phoned him at around 12.15pm on September 27 – the day after he had called to his

house – and again at 4.45pm.

“At 12.15 he asked me what time I finished work at and had I started getting the money together. I said, ‘The usual time’,’ said Mr Howard.

He said that during the 4.45pm phone call, ‘Tony’ asked to meet at the bus station at 5.15pm.

Mr Howard said he suggested an alternative location, the Queen’s Ho- oe

Asked by prosecution Counsel Tom

O’Connell had he been in touch with the gardai during this time, he said, “Yes I was.”

He said he went to the Queen’s Ho- tel, as arranged, and sat in the bar. He received another phone call from ‘Tony’ at 5.40pm, telling him to go to the bathroom to meet a lady and she would count the money.

“TI told him, no, I wouldn’t go,” said Mr Howard.

“T contacted Detective Garda (Jar-

lath) Fahy and in turn he told me to go to the lobby of the toilets to meet this lady. I did,’ said Mr Howard.

He said the woman was in her late 40s or early 50s with dark hair and wore a leather jacket.

“She said, ‘Have you got the enve- lope?’ I said, “Have you got the com- puter?’”’ he told the trial.

“At that stage, a plain-clothes garda came past the lobby and she took off,’ said Mr Howard.

Asked had he seen the woman pre- viously, he said, “A few minutes ear- lier I might have seen the lady in the hotel walking past me.” He had never seen her before that day.

He said he never received calls from “Tony’ after that and all the calls made to him were on his mo- bile phone. Much of yesterday was taken up with legal argument, in the absence of the jury and the trial con- tinues this (Tuesday) morning.

TRACES of the poison ricin were found during a search of Essam Eid’s cell in Limerick prison in April 2007.

The traces were found in a contact lens case under his bed, according to the prosecution, and the find was made on foot of intelligence from the sdk

“It was taken for testing by the army and was found to contain the ricin poison,” said Prosecutor Tom

O’Connell.

“That in a context where poison- ing had been discussed as one of the methods of assassination. The case against Mr Eid, the prosecution says, is an overwhelming case,” the Pros- ecutor said.

Mr O’Connell told the listening jury that the “conspiracy was hatched” between August | and September 26, 2006.

“A conspiracy is in essence an agreement between two or more per- sons to do an unlawful act. It will be

the State’s case that the conspiracy was to kill these three persons,” he nee

Included in the information to be presented to the jury will be evi- dence from the FBI, who carried out investigations in Las Vegas, details of computer and phone traffic and statements made by several people.

Mr O’Connell told the court that Essam Eid claimed to know Sharon Collins and “claimed to be her lover and that she had paid for tickets for him to come to Ireland”.

He said that an Irish soldier came upon ‘hitmanforhire’ on the internet and after email exchanges, Tony Lu- ciano rang him and asked him could he get him a gun in Ireland. The sol- dier panicked and said it wasn’t him who had sent the emails, but that it was a flatmate.

Mr O’Connell told the jury that after the alleged burglary and de- mand for cash from Robert Howard, he spoke to his father PJ, who at the time was on a boat with Sharon Col- lins in Spain.

“Later that night, Sharon Collins told PJ for the first time about Mar- ia Marconi, who was tutoring her about becoming a novelist,” said Mr O’Connell.

He said she told Mr Howard that Ms Marconi had visited Ennis.

“There is no trace of Maria Mar- coni. She has disappeared off a com- puter, even though she said she had been in almost daily contact.

“The prosecution regards this as a fabulous lie. She is a phantom,’ he said.

A MULTI-MILLION euro construc- tion project in Kilrush is on the verge of collapse following the revelation that sub-contractors on the site have not been paid since before Christ- ate he

According to union representatives, more than €100,000 is now owed to a number of contractors working on the construction of a private nursing home on the Killimer Road in Kil- rush with one painting sub-contrac- tor alone owed €46,000.

In addition to this, two plastering sub-contractors are reportedly also owed more than €41,000 between Wetoeen

An all out strike was avoided yes- terday, Monday, May 26, when over- all contractors Siteline Construction Company Ltd from Limerick, made commitments to pay sub-contractors any arrears before the close of busi-

ness tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28.

Unions have agreed to postpone a picket schedued to take place yester- day until after the Wednesday dead- line.

“A strike may be the only means that we have left in this case, the de- velopment is practically finished and once it is completed we have very Iit- tle leeway,” said Paddy Kenneally of the Clare Plasters Union.

“People would have major reser- vations about the situation with this development. Sub-contractors have been told before that they are about to get paid and it hasn’t happened so we will just have to wait and see.

“The current building climate is very difficult for everyone and it’s nearly impossible for sub-contrac- tors who have to pay their employees to keep going when they are not be- ing paid themselves. People are very worried.

“We are very hopeful that this situ-

ation will be sorted out to everyone’s satisfaction as soon as possible. All our members want is to work and to be paid for the work that they do.”

WHY NOT give your fledgling business lift-off with the help of a €280,000 prize fund from the Seedcorn Business Competition 08 — that’s the message from InterTra- delreland.

Small companies North and South have leveraged €65m of additional equity investment over the past five years through Seedcorn, which of- fers the biggest prize fund of any business competition on the island.

“‘Treland is rightly renowned for its spirit of entrepreneurship and that 1s something we want to continue to support, So we would encourage even more young firms to sign up for this year’s competiton,’ said Liam Nellis, chief executive of InterTradelreland.

Pat Lucey of Aspiracon, last year’s winner of Emerging International Company, Munster region, said: “We

entered Seedcorn to help drive our business development and it gave us a framework for our business plan as

well as valuable feedback through expert judging panels and Master- ESNet

‘“Seedcorn forced us to address ar- eas which we had been missing — I Suppose you could say we took a step back in order to look forward. Ulti- mately, it accelerated our develop- ment by about six months and we are now engaged in negotiations with the VC community. The publicity has been very positive as well, as it all helps to get your foot in the door!”

All entrants to the competition must be able to demonstrate new equity requirements in excess of €75,000. Entrants to the Emerging Company category must be in existence for less than three years by September 26, 2008, and have sales targets of less than €5m. Entrants to the Emerg- ing International Company must be in business less than five years by September 26, 2008, and have sales targets of more than €5m.

Following the scoring of written business plans, the top entries from

each region and category are selected to make a short presentation to a pan- el of judges, followed by a question and answer session.

Winners are selected in each cat- egory in each of the four regions and all eight will be asked to make their presentation again to a separate pan- el of judges at the final in Belfast on November 26, 2008. The panel will then select the overall all-island win- ner in each category.

To register your interest in entering the Seedcorn Business Competition, log on to the new dedicated website: WWww.seedcorncompetition.com. Business plans must be submitted by Spm on the closing date of Septem- ber 26.

40 per cent of farmers now Say that they are ready to vote Yes in the upcoming election.

The number of farmers now com- mitted to voting No stands at 33 per cent with a sizeable 27 per cent still undecided.

The Irish Farmers Organisation have been on the verge of endors- ing the No campaign over the last number of weeks following increas-

ing anger over the handling, by EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson, of the WTO.

Galway MEP Sean O’Neachtain spoke out on Thursday last calling on the farmers of Clare to Vote Yes for the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty.

O’Neachtain has been one of the treaty’s strongest advocates and has spoken out at many public meetings over the last month.

“IT strongly believe that it is in the future economic and political inter- ests of the people of County Clare and the people of Ireland that the EU Lisbon Reform Treaty is ratified,” he Sr nLee

‘This treaty is about ensuring that the EU institutions reform how they

will take decisions into the future so as to ensure that the European Union becomes more effective and more efficient in how it will carry out its business into the future.

A more effective European Union will help to ensure that the EU can bring forward new laws which will help to develop the European econo- my to a stronger extent. The ratifica- tion of this treaty will guarantee that the EU will be able to address new problems such as climate change and the security of energy supplies in a more structured manner. No one country alone can tackle all these problems on their own.”

Specifically targeting farmers, O Neachtain said that a yes vote will

help Ireland to effectively address the concerns of Irish farmers in the context of the CAP Health Check 2008 — 2013

“We welcome any measures at an EU level which will simplify the actual operation of the CAP, and, in particular, the administration of the single farm payment,” he said.

“But we clearly do not support the proposal to increase compulsory modulation from five to 13 per cent, which means that farmers will lose eight per cent in the value of their annual single farm payment from the year 2012, and it is proposed by the European Commission that these monies will be re-directed to other rural development programmes.”

TEAGASC claimed last week that the increased cost of artificial ferti- lizer this year 1s impacting on farm- ers’ profit margins and could squeeze many Clare farmers off the land. Depending on stocking rates the higher cost of fertilizer in 2008 could increase production costs by up to €50 per hectare on beef farms, or up to €100 per hectare on dairy farms. This increase is the equivalent of 0.75 cent per litre of milk or 16 cent per kilogram of beef live weight. “Even though production costs have increased grass remains the cheapest form of feed on dairying and drystock farms, and nitrogen

remains the main driver of yields. On tillage farms, even at current fer- tilizer prices and based on expected grain prices, applications are justi- fied economically,” said Teagasc en- vironment specialist Tim Hyde.

Changes in the price of fertilizer have implications for usage and the management of other valuable nutri- ent sources such as slurry on farms. These changes have refocused at- tention on the benefits of clover as a source of nitrogen. In monetary terms a thousand gallons of slurry is now worth €25, while clover can fix nitrogen to a value of €120 per hectare.

Among the factors to be consid- ered when responding to the change

in fertilizers prices is the enterprise type and the level of efficiency. On farms fertilizers, particularly nitro- gen, drives farm output, and used ef- ficiently also drives profit.

Nitrogen is the main determinant of high yields and artificial fertilizer sources should only be reduced be- low crop requirement if it can be re- placed by alternatives such as clover swards and organic manures.

“While the increased cost of ferti- lizer will add €10 per head to feed costs associated with a winter fin- ished animal on good grass silage plus concentrates an intensive feed- ing system based on concentrates would only become more competi- tive, if concentrate prices dropped by

€80 per tonne,” said Siobhan Kavan- agh, Teagasc nutrition specialist.

In relation to tillage crops, nitrogen fertilizer prices would need to rise, or grain prices drop significantly, before current nitrogen application rates would not be justified econom1- cally.

“Despite dramatic increases in prices fertilizer applications remain a cost effective input for profitable crops.

“With current fertilizer nitrogen prices and the projected price of grain the economic optimum for cereal crops has not changed and is similar to that of 2007,” said Teagasc soul and plant nutrition specialist Mark Plunkett.