Six-year sentence for ‘Lying Eyes’
A mother-of-two who hired a hitman on-line to kill her wealthy partner and his sons was today jailed for six years at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin.
Sharon Collins (aged 45) with an address at Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, Co Clare was found guilty of soliciting Essam Eid, an Egyptian with a Las Vegas address, to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard in 2006 after an eight week trial earlier in the year.
She was also found guilty of three counts to conspiring to kill the three men.
Her co-accused, 53-year-old Eid, was found guilty of demanding €100,000 from Robert Howard on September 26, 2006.
He was also convicted of handling certain items stolen from the Howard family business the previous night.
During the sentencing hearing today prosecution counsel Mr Tom O’Connell entered a plea of nolle prosequi on three charges of conspiring to kill Mr Howard and his sons on which the jury failed to deliver a verdict.
During the 32-day trial, the jury heard that Collins had started looking for a hitman on the internet after Mr Howard had refused to marry her.
Prior to this she had also obtained a Mexican marriage certificate from a website called proxymarriages.com which she used to obtain an Irish passport in the name Sharon Howard.
The jury heard that Collins registered the email address lyingeyes98@yahoo.ie and used it to contact the website hitmanforhire.net on August 2, 2006. The website had been set up from an address belonging to Eid and his “wife” Teresa Engle.
A series of emails were sent between lyingeyes98 and a Tony Luciano discussing a plot to kill Mr Howard and his sons.
Robert and Niall Howard were to be poisoned before the killers flew to Spain to stage Mr Howard’s suicide by throwing him from the top of his apartment building.
Collins agreed to pay $90,000 (€71,245) for the three contracts.
On September 15, Collins sent a FedEx delivery to Eid’s home at 6108 Camden Cove Street, Las Vegas addressed to T. Engle. The parcel contained €15,000 (€11,875) and a pair of goggles from a video game.
On September 23, Eid and Engle flew to Ireland and booked into the Two Mile Inn Hotel in Limerick. The following night there was a robbery at the premises of Downes & Howard in the Westgate Business Park in Ennis.
The thieves took a desktop computer, a Toshiba laptop, computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish bank notes. Some of these items were later recovered from Eid and Engle’s hotel room by gardaí.
At around 10.30pm on September 26 a man claiming to be called Tony Luciano phoned Robert Howard claiming to have information about the stolen computers.
A short time later, Eid arrived at the house Mr Howard shared with his brother, claiming to be Mr Luciano. He had the Toshiba laptop taken in the robbery and also showed Mr Howard photographs of his father and Collins as well as directions to his home and holiday home.
Eid told Mr Howard there was a contract on his life to the value of €130,000 but said that he did want to carry it out. He said it could be cancelled for €100,000. Mr Howard agreed to meet the following night at the Queen’s Hotel in Ennis, but in the meantime phoned the gardaí.
On September 26, Mr Howard met Teresa Engle at the Queen’s Hotel. She asked for the money but left when he told her he wouldn’t give it to her without the return of the computers.
Ms Engle and Mr Eid, who had been waiting nearby, were subsequently arrested.
During the trial the jury heard that a large part of the prosecution’s case against both Collins and Eid were the extensive series of emails found on the hard drives of a number computers seized from the homes of both Sharon Collins and Essam Eid.
In a witness impact statement, Robert and Niall Howard said that the incident had caused significant changes in their lives.
“We cannot understand how we were propelled from our normal daily lives into such a national drama and shudder at the realisation that had the plan been effected we could have been poisoned to death. We believe it will take a long time, if at all, before we can put the incident behind us.”
Their father, PJ Howard, pleaded for a non-custodial sentence for Collins.
“Sharon has a very 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 anything drastic over those years. She is a very straightforward and honest person and if she wanted anything she would ask.”
He asked Mr Justice Roderick Murphy to consider Collins’s redeeming features and to be lenient when sentencing her.
“I am asking the Court not to impose a custodial sentence as I do not believe that Sharon poses any threat to my sons. I ask the Court to consider how a prison sentence would affect her mother, her two sons and myself.”
Mr Howard said that Collins had always handled his medication for a heart complaint and he would always trust her to do this. He told the Court that he would have no difficulty moving in to live with her again.
Collins’ ex husband Mr Noel Collins told her defence counsel Mr Paul O’Higgins SC that she had always been a good mother and had allowed him access to their two sons outside the set visiting times laid down in their separation agreement.
Mr Justice Murphy also heard character statements on Collin’s behalf from the Mayor of Ennis, Mr Peter Considine and the Bishop of Killaloo, Bishop Willie Walsh and several family friends.
Mr Brian Glanville, a consultant psychologist, told Mr O’Higgins that Collins appeared to have a passive detached but dependent personality which could lead to conflict within relationships as she craved security but would feel herself to be stifled.
He said that when he had visited Collins on two occasions in prison she had been suffering from anxiety with major signs of depression
Mr Justice Murphy sentenced Collins to six years for each of the six counts she was convicted on to all run concurrently. He also convicted Eid to six years in jails for demanding the €100,000 from Robert Howard as well as a further year for each of the two charges of handling stolen goods to run concurrently with the extortion sentence.
Speaking after the sentencing, Collins solicitor Mr Eugene O’Kelly said that his client took great comfort in the fact that her partner Mr Howard had acquitted her. He said that his client has asked him to apologise to Mr Howard for the embarrassment caused to him by a letter to the Gerry Ryan radio show read out in court.
“She has asked that I would apologise on her behalf for the great hurt and embarrassment and distress that has been caused to him by the use by the State of an incomplete letter which was taken out of context.
Ms Collins states that it does not reflect her views of Mr Howard and she regrets the use of that incomplete letter taken out of context.”
He said that Collins would be lodging an appeal against her conviction in the near future.
“Ms Collins believes that the truth has got obscured some place the elaborate set up that is cyber space.”
Speaking outside the court Superintendent John Scanlon said that it had been a long a difficult investigation.
At this stage all I wish to say is that there are a lot of victims in this case, who need to get on with their lives now at this stage. This matter is over as far as we’re concerned.”
Mr Howard made the following Victim Impact Statement.
I would like to thank his Lordship for allowing me to make a Victim Impact Statement.
"My two sons Robert and Niall got an invitation from the Gardai on the 15/10/2008 to make a Victim Impact Statement, but at no stage was that courtesy extended to me, even though they have my telephone numbers and I am immediately contactable.
"I would like to take this opportunity to refute the allegations made against me in the Court case and I wish to deny any and all of the allegations. I have never seen nor was I told by the Gardai about an email that was supposedly sent to the Gerry Ryan Show.
"I have known Sharon Collins for approximately 9 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 very 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 anything drastic over those years. She is a very straightforward and honest person and if she wanted anything she would ask.
"Sharon is in my opinion one of the nicest people you could ever have been fortunate to know. She is a caring, loving and decent lady.
"This has been a very emotional and stressful time for me personally.
"I will not give up on Sharon and would have no hesitation whatsoever in living with her again.
"In view of the guilty verdict returned by the jury I would ask your Lordship to consider Sharon’s redeeming features and exercise your discretion and ask you to be lenient in your sentencing. I am asking the Court not to impose a custodial sentence as I do not believe that Sharon poses any threat to my sons. I ask the Court to consider how a prison sentence would affect her mother, her two sons and myself.
"For these reasons I ask you to consider a non custodial sentence for Sharon.
"This is an extremely stressful situation for me and the prospect of Sharon being in prison for a long time is adding to this stress. Sharon has for many years overseen the dispensing of my medication and has been of great assistance to me in this regard. I have had no fear and still have no fear of her doing this. For that reason I do not accept the submission by the Authorities at Sharon’s bail hearing that I was in fear of my life.
"Even allowing for this entire case and the Jury’s guilty verdict I am nonetheless not in any way in fear of Sharon. I have always made this perfectly clear to the gardai that I was never in fear of Sharon either before and again after the guilty verdict. In my view the Gardai have always known this. For that reason I do not accept what was submitted on behalf of the DPP at Sharon’s bail hearing when it was stated to the Judge that I was in fear.
"In the circumstances I would urge the Court to take into account that Sharon has never been before the Courts in these circumstances previously and it is my view that she will never so appear again. I am urging the Court not to impose a custodial sentence.
Mr Howard's sons, Robert and Niall Howard also made a Victim Impact Statement.
"The incident has caused significant changes in our lives. The notion that we were made the subject of a contract to kill has affected us socially and emotionally.
"The degree of planning and the nature of the contract and the person by whom the contract was initiated particularly in light of her relationship with our father has exasperated the situation for us. As the injured parties we have become more self conscious and are now constantly looking over our shoulders and are ill at ease.
"The crime has impacted on our respective social and business lives. We are not as confident as we were and we feel that the respect that had existed among our peers in our business dealings is not the same as it used to be.
"Furthermore we believer the incident has weakened the quality of our relationship with our father.
"We cannot understand how we were propelled from our normal daily lives into such a national drama and shudder at the realisation that had the plan been effected we could have been poisoned to death. We believe it will take a long time, if at all, before we can put the incident behind us.
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