This article is from page 4 of the 2008-07-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
AS Ennis mother of two Sharon Col- lins faces the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence following her con- viction for conspiring to kill her mil- lionaire partner and his two sons, friends of her primary target, busi- nessman PJ Howard, have leapt to his defence and have described as scurrilous claims about him made in court.
Mr Howard and his sons Robert and Niall have been trying to rebuild their lives after the six week trial which concluded last month.
Close friends of the businessman, who has been deeply affected by rev- elations in court, rallied around the 59 year old property tycoon saying that what was said about him in court was far from the truth.
During the trial of Sharon Collins and former Las Vegas poker deal Essam Eid for conspiring to kill the Howards in 2006, the details of an email in which Mrs Collins referred to her partner’s fondness for trans- vestite sex and prostitutes were read into evidence.
A former Mayor of Kilkee, local businessman, and a close personal friend of PJ Howard, Manuel DiLu- cia has described those allegations about Mr Howard’s private life as “total fabrication and all lies.”
‘| have known PJ for over 30 years and there has never been any indica- tion to suggest that any of what was said about him in court is even in the slightest way true. I have never seen or heard anything which would sup-
port any of the claims made in court and we have travelled many places together throughout Europe and he was always a total gentleman,’ Mr DiLucia said.
“PJ was always and still is a very generous and thoughtful man but in business he could be a very tough business opponent but you would ex- pect that. People work hard to earn what they have and PJ is no differ- ent.
“When I founded the Kilkee res- cue service in 1982 we were looking for sponsors to help us buy our first boat. In 1983, PJ came forward and offered to buy the boat, which he did, and even paid all the expenses to go to England to look at boats. When it was built and completed, he also paid the expenses to go back and collect it and bring it to Ireland. What’s more, he has made several contributions to local organisation and events since
then,’ Mr DiLucia said.
“I knew his late wife Teresa very well and even though they had sepa- rated, he looked after her very well up until her death. Some years later, it was exactly the same with his part- ner Bernie who also died. He was al- ways and is still a great father to his two sons. This was a vile attempt to tarnish the impeccable reputation of metro mmeet-see
“Nothing which was said in court about PJ’s private life is true and PJ is very upset by the comments. I haven’t spoken to PJ since the trial as I known he is resting and getting over the ordeal but I have been speaking to the family and I know how upset he has been about what was said,” Mr DiLucia added.
Another friend of Mr Howard’s, Limerick based businessman Bob McConkey said, “When I first heard some of the things which came out during the trial I was absolutely as- tonished. I was flabbergasted. In the 20 years I have known PJ Howard, in my experience; I have never seen or known anything of that about him – no way.”
‘I have never seen a side like that to him and it is scurrilous what was said and I know it to be scurrilous. When you know someone that long you know them. If anything like that was true, I would know about it or certainly would have heard. As far as I am concerned, what was said about PJ was a disgrace and absolutely un- founded,’ Mr McConkey added.