Collins begins appeal in 'Lyingeyes' case

An appeal by a Co Clare woman against her conviction for soliciting a hit man to kill her partner and his two sons in 2006, opened at the Court of Criminal Appeal today.

Sharon Collins (aged 46), Kildysart Road, Ennis, Co Clare, was jailed for six years after being found guilty in July 2008 of soliciting a person to murder PJ Howard and his two sons Robert and Niall Howard.

Collins, who was accused of using the cyber name lyingeyes98 to investigate the hiring of a hitman on the internet, was also found guilty on three counts of conspiring to kill the three men.

At the opening of the appeal hearing today, Counsel for the DPP, Mr Tom O'Connell SC, said it was not possible to “stand over” her conviction for conspiracy as it was “logically unsustainable”.

The court was told it takes “at least two people to conspire” and that a jury had been unable to reach a verdict on a charge of conspiracy against Ms Collins’ co-accused Essam Eid (aged 54).

Eid, a former poker dealer, with an address in Las Vegas, was found guilty of demanding money with menace on September 26, 2006, and of handling items stolen from the Howard family business.

He was also jailed for six years by Mr Justice Roderick Murphy at the Central Criminal Court in October 2008.

Mr David Sutton SC, for Eid, today said his client wished to withdraw an appeal against his conviction, and would now be appealing the severity of sentence only.

This appeal is expected to get underway tomorrow.

The CCA, of Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan presiding, sitting with Mr Justice Declan Budd and Mr Justice Daniel O’Keefe, was told that although the State had agreed the conspiracy conviction should not stand, it remained opposed to Sharon Collins’ appeal in respect of her conviction for solicitation.

Counsel for Sharon Collins, Mr Brendan Grehan SC, said his client's attempt to overturn her solicitation conviction would focus on four main points, among them the "accomplice" evidence of Teresa Engle, Eid's second wife who was a convicted felon and awaiting sentence in the US at the time of the trial.

It will also focus on the treatment of evidence relating to the poison Ricin, the judge’s charge to the jury on the soliciting charge, and what the court was told was “the Keating affair”.

During the 32-day trial, the prosecution argued that Collins started looking for a hitman on the internet after her partner, Mr PJ Howard, a man described yesterday as a person “of considerable means”, refused to marry her.

The court heard that Mr Howard and Ms Collins “held themselves out” as being a married couple, hosting a “marriage celebration” at Spanish Point in County Clare following a trip to Sorrento during which they made “a declaration of commitment to each other”.

But both were “well aware” that no binding ceremony had taken place.

It was the prosecution’s case that on August 2, 2006 Ms Collins created the email address [e-mail] and used it to contact the website Hitman.us, after searching the net for a contract killer.

A large part of the State’s evidence against both Ms Collins as Lyingeyes and a man calling himself Tony Luciano with the email address [e-mail] was made up of e-mails found on the hard drives of computers seized from the homes of both Collins and Eid.

Mr Grehan argued that the events of August 15th, 2006 “was a nailing of the prosecutions colours to the mask” in relation to their claim of when the solicitation offence is to have occurred.

The prosecution contended it was on this date “the contract was made” when Ms Collins sent €15,000 in a FedEx delivery to act as a deposit to have her partner and his sons killed.

The court was told yesterday that the “whole focus” of the trial had been on “the conspiracy charge” which both sides now accepted “cannot stand”. The solicitation charge was “included as a fall back position” and was “very much the poor relation”.

Lawyers for Collins argued the solicitation verdict was now “tainted” as there had been no effort to “treat them distinctly”.

What was required was separation of the two issues, he said, when in fact they were conjoined in the judge’s charge to the jury

The appeal court also heard that Mr John Keating, called to give evidence on the ninth day of the trial “ought not to have been treated” as an alibi witness. The manner by which Mr Keating was dealt, “forced” Ms Collins into the witness box, and this was “a stand alone ground” in itself.

It was also argued that the trial judge’s charge to the jury in respect of Mr Keating’s evidence was not sufficiently “clear”.

Mr Michael Bowman BL, for Ms Collins, said “diligent” efforts were made by investigating Gardai to obtain technical material from three Irish computers in the case, but that the same level of detail could not be said to exist in respect of the US aspects of the investigation.

This, Mr Bowman contended, resulted in “an evidential lacuna”.

Lawyers for Ms Collins said they were also taking issue with the failure to disclosure Ms Teresa Engle as a “headline” witness, prior to May 8th, 2008.

The court was told Ms Engle was “a bare faced liar”, who in her direct evidence to the trial, indicated she “agreed to testify” in October 2007.

The appeal by Sharon Collins against her conviction will resume tomorrow morning.