The Clare People Archive

O’BRIEN’S Sandwich Bar, Ennis, is getting geared up for The Clare 10k 2008.

Proprietor of the sandwich bar, Kathleen O’Brien, has announced that they will be the sole provider of water for participants in the 2008 event.

O’Brien’s water will be available along the route at the water station outside The Auburn Lodge Hotel on the Gort Road. This is just past the halfway mark and has provided much needed refreshment for run-

ners and walkers alike over the past two years.

There will also be water available in Lees Road when competitors re- enter the complex.

Staff from O’Brien’s will be on hand on the day to distribute the wa- ter.

Kathleen O’Brien, owner of the Salthouse Lane store, said, ““We are delighted to be involved with The Clare 10k and to be supporting such a worthwhile charity.”

The store, which opened its doors over seven years ago, offers a full range of O’Brien’s products includ-

ing a popular juice bar, where cus- tomers can enjoy a range of freshly squeezed juices and made to order smoothies.

O’Brien’s has more than 300 stores providing the healthy fast food op- tion in 14 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada.

O’Brien’s aim to serve only the highest quality food and drink to customers and strives to offer a wide variety of fresh, natural and tasty food served by helpful and friendly Nee

The Ennis store has consistently achieved elite store status for stand-

ards from O’Brien’s head office in Dublin and received awards for the premium coffee quality from suppli- er Deemac, where it achieved one of there top awards in the country.

For more information on O’Brien’s Sandwich Bar visit www.obriensca- tering.com.

DETAILS of email exchanges be- tween ‘lyingeyes’ and ‘hitman- forhire’ were outlined to the jury by the Prosecution, on the second day of the trial.

“Lying eyes 1s Sharon Collins,” said Prosecutor Tom O’Connell.

At around lunchtime on August 2, 2006, a search for ‘hitman’ was car- ried out on a desktop computer at the Howards’ business at Westgate Busi- ness Park, Ennis.

A webpage, www.hitman.us, was accessed at 1.15pm and again after 3pm. At 4.01pm, the user accessed the inbox of sharoncollins@eircom. net and read email.

“Someone using it knows Sharon Collins’ password and is using her email,” said Mr O’Connell.

At 4.47pm, Yahoo searches were carried out for inheritance rights. At 5.17pm, the user logged into ‘lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie’ email ac- count and at 5.42pm an email was sent from sharoncollins@eircom.net to lyingeyes98 @yahoo.ie.

“Somebody sitting at the computer in the office, knowing Sharon Col- lins’ password, sent an email from her email address to ‘lyingeyes.’ That site had only been set up that day. The person sending the email knew that email had been set up that day and was testing the site,” said Mr O’Connell.

On August 8, 2006, the user ac- cessed = sharoncollins@eircom.net at 1.02pm and at 1.05pm, the user signed into lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie. At 9.53pm that night, the user ac- cessed = sharoncollins@eircom.net and at 9.58pm, the user ran searches on yahoo for ‘assassins for hire.’

“At 10 o’clock, the user accessed a webpage www.hitmanforhire.net and uses it. It tells you how to or- der a hitman for contract,’ said Mr O’Connell.

On August 16, the user of the office computer logged into ‘lyingeyes.’ The user then carried out a search for FedEx courier service and a tracking number was used.

This showed that the shipment had

left the previous day and was due to arrive in Las Vegas the following day, August 17.

“The significance is that the person using ‘lyingeyes’ knows the tracking number. “‘Lyingeyes’ is checking the progress of the package,” said Mr O’Connell.

“Sharon Collins personally went to FedEx… The next day in the of- fice of Downes and Howard business is checking the tracking number of the package sent to the US. The in- ference is that ‘lyingeyes’ is Sharon Collins,” he said.

Mr O’Connell said that the hard drive of the laptop computer which was stolen from the business premis- es was analysed.

He said that in the early hours of the morning afterthe alleged burglary, the computer was used to access anumber of web-based email pages. These included hitmanforhire@ yahoo. ooynee tonyluciano@yahoo. com, essameid@yahoo.com and tengels@yahoo.com.

“This shows the State would invite you to draw the inference that Essam Eid is ‘hitmanforhire’, Tony Luciano. He had the computer. It’s an infer- ence you can draw. It is up to you,” Mr O’Connell told the jury.

Mr O’Connell said a third computer was also examined. This was a lap- top computer seized at PJ Howard’s home, Ballybeg House, on February 26, 2007.

ANemail account lyingeyes98 @yahoo. ie was set up by Sharon Collins ‘for the purpose of hiring a hitman’, ac- cording to the Prosecution.

The State alleges the account was set up on August 2, 2006 on a desk computer at the Howards’ business premises at Westgate Business Park in Ennis.

Senior Counsel for the Prosecution Tom O’Connell told the jury that on August 8, 2006, that email address established contact with an email ad- dress ‘hitmanforhire@ yahoo.com’.

Telling the jury the email address would be “engraved in your memo- ries by the end of the case”, Mr O’Connell said it is the State’s case that Essam Eid operated that email using the alias Tony Luciano.

‘Emails were sent from that email address, signed Tony Luciano. Serv- ices offered by hitmanforhire were contract killings,” he said.

He said that after August 8, 2006, several emails were exchanged between the two email addresses and on August 15, “a contract was made between the person behind ‘lyingeyes’ and ‘hitman’ to kill PJ

Howard and his two sons at the price Oy LOR O00 ne

He said that $50,000 was the “‘nor- mal price” but because there were three, it was $90,000.

He said that on August 15, Ms Collins made a downpayment of €15,000, on foot of that contract.

“She sent the €15,000 in cash on that date by FedEx courier services from Shannon,” he said, adding that €13,000 was withdrawn from her own bank account and €2,000 from the credit union. She sent the money to Teresa Engels in Las Vegas, he PALO

“At that time, Teresa Engels ap- peared to be his wife. She lived with Essam Eid in Las Vegas at that ad- dress, with his previous wife, Lisa Eid,’ said Mr O’Connell.

He said that Essam Eid travelled to Ireland on September 24, 2004 and booked into the Two Mile Inn Hotel in Limerick. He said that the Egyp- tian native burgled the Howards’ business premises at Westgate Busi- ness Park in Ennis on September 25.

“It was an inside job. There was no evidence of any forced entry. Who- ever entered the premises that night had the keys and also had the alarm

code. It would seem the purpose of the burglary was to get rid of in- criminating evidence. The following day when gardai carried out a search of a room at the Two Mile Inn, they found keys to the office premises. It is the State’s case these were provid- ed by Ms Collins. They were left in Ennis to be picked up and used then to remove the potentially incriminat- ing computer,’ he said.

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.”