This article is from page 15 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
SHARON Collins has been pilloried in the community and ridiculed in the media as a result of the allega- tions she has faced, according to her legal team.
Michael Bowman, BL, in his clos- ing speech to the jury said that she had “been to hell and back” and her family had been “torn asunder”.
‘“There’s a momentum in this case almost freewheeling to a conviction, which you cannot allow to happen. .. Put the brakes on,” he said.
He urged the jury not to “slavishly accept” computer evidence and to “look at the inconsistencies found in the prosecution case. Nobody paid any attention to Sharon Collins’ story.”
He said that Sharon Collins “plead- ed not guilty and stood firm with that
plea. She maintains her plea from be- ginning to end.”
“Bearing that in mind, I’d ask you to consider she took the witness box. She is not blind, she 1s not deaf, she is not dumb. She saw witness after wit- ness taking the stand. She knew what was coming,” he said.
He said that Ms Ni Raifeartaigh had used colourful language to describe Ms Collins, adding, “but PJ Howard knows Sharon Collins for far longer than that. That is at variance to PJ’s description of her.”
Mr Bowman said that witness John Keating, who told the court he spent the morning of August 16 with Ms Collins — when key emails were sent by ‘lyingeyes’ — was a “microcosm” or “snapshot” of the case as a whole.
He said that while he was a pros- ecution witness, when he said some- thing that could be advantageous to
the defence, “no expense was spared to tear the man asunder”.
“John Keating is a man who you can believe, a man who you can trust. It puts a question mark over the in- tegrity of all the other evidence,’ he ene
“If John Keating is an honest man, and I believe he 1s, he has been treat- ed appallingly,” he said.
He said that on August 23, 2006, an incoming US call, from Essam Eid’s mobile number, was made to the Downes and Howard business at Westgate Business Park in Ennis, lasting seven minutes, at a time Sha- ron Collins was out of the country. He said there was no explanation for this call.
“If there was an explanation con- sistent with the prosecution, it would have been introduced,” he said.
He said that gardai took several
trips to the US, Spain and the UK and “expense has not been spared in this case’, yet, in the face of this, E1r- com had not been required to provide evidence as they were “not prepared to provide resources”.
He said that ‘lyingeyes’ appeared to have a lot of detail, but in reality “not everything is adding up with regards the content of those emails”.
He said the investigation team was ‘like a dog with a bone, picked up the idea and ran with it” and maybe they were delighted to be going back and forth to the US, hanging out with the ja syR
“Nobody considered the alterna- tive. They declined the opportunity to make a liar out of Sharon Col- lins with regards the Maria Marconi Story.
““T thought we were going to get cell site analysis (relating to the tour of
Clare which Sharon Collins said she brought Maria Marconi on). Nobody took the time to go through the phone records with a ruler and highlighter,” he said.
He said that when Limerick prison was searched for ricin, everybody was “dressed to the nines in space- suits”. Yet, when the army officer was handed it, he was only wearing “rubber gloves, and no mask”’.
“You and I wear Marigold gloves washing the dishes. The third most dangerous substance known to man- kind!…”
Mr Bowman said that the chief prosecution witness Teresa Engle “took the oath and proceeded to tell lie after lie after lie”.
He said she had no regard for the truth and was self-interested, self- serving and a “convicted fraudster”’.
‘“She’s a bare-faced liar,” he said.