Mother’s plea for aid to pay for Spanish trial solicitor
Sandra Conroy’s 26-year-old daughter, Celine, was beaten to death in front of her three children at a holiday home in Alicante in August 2005.
Her long-term partner Paul Hickey, 29, was charged in connection with her death and his trial is expected to begin in October.
“I need a solicitor to represent Celine, to represent myself,” said Ms Conroy. “I need to know all the details what’s going on, leading up to case, what’s going on in court.
“There’s no point me sitting in court not knowing what they are talking about — it will all be in Spanish.”
Ms Conroy, who lives on Sean O’Casey Avenue, in Dublin’s north inner city, faces a bill of €10,000 for a solicitor in Spain.
“We had €3,000 left for Celine to bring her home that time for her funeral. We were going to leave it for the children until they got older, but we’ve taken that so the solicitor in Spain could start working on the grounds we’d have the rest of the money when the trial started.”
That leaves her with €7,000 to raise.
Ms Conroy has written to her local TD, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“I got a nice letter back from Bertie’s office, but they said they can’t help fund me, they were not in that position.”
She said the Taoiseach’s office and the DFA helped her find an English-speaking solicitor.
“I asked them where could I go to get money. They said they didn’t know. They should be able to help me. Celine was an Irish citizen. She’s my daughter, my only daughter, my best friend. I think there should be someone to help me.”
Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald yesterday called on the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs to help Ms Conroy.
A spokeswoman for the department confirmed they could not provide funding. “It would not be appropriate. The Spanish state is carrying out the prosecution. They provide a lawyer for the prosecution.”
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