INSIDE THE MIND OF SHARON COLLINS

‘Lying Eyes’ by Emer Connolly and ‘The Devil in the Red Dress’ by Aisling Rieley.

Never since the case of Catherine Nevin has a woman captivated the attention of the nation so much– when Sharon Collins from Ennis Co. Clare was found guilty of conspiring to hire a hit man to kill her husband P J Howard and his grown up sons Robert and Niall. This was a story of greed, pure and simple.

In reality, PJ was not Sharon’s husband for he refused to marry her, though they had been together for eight years. He had already lost his first wife and subsequent second partner to illness when he met Collins and he now wanted to protect his substantial assets for his two sons.

The pair had taken part in an intimate church ceremony in Italy and Sharon had changed her name from Collins to Howard, but they were not legally married so she would not have any legal claim on his fortune.

This was not good enough for her. She had set her eyes set on his bank account and having already secured a fake passport and marriage certificate in Howard’s name, she was quietly confident that should PJ meet his death she would indeed benefit.

And so began a web of lies and deceit and, as in the case of Joe O’Reilly, were it not for the crucial evidence of technology– computers, emails and mobile phones, Sharon Collins may never have been caught.

She also had the misfortune to hire, not a professional hit man but a bumbling fool who grew impatient and put the whole plan into jeopardy at the last minute. He confronted the Howard sons at their home just days before the planned hit and offered them the opportunity to buy out the hit on their lives and giving them time to alert the Gardai which, of course, they wisely did, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led to Sharon Collins’s downfall.

In a deliberate, calculated and ruthless move, Sharon Collins, calling herself ‘Lying Eyes’ logged on to hitmanforhire.net and made contact with Egyptian-born and Las Vegas-based Essam Eid, who called himself Tony Luciano. She asked him for a quote to kill “three males in Ireland, two brothers, one’s aged 27, one 23. I want it to look like an accident,” she wrote. “The third is an older man, aged 57. Again, it is imperative that it does not look like a hit. I would prefer suicide or is it possible for it to look like natural causes?”

Eid replied immediately, quoting $50,000 per person “but because it is three birds in one stone it will be $90,000.” In later emails Sharon describes her lover of eight years, PJ, as “a real asshole who makes my life hell. I have thought about this long and hard and I realise that it is necessary or there is no advantage to getting rid of my husband other than not having to look at his miserable face again.”

Eid warns Sharon not to use her work computer for their correspondence, as deleted files can be retrieved, but it is too late and though she removes the computer and hides it, it is later found in bushes and contributes to her downfall.

Sharon Collins’s main defence throughout this case is that she began emailing a writer called Maria Marconi, who was apparently coaching her on how to write a novel. She says she confided in her about her about the deteriorating state of her ‘marriage’ and that Marconi then went on to blackmail her– however Marconi was never found.

The carefully-orchestrated plan really fell apart when Eid grew uptight and frustrated and confronted Robert and Niall at their home. He told them he had been offered $130,000 to kill them but didn’t want to do it and offered them the opportunity to buy out the contract, arranging another meeting with them 24 hours later.

In the meantime the two brothers contacted the Gardai and Eid was trapped on his return, setting the wheels in motion for one of the biggest investigations ever seen in this country.

The presence of the deadly poison ricin was also a central ingredient in this case, as it was discovered in a contact lens case in Essam Eid’s cell. He refused to talk about this and also refused to comment on emails and telephone calls exchanged between himself and Sharon, other than to bizarrely claim that he and Sharon had been involved in a three-year affair, despite having only set eyes on her for the first time ever in the court room at the height of the drama.

PJ Howard has emerged as perhaps the true victim in this sorry tale. The 57 year old wealthy businessman gave evidence in the trial and point black refused to believe that Sharon Collins would do anything to harm him.

She had taken great care of him when he was ill, he said and none of this made any sense. “When I wasn’t well she looked after me extremely well. She made a very good life for us and we didn’t feel there were any serious problems between us until this situation arose. It doesn’t make sense to me. It is totally out of character. I find it very hard to believe.”

Following his emotional testimony and to the incredulity of the public at large and surely his exasperated sons, he kissed her on the lips and following her conviction and six-year imprisonment in the Dochas Centre where she now has time to dwell on her cruel act, he visited her. Now he has pledged “if she’ll still have me when she gets out, we will go somewhere else and start a new life together.” Love is blind they say.

It is no surprise that Howard’s two sons say the incident has damaged their relationship with their father. This case is a sad one for all involved. There are no winners.

‘Lying Eyes’ is by Emer Connolly while ‘The Devil in the Red Dress’ is written by Aisling Rieley. Both books are available in all good book shops.