This article is from page 15 of the 2008-11-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
PJ HOWARD appealed to the judge not to send Sharon Collins to jail and he refuted allegations made against him during the course of the trial.
The 59-year-old staunchly defended his partner and said he will not give up on her. He pleaded for leniency for the woman he described as ‘car- ing, loving and decent’.
In a victim impact statement deliv- ered to the court yesterday, he said he would have no hesitation in liv- ing with her again and said she was one of the nicest people he was lucky enough to have met.
He started by addressing the alle- gations made against him during the trial, in a letter emailed by Collins to
the Gerry Ryan show on RTE 2FM. In that letter, only part of which was retrieved, Collins had claimed he used prostitutes and transvestites and had encouraged her to engage in strange sex. For the first time yester- day, he publicly rejected those alle- gations.
“I would like to take this opportu- nity to refute the allegations made against me in the court case and I wish to deny any and all of those al- legations.
‘IT have never seen nor was I told by gardai about an email that was supposedly sent to the Gerry Ryan Show,” he stated.
He then spoke of his relationship with, and devotion to, Collins.
“IT have known Sharon Collins for
approximately nine years. During that time she had made a good home for us all and we were extremely happy together and got on very well. Sharon has a positive outlook on life and she was very loving and giving of her time to our extended families. Sharon always kept an even keel and I have never known her to do any- thing drastic over those years. She is a very straightforward and honest person and if she wanted anything She would ask,” he said.
“Sharon is, in my opinion, one of the nicest people you could ever have been fortunate to know. She is a car- ing, loving and decent lady,” said PJ Howard.
He said the whole event has been emotional and stressful for him per-
sonally. “I will not give up on Sharon and would have no hesitation what- soever in living with her again,” he added.
Reading from his statement, the multi-millionaire asked Mr Justice Roderick Murphy to consider Shar- on’s redeeming qualities and asked him to be lenient in imposing sen- tence.
“IT am asking the court not to im- pose a custodial sentence as I do not believe that Sharon poses any threat to my sons.
“T ask the court to consider how a prison sentence would affect her mother, her two sons and myself,’ he said.
Oe Witwer TRO.CecOnOMMcsKen IRIN MSIRE ation for me and the prospect of Sha-
ron being in prison for a long time 1s adding to this stress,” he said.
He said he did not accept a submis- sion from the State at a bail hearing – after his partner was charged last year – that he was in fear of his life.
“IT am not in any way in fear of Sharon. I have always made this per- fectly clear to the gardai that I was never in fear of Sharon either before and again after the guilty verdict,’ he CrHOe
He said that while his sons Robert and Niall had been asked for victim impact statements by the gardai, he was not.
“At no stage was that courtesy ex- tended to me even though they have my telephone numbers and I am im- mediately contactable,” he said.