Month: November 2008

A POLICY is needed for the future maintenance of the Ennis public lighting system, Town Councillor Johnny Flynn has said.

At a meeting of the town council last night, Cllr Flynn proposed that a professional consultant be employed to draw up such a policy as the con- tract between the council and the ESB is drawing to a close.

In a motion before the meeting he asked that “in the context of deregu- lation and possible departure of ESB contracts that Ennis Town Council

develop an appropriate policy to manage their street lighting asset having regard to public safety, en- ergy efficiency, value for money for maintenance, liability indemnifica- tion, design commissioning and cer- tification”.

The councillor said that the service which the town council is getting has reduced in recent years “probably because of the break up of the com- pany into constituent parts”’.

He said that street lighting is “a valuable asset” on which the coun- cil spent a third of a million Euros last year. “We have something in the

order of 3,000 street lights in En- nis and it’s important that we have a policy for managing and maintaining them,” he said.

Cllr Flynn said that in February 2007, 7 per cent of the town’s pub- lic lights were not working. “That went back to two per cent following a discussion of the matter,’ he told the meeting.

Cllr Tommy Brennan said that it would be important when the council takes over maintenance of the light- ing system that they “ensure that we are taking over lights that are in good working condition, in the same way

that we would if we were taking any- thing else in charge’.

In reply to the councillor’s motion the town engineer said that the coun- cil has engaged a company to carry out an inventory of public lighting and an asset management system. “The softwear is a specialised light- ing management package which is used by eight other local authori- one

He said the lighting inventory would be used by the local authority to tender their public lighting main- tenance when their existing ESB contact expires.

, will this week

(Wednesday night, 9pm) focus on the

Brendan O’Donnell tragedy, while

it will also look back at the Patrick O’ Dwyer case.

The final part of the series, next

week, will look at the unsolved mur- der of Ennistymon woman Emer O’Loughlin, on the Galway/Clare border in 2005.

In a case that shocked the na- tion, Brendan O’Donnell murdered Imelda Riney, her three-year-old son Liam and Galway priest Fr Joe Walsh. Their bodies were found in Cregg Wood in east Clare in 1994.

O’Donnell was subsequently con- victed of the triple murder, but died in 1996 while serving his sentence at the Central Mental Hospital in Dub-

lin.

Patrick O’Dwyer, from Shrohill, Ennistymon, killed his 17-year-old sister Marguerite in a frenzied at- tack at their home on November 29, pAuers

O’Dwyer hit his sister six times on the head with a claw hammer and in- flicted more than 90 stab wounds to her body. He told gardai he had con- templated suicide and attacked his sister while she watched television, as he feared she would get in the way of his suicide attempt. He later came

clean to gardai. “It’s like being inside a room with a video and I can’t turn it off,” he told gardai.

At the Central Criminal Court in June 2007, O’Dwyer claimed a de- fence of diminished responsibility, in that he suffered from a mental disor- der when he killed his sister.

The jury in the trial agreed and found him guilty of manslaughter, by reason of diminished responsibil- ity. He was sentenced to six years in jail.

This week’s hour-long programme will address the issue of balance of mind and the prevalence of mental health issues among a high percent- age of those who commit crime in Ireland.

The third Clare tragedy to be in- cluded in the series is that of Emer O’Loughlin. The 23-year-old’s body was discovered in a burnt out cara- van near Tubber in April 2005. No- one has ever been held accountable for her killing. The story of Emer’s killing is one of three unsolved cases being highlighted in the documen- Fe AY

The series is produced by Sideline Productions. It examines the rise in Irish murder rates and assesses the impact of the various killings on the families left behind. It is presented by former T’V3 crime correspondent Maura Derrane.

ALMOST 70 per cent of créches in Clare failed to comply with HSE regulations. That is according to a survey of inspection reports from the county’s créches and schools car- ried out between October 2006 to October 2007 and released under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to the pre-school inspec- tion reports into facilities that ca- tered for 10 or more children, 69 out of the 101 inspected in Clare were in breach of the HSE’s criteria.

Of those, which did not comply with the inspector’s criteria, as many as 33, or almost a third, were record- ed as having minor or very minor

breaches of the regulations. Another 32 had no breaches at all.

Among the most common breaches outlined was the child-adult ratio exceeding the 10:1 limit, bound- ary fencing or doors broken, lack of space for children to move about in and un-nutritious food.

At the Knocklisheen Accommo- dation Centre the inspector found a long list of issues including the need for more space and staff, and a lim- ited range of toys available

The report also recorded that there was no nappy bags or disposable gloves for the staff, no snacks pro- vided to the children in the morn- ing session and sleeping babies were at risk of being hit by falling toys.

There were no toys or equipment in the outdoor area.

The Department of Justice said however that the number of children in this pre-school in the reception centre for asylum seekers had been adjusted to meet the HSE guidelines.

Additional toys and equipment are now in place and a stock of depos- able gloves and nappy bags are avail- able to staff. It said healthy snacks it said were available, and the outdoor play area, which was under construc- tion at the time of the inspection is now complete.

The inspector also out lined con- cerns relating to the prefabricated building in which the Little Rascals Playgroup in St Conaire’s National

School in Shannon was situated. That prefab has since been replaced however and the HSE are said to be happy with the new facility.

In Maghera Gardens Créche the in- spector found that nappies were be- ing changed in both toilets including staff toilets. The creche said that one of the toilets is now designated for staff only, and the other is the chil- dren and changing nappies only.

The Inspector found that the stage area in the Community Centre in Kil- rush was not suitable for the Stepping Stones Playgroup. The playgroup has applied however for funding to fix the concertina doors leading to the stage which they claim provide plenty of room for the children.

he felt it necessary to have his feelings known when he took part in the teachers and parent’s protest against budget cuts in education.

‘For me it is very clear cut. I am a teacher and at the cold face of it, and long after this has died down as a political issue, for me and other teachers and more importantly the children will be paying the price for months and maybe even years to come,’ said Cllr Crowe.

He said as far as he was concerned there was no conflict of interest in his stance.

“T think it is healthy that I should go out. [ am a Fianna Fail man and wish to stay a Fianna Fail man, but I was elected by the people of this area and this does not sit well with them and it does not sit well with me,’ he

added.

While his own school won’t be af- fected directly by the cuts this year the east Clare councillor has not ruled out crippling affects in the fu- neh ker

‘Down the road new appointments could be affected and class sizes,’ he Cr AKOR

“I think the Government and Fian- na Fail need to rethink this. In mak- ing the necessary cuts you should not touch the young or the elderly.

“We have a very low betting tax and by increasing it by a few more per cent it could net another €100 million.”

Like many more in the profession the young teacher said he has spent his Own money on providing essen- tial materials for the classroom.

‘“T have spent close to €2,500 of my own money to put things in my class room.

“IT bought my own projector and I am out of pocket and I took out a broadband contract that I use for the classroom. This is something that should be in every classroom,” he said. “I am not alone in this. We (teachers) put up with a lot and say very little, but at a time like this we cannot stay quiet anymore,’ said the outspoken councillor.

MICHAEL Dillon told the trial that he felt ‘fine’ driving on the day of the accident and rejected suggestions that he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

The father-of-two, a fitter based in Connemara, had travelled to Port- magee in Kerry the day before the accident to join his colleagues from Galway Scuba Diving Club.

He had got up at 5am and left his Inverin home at 5.30am to drive to Portmagee. He arrived there at

9.30am and did two dives off Val- entia that day. He later went out for dinner and had four or five pints of Heineken. He said he remained in the pub until around lam and then went back to a house that was rented by some members of the sub aqua club.

There, he was handed a bottle of beer but only drank a mouthful and fell asleep. He was awakened at 2.30am and went to the hostel where he was staying. He went to bed and slept until 9am when a phone call from his wife woke him. He went

back to sleep until 10am and af- ter getting up, he was between two minds whether to stay in Kerry for another day.

He eventually decided to drive home and left at around llam. He said he got a headache about 40 minutes into the drive and pulled over and took paracetamol and a drink. He contin- ued on with his journey and said the headache went away, but said he did not remember anything after passing Bunratty. “Nothing, ‘til after the ac- cident,” he told the court.

He said after the accident, he re- membered “sitting in the jeep. The windscreen was broken and the bon- net was on the windscreen.” He said he had no memory of seeing the two cyclists and had no memory of his jeep veering off and leaving the dual OF NU UTE

He said he learned that Mr Flan- nery had died when he arrived at his Inverin home later that evening.

He told the trial he had several medical examinations carried out in the aftermath of the accident, in

an effort to ascertain what had hap- pened to him, but no explanation emerged. He said he did not drive for 10 months after the accident and did not dive until April of this year.

Under —_cross-examination _—_—by Stephen Coughlan, for the prosecu- tion, Mr Dillon said he felt “fine” while in Kerry. Asked could he have fallen asleep while driving, he said, “No. I felt comfortable driving.” He denied that his jeep had left the road as a result of falling asleep. “I didn’t feel tired or anything,” he said.

THE trial relating to the accident that claimed the life of father-of-four Howard Flannery was “a case of tragedy heaped upon tragedy” with a lot of emotion, according to the state prosecutor.

In his closing speech to the jury, Stephen Coughlan, BL, said the 1s- sue was “what caused the accused to veer off the road onto the hard shoul- der and onto the grass and strike Mr wtlioa wae

“There was nothing remarkable about his driving, until he began to

veer off the road. Dangerous driving is caused by negligence. If you are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused drove dangerously, you must convict. If you decide he didn’t, you must acquit. Simple as that,’ he said.

“Nobody gets into a motor car intending to kill anybody, be it a motorist, a pedestrian or a cyclist, but dangerous driving is caused by negligence,” he told the jury of eight women and four men.

He said that Michael Dillon had put in a long, strenuous, 22-hour day the day before the accident and was tired.

He noted that medical examinations carried out on the accused after the accident concluded that the accident was “an unexplained event.”

‘The State is asking you to draw an inference that this unexplained event was caused by the fatigue which the accused was labouring under,’ he said. He said that Mr Dillon had been a tired driver and was slow to react.

However, in his closing speech last Thursday, Anthony Sammon, SC, for Michael Dillon, said the State’s in- ference that fatigue had been a factor was “slightly over-egging the pud- ding.” He said at no stage had it been

put to the accused by gardai that he had fallen asleep.

“Tt has been conjured up during this case. It wasn’t even told to you in the Opening (speech to the jury). The word ‘sleep’ wasn’t even mentioned in the opening,” he said.

“This is a difficult case because of the horror of a decent man, Mr Flannery, losing his life. The horrific consequences of that on his family, colossal. The pressures on my client and his family, colossal,” he said.

“Confronted by the emotional cliff face that hangs it all, you must not lose sight or develop any blindness

because of emotion,’ he urged the jury.

Judge Gerard Griffin told the jury it was important to note that the first mention of fatigue in the pros- ecution’s case had been during the cross-examination of Mr Dillon by Mr Coughlan. “It will be a matter for you which of the prosecution evi- dence you regard,’ the judge told the ury.

He told the jury if they found that the driving was careless rather than dangerous, it was open to them to find the accused guilty of careless driving.

SHARON Collins told her psycholo- gist she did not commit the offences of which she was convicted, during a meeting with him just weeks ago.

Clinical psychologist Brian Glan- ville carried out a pscyhometric eval- uation of Sharon Collins’ personal- ity, having met her on September 4 and 22 last, at the women’s prison in Mountjoy.

He concluded that her personality

style appeared to be that of a passive, detached but dependent personality.

He said that she suffers from high levels of anxiety and depression and will find her prison term particularly difficult.

‘A personality like that is likely to find themselves in conflict,” he said. He said this type of personality would have a strong need for emotional sup- port, but would feel swamped in re- lationships.

He said that Collins had high levels

of anxiety and depression.

“She would have particular difficul- ties with lengthy prison sentences. She is going to find herself in a situa- tion where she would have very little in common with the other inmates,” he noted.

He said that Collins was of the view that she had been subjected to unwel- come media attention and felt under “adverse media pressure”.

He said she was particularly con- cerned that a conversation she had

with PJ Howard, during a visit to her at Mountjoy jail, had been leaked to the media.

He said she may become more withdrawn and isolated, in the sur- roundings of the prison. “That could have quite serious consequences for her,” he said.

Una Ni Raifeartaigh, BL for the prosecution, asked him did Collins suffer from any psychiatric illness and he said she did not.

Mr Glanville said Collins had ex-

pressed concerns for her sons but when asked had she expressed simi- lar concern for her mother, he said he did not recall for sure.

Asked had she been concerned about the Howards, he said, “I don’t have any recollection about that.”

Ms Ni Raifeartaigh asked had Col- lins expressed remorse for her ac- tions.

He replied, “I understand she says she didn’t commit the offences. It doesn’t arise.”

SHARON Collins was a wonderful mother to her two sons, who have both been badly affected by the high-profiled case, according to her former husband.

Noel Collins took to the witness stand to give a character reference for the mother of his two sons.

He explained how they had got married in 1983, when Collins was just 19.

They had two sons together, Gary

(25) and David (22), but the marriage did not work out and they separated in 1989. They were annulled two years later.

He said that they endured a tough few years together.

“The eighties was a tough time for

most people, albeit something similar that is happening now. There was a recession. Things evolved over time. It didn’t work out. We got separated,’ said Noel Collins.

He said that while she was granted custody of their sons, she never re-

stricted his access to them. “I could have had access any time I wanted,’ he said.

“Sharon always has been a great mother to the boys, very supportive. She put the boys first,” he said.

He said that both sons have been mentally and physically affected by the event and both have now moved to live with him in Dublin. David had to take a very tough decision to leave his job in Ennis to move to Dublin during the summer.

“It has had a massive effect on my- self and on Sharon’s mother. She’s a shadow of her former self. She’s on God knows how much medication. She used to be the life and soul. She used to love to dance. She doesn’t go out any more,” he said.

Written character references were handed in to the court from the Bishop of Killaloe Dr Willie Walsh, the Mayor of Ennis Councillor Pe- ter Considine, the deputy governor of Mountjoy women’s prison — who described her as a model prisoner — along with fromer friends of Collins.

Bishop Walsh said that while he did not want to interfere with the crimi- nal justice system, he did not believe that a lengthy prison sentence would be in line with the common good or would serve restorative justice.

He described Collins as an open, truthful and caring person and he was unable to make sense of the enormous event that had happened.

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.

GREED, deceit, callousness, dishon- esty, arrogance and manipulation were at the centre of Sharon Collins’ desires to have the Howards mur- dered.

The divorced mother-of-two had known PJ Howard to see since she was an innocent young girl grow- ing up in the town of Ennis. PJ was a wealthy businessman and she was an ambitious young girl.

Tragically, her ultimate ambitions ran too deep and inspired her to piece together a devious and cunning plan to have PJ murdered. Collins (45) enjoyed good times with PJ Howard – a lavish lifestyle, a loving partner and secure employment. But she was overcome by greed and she wanted everything – PJ’s millions. She had grown up in a modest background in Ennis and having tasted the high life, she wanted more.

She believed she was invincible and was of the view that the uncanny way in which she operated her plan would not backfire. Before going online and searching for an assassin, Collins had compiled a list of targets. PJ was target number one, but that was not the end of it. She believed that she

would not be able to get her hands on PJ’s wealth unless his sons Rob- ert (29) and Niall (25) were also out of the equation. A fourth target was also considered but this was not pro- ceeded with.

With her plan hatched, she coolly went online and sought to hire a hit- man. She came upon the ‘hitman- forhire’ website and went about her eevee

She set up the email address lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie for the pur- pose of hiring a hitman. The email address in itself has much relevance to her relationship with PJ Howard – they became an item in 1998; that was also the year his partner died; while the ‘lying eyes’ song by The Eagles was penned about a rich old man falling for a beautiful young woman before she cheated on him.

Collins was brazen and this was highlighted by the fact that some of the emails to ‘hitman’ were sent from a computer in the Downes and Howard office, where PJ had em- ployed her as a part-time secretary.

Over dozens of emails, Collins described in detail to ‘hitman’ the background as to why she wanted to wipe out the Howards. She wanted to inherit PJ’s money and she was intent

on doing this. The level of detail con- tained in the emails was remarkable. They indicated her deep desire to en- sure her plan was carried out.

In those emails, she coldly dis- cussed methods of killing the Howards – the possibility that Robert and Niall would die in an accident or be poisoned and PJ would be thrown from his 14th floor apartment in Spain in an apparent ‘suicide’ were mentioned.

Her intent was clear when she sent a down payment of €15,000 via FedEx in Shannon to the home of the man she was hiring.

‘Hitman’ was ordered to ensure the computers from the Downes and Howard office disappeared, so that incriminating evidence would not be available, if her actions were ever 1n- vestigated.

However, for all her devious plan- ning, Collins did not anticipate that ‘hitman’ would make the move to contact one of the targets, which ulti- mately led to her plan backfiring. Es- sam Eid (53) could not contact her on the evening of September 26, 2006, and instead decided to ring Robert Howard and attempt to buy out the contract. The web had become entan- gled and while gardai were not aware

of her involvement at this stage, as the story unravelled, Collins’ name aslo exer

She was arrested in February 2007 and questioned. She maintained her innocence and concocted a story about being set up due to her associa- tion with a mysterious American au- thor called Maria Marconi. In three detailed letters to the DPP – written in March, April and May 2007 – she pleaded that she not be charged, sug- gesting that if charges were brought it would have an adverse effect on her family and on PJ Howard.

But a huge volume of evidence had been collected. Gardai had got their hands on the computers at the cen- tre of the case and crucial email evi- dence had been uncovered. Collins was in the spotlight. Within weeks of her third letter to the DPP, she was charged. Yet, when the case came to trial, she maintained her innocent plea.

In the witness box, Collins denied profusely that she had been involved in a plot to kill the Howards and said that PJ had been very good to her. Put under pressure to name who may have set her up, she refused to do so. She was also reluctant to be drawn on allegations she had made about PJ

Howard, in a letter to the Gerry Ryan show on RTE 2FM in April 2006. In the letter, she had claimed that her partner had used prostitutes and transvestites and had encouraged her to take part in strange sex.

Asked three times were the contents in the letter true, she said, “Some of it was, but a lot of that letter wasn’t true and doesn’t give the full picture. I feel it shouldn’t have been used in here.”

But crucially she showed two con- trasting personalities in the witness box – the jury saw a cool, confident and smiling Collins during one of her two days’ evidence, followed by a tearful and sad Collins the follow- bITae rN

Her arrogance and self-assured at- titude on her first visit to the witness box were replaced by a pale-faced women in considerable difficulty the following day.

The jurors were not convinced by her and decided that she was guilty on all six charges she had faced. Ulti- mately, Sharon Collins must pay the price for her greed, dishonesty and or NOLO LEIS a ehsh