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0:28

Today on the Indo daily, the hitman

0:30

from Vegas, and the Divorcee from Anna

0:33

the lying eyes of Sharon Collins.

0:36

I

0:37

suppose you think I want to be rid of my husband

0:39

so I can get what he has. Well,

0:41

I do want to inherit it. I want my home

0:43

an income, of course, but there's

0:45

a lot more to it. In

0:48

two thousand and six, Sharon Collins searched

0:50

online for weight loss, diatips,

0:52

and how to hire a hitman.

0:55

The main reason I'm doing this is

0:57

because he's continuously trying to force

0:59

me to go out and pick up a stranger for

1:01

six. He finds the idea of it exciting

1:04

and insists I must do it or I'm out.

1:06

And he will make sure that I've app absolutely

1:09

nothing.

1:11

The divorced mother of two was living with

1:13

her long term partner and millionaire

1:15

PJ Howard from luxury yachts

1:18

to stylish homes, she had it all

1:20

except for one thing, marriage.

1:23

PJ Howard didn't want to marry

1:25

Sharon Collins. PJ's priority was

1:27

his Goose songs, and he essentially wanted

1:30

Robert Indo to inherit everything.

1:32

What

1:34

unfolded would be one of the most elaborate

1:36

murder conspiracies that would involve

1:39

fake marriage certs, legal poisoning,

1:41

and a hitman from the USA. I'm

1:44

Kevin Doyle, and today on the Indo daily,

1:47

I'm joined by Immer Connolly, the author

1:49

of lying eyes and a hitman for hire

1:51

to look at one of the most infamous cases

1:53

in Irish legal history.

1:57

Emer, who are PJ Howard and Sharon

1:59

Collins?

1:59

Kevin PJ Howard was a

2:02

multi millionaire businessman living in

2:04

in

2:05

a property business

2:07

in the town

2:08

with property Indo and

2:10

overseas in Spain where he Hitman an apartment

2:12

in the boat. a very low profile

2:14

individual who had never

2:17

really cotted publicity in

2:19

any shape or form. And

2:21

he had been been

2:23

married and widowed. In

2:26

ninety eight,

2:26

PJ Howard walked in

2:28

to a furniture shop. And

2:30

then as the shop was run by Collins,

2:34

and he

2:36

instantly throws me at

2:37

and they were instantly

2:40

attracted to each other. And

2:42

a relationship started between

2:44

them. Indo Sharon

2:47

was

2:47

the complete opposite in many ways

2:49

to PJ Howard was

2:52

outgoing pursable

2:54

around town, was well known, was well liked, had

2:56

been involved in a couple of businesses in the town,

2:59

had been separated with two sons

3:02

So very quickly, within

3:04

a short period of time, Sharon and her sons

3:06

moved into PJ's mansion at

3:08

Ballybeg House on the outskirts of

3:10

Ennis. Indo the relationship

3:13

really, I

3:15

suppose from

3:16

those on the outside, appeared

3:17

to go from strength to strength. they

3:19

appeared to be deeply in love and

3:23

and appeared to have a a great

3:25

future together. And it was a real step

3:27

up in lifestyle for Sharon Collins wasn't

3:29

it? It

3:30

was Sharon Collins

3:33

had very outgoing personality, love

3:36

to highlight, but had grown up

3:38

in very close to

3:40

Ennis Town Center. An ordinary

3:42

opening lived in a

3:44

terrace house, Indo

3:46

then when she married Noel

3:49

Collins from Newmark in Ferguson, again,

3:51

lived a very ordinary lifestyle. So there was

3:53

there was I suppose a complete contrast

3:56

to P. J.'s life where money was no

3:58

object. Sharon Collins had

3:59

worked in in various jobs. Again,

4:02

I suppose like any work Indo in

4:04

mother of two two young boys had

4:06

lived quite the ordinary lifestyle, and then

4:08

things did change. When she she got together

4:11

with PJ. You say the relationship went

4:13

from strength to strength, and she moved into

4:15

the mansion in Ennis, the holiday

4:17

abroad, the house abroad,

4:19

access to yachts, all of that. But

4:21

there was one thing that PJ

4:24

didn't seem inclined to agree to that Sharon

4:26

really wanted.

4:26

PJ Howard didn't want to

4:29

marry Sharon Collins. PJ's

4:31

priority was his two sons, Robert

4:33

and Sniles, who ran the

4:35

property business with him, continued to run

4:37

the property business Indo he

4:40

essentially wanted Robert in denial

4:42

to inherit everything. And

4:44

while he pledged himself to Sharon, at

4:46

a ceremony in in Toronto

4:49

in two thousand and five. He

4:52

made it clear to her that he

4:54

didn't want to marry her. So they had a ceremony.

4:56

They had a party when they come back to Ireland.

4:58

But as far as he was

5:00

concerned, he wasn't going to marry

5:03

her. And

5:03

this became a real

5:04

issue for her for a number of reasons,

5:07

and she said about getting a fake

5:09

marriage, sir.

5:10

She did. She went Collins,

5:13

and

5:13

she got on to a website proxy

5:15

mergers. And she managed

5:18

by a fake marriage search

5:20

online

5:20

Indo no

5:23

issue that that arrived in the post. But what

5:25

she then did, She she he

5:28

traveled to Cork, went down to the Passport

5:30

office, and got a passport in

5:32

the name Sharon Howard. So

5:34

this was all part of her plan

5:37

that, you know, if PJ, Robert,

5:39

and Nile were going to disappear,

5:42

well, She was going to inherit even

5:44

though P. J. said, hey, I'm not gonna marry you,

5:46

but she had the name

5:46

in the passport. In

5:49

her her eyes,

5:49

logistics, proxy marriage Sharon,

5:52

and this was the

5:52

first part of her plan, which she felt

5:54

was Collins together really nicely. So

5:56

it would later emerge that this wasn't

5:58

just about

6:00

PGA being a bit older than her someday

6:03

that the likelihood was that

6:05

he would die and therefore she would naturally

6:07

inherit a lot of his fortune if they

6:09

were married, she wanted to

6:12

take control of the situation.

6:13

Yes. She wanted everything Indo she

6:16

seemed to be

6:16

in a in a rush.

6:17

So she'd met him in

6:20

Indo nineteen ninety eight, and then all of

6:22

this happened in two thousand and six, a

6:24

quite a short period of time, really. and,

6:27

you know, in her correspondence to

6:30

Hitman she had got in

6:32

contact with, an

6:34

an email who she told was a hitman.

6:37

What if the, I suppose, compelling lines

6:39

she wrote at one point was She

6:41

said, she did have a concern about what was

6:43

gonna happen to the two Howard songs who

6:45

she got on well, but but she said, PJ was a

6:47

real asshole and makes my life

6:49

hell. So she really wanted

6:51

to get rid of him Indo like that.

6:54

Just in case the two boys

6:56

had Annie claimed to the Inhertians

6:58

Let's wipe the molesh. That was her plan. So she

7:00

goes online and me and you eamer.

7:02

Well, certainly me, yeah, III don't know you

7:04

very well, but I I have never gone looking for

7:06

a hitman or thought about looking

7:08

for Hitman. But if I was going to, the first

7:10

place I would probably go is WWW

7:13

dot hitman for hire dot com.

7:15

This was ludicrous. that

7:18

she could sit in her office,

7:20

PJ Howard's office where she worked on

7:23

a laptop as the laptops were later,

7:25

physically examined. and

7:27

start doing all these searches and then came

7:29

across who she taught

7:31

was a hitman, who essentially was an Egyptian

7:33

con artist. Indo she set up

7:35

an email address lying i's ninety

7:37

eight at yahoo dot i e.

7:40

It's it's not the most sophisticated part,

7:42

is it?

7:42

No. It's not. And the Lion Eye

7:45

link, she was asked about that in

7:47

in cross examination in the in

7:50

the trial. and she was asked about,

7:52

you know, the connection to that song

7:54

where the

7:54

beautiful young woman married the rich

7:56

older man and and her

7:58

her answer Indo

7:59

and her her

8:02

very almost a giggly

8:04

answer was, well, actually, Robert

8:06

Howard was the one

8:07

who was in older music. This was the older

8:09

a j songs. I

8:10

I'm more interested Indo timberlake myself,

8:12

so it couldn't have been me. So it was

8:14

almost achieved. She almost

8:16

started to

8:17

distance herself so much trauma that she almost

8:20

believed and still maintains her innocence that

8:22

she actually didn't set up that email

8:24

account. So here's this woman

8:27

because the court found this. She's emailing

8:29

higher underscore hitman at yahoo

8:31

dot com and it's from that that she

8:33

then gets into contact with

8:36

the

8:36

man she thinks is going to

8:39

kill her husband. or

8:41

sorry, not husband, which was the problem?

8:43

SME, tell me about him.

8:45

Okay. So SME and the

8:47

man behind the Hitman for

8:49

higher correspondence. He was

8:52

an Egyptian poker player,

8:55

essentially, little more than common

8:57

man. And as was found by the jury, he

8:59

wasn't convicted of

9:00

conspiring to murder. He was convicted

9:03

of extortion. So he was

9:05

he was a chancellor, essentially. You

9:07

know, after after considerable

9:10

communication between lying eyes

9:12

and Hitman, she sent

9:14

money. She's fifteen thousand

9:16

euro by FedEx to

9:18

the states. This was the deposit.

9:20

But

9:20

there was a bit more to him than

9:22

than than the high school was just the chancellor.

9:25

His wife, one of his wives,

9:27

Teresa Engel,

9:28

and she told the court am in

9:30

her testimony that herself and

9:32

Ed had actually made the rise in

9:34

poison at their home in Las Vegas

9:36

Indo they brought it to Ireland. And yes,

9:39

there was substance to that because when he

9:41

was arrested, eventually, rice

9:43

and poison was found in

9:45

a contact lens case at

9:48

Limerick prison. And that was one of the first leads

9:50

that the guards in and his had were, oh,

9:52

hold on. Who's this guy? He's he's

9:54

accused of attempting to extort

9:56

money from the Howard Brothers. He's

9:58

in the limerick prison. Now there's rice

9:59

and poison, Teresa Engel

10:02

says that they made it cars. One of

10:04

the the boys had

10:06

this the the boys could have been killed

10:08

as disclosed to an email was. Let's

10:10

poison them. So there was a

10:12

certain amount of intent he always maintained. I'm

10:14

just a con man. I'm about to make a few Bob, but

10:16

he made the rison, and there was clear

10:18

evidence of that as well. So there was there were several

10:20

layers to this.

10:21

So SME had basically thought

10:23

he'd hit the jackpot with this dysfunctional

10:25

family. Sharon Collins had given him fifteen

10:27

thousand euro he then went to the

10:29

Howard's demanding money to

10:31

basically cancel the

10:34

Hitman it's at that point that

10:36

the Howard Suns go,

10:39

hold on here. There's something major and they go

10:41

to the guards.

10:42

Yes. That was it. So so Sharon

10:44

had had had told

10:46

Ed

10:46

to to take a computer

10:49

from the office, left at a key firm. He

10:51

took the computer, and there was an

10:53

investigation then over a break into the

10:55

office. Then

10:55

he tried to get in contact with

10:58

Sharon Collins, couldn't make contact

11:00

with her, then lost patients,

11:03

and and went out to Robert and Niles

11:06

house, all the outskirts of Ennis, brought

11:08

a laptop, brought instructions

11:10

from Sharon, brought some family

11:12

pictures that Qi had sent him

11:14

one of those was where she said, I'm the devil in

11:16

the red dress, picture her in a red dress. And

11:18

he said to Robert Harry, look,

11:20

Robert, there's a contract on your lives.

11:22

Here's some evidence. you know,

11:24

a hundred grams and you can

11:27

buy out that contract. And he showed

11:29

them some of the emails. So

11:31

Robert Howard then said, to know what and meet

11:33

you tomorrow even in it in his town,

11:35

in the old grand hotel, and

11:37

and I I give you the money to get rid of

11:39

the contract. but what he did then was he

11:41

contacted the guard. The sting was set up

11:44

eased eased Indo three single were arrested

11:46

at that

11:46

stage. And really, At that point, the game

11:48

was up because that's when all the pieces of the

11:50

jigsaw started coming together for the

11:52

Gardy. The game was up, but Sharon

11:54

Collins wasn't giving up

11:56

washi. she's arrested, she's

11:58

charged, she's brought

11:59

before the courts, and

12:01

then the things

12:03

that started to unravel would

12:05

raise

12:05

your eyebrows even further if that was possible?

12:08

Yes. This is when

12:09

when all of the I suppose the the inherent

12:11

detail came together about what the

12:13

plan was this wasn't just

12:15

around who

12:16

landed in from the states up

12:18

to the houses of

12:21

two

12:21

young millionaire brothers. there

12:23

was a lot more to it, how

12:25

had he arrived there, what was the intent,

12:27

and then I think it was of

12:29

really captured the nation at the time was the

12:31

level of detail. from Sharon

12:34

Collins, that, you know, she

12:36

was absolutely adamant

12:39

throughout that she was innocent. She

12:41

rolled to the DPP three times. in

12:43

two thousand and seven,

12:45

so the year before the trial.

12:47

And, you know, big long

12:50

detailed letters, please don't charge me. PGA

12:52

Howard wrote the GPP. Please don't

12:54

charge her. You know, she's the victim of a

12:56

scam because that's what she had led him to

12:58

believe at the time. She

13:01

she made up a fictional character called

13:03

Marie Marconi. And she said

13:05

Marie Marconi was teaching

13:07

her how to write. She wants to be an obelist.

13:09

and she wanted to develop her

13:12

imagination. And she said that

13:14

she confided in Maria Marconi

13:16

on on emails

13:16

about PJ Indo how

13:19

you know, he wasn't very nice to her, didn't treat

13:21

her well, and she was sick from etcetera,

13:23

etcetera. And then she was

13:25

blackmailed. And what she said was, She sent a

13:27

fifteen thousand year old to smoke out the

13:29

blackmail and kinda put her into

13:31

that. And and no no trace

13:33

ever found of this lady. So fictional

13:35

character again,

13:36

all part of the plot. During

13:38

all this period, PJ Howard is

13:41

still on her side. He's in

13:43

court every day during the trial

13:45

but tell me about the Jerry Ryan

13:48

emails. The Jerry Ryan emails were hugely

13:50

damaging for PJ Howard, and

13:51

this was particularly just think of

13:53

us quite a small town Midwest

13:55

of Ireland, low profile, Indo

13:58

I had worked and lived in there for several years

13:59

that I've had never heard of them except, oh, here's a

14:02

Howard man. This is his property. He

14:04

suddenly all of the

14:06

so called sexual preferences of

14:08

PJ Howard were all aired in

14:10

Indo, so she had claimed in

14:13

emails to the Jerry Rhine show, which were read out

14:15

during the trial, that

14:18

he he wanted her to work as

14:20

a prostitute wanted sex with

14:22

strangers, and essentially was

14:24

demanding from that perspective.

14:29

Jerry, I'm living in an unbearable situation

14:31

with very few real options and

14:33

decided to share it

14:34

with your listeners. In

14:35

the hope that hearing it on the air would clarify

14:38

things for me and perhaps push me into

14:40

making the move that frightens me so much. He

14:42

has a holiday home abroad

14:44

likes us to spend as much time there

14:45

as possible.

14:46

However, the main attraction from there is the sex

14:49

industry.

14:49

He uses prostitutes and

14:51

transvestites regularly.

14:52

But what he really wants is for me to

14:55

engage in what he

14:55

describes as strange sex.

14:58

I was

14:58

pressurized to pick up a stranger not sex

15:01

with or have a threesome with a male escort and

15:03

himself. He has even told me he

15:05

would love it if I would work as a prostitute

15:07

and that this would really turn him on.

15:09

He has insisted on many occasions that

15:12

we go to swingers clubs while abroad

15:14

Indo has been unbearable to live with

15:16

afterwards. as I don't want to partake in

15:18

what goes on there, I've witnessed things

15:20

that I sincerely wish I never had to

15:22

see. I haven't done any of

15:24

the things he wants me to do, Nevertheless,

15:27

every single time we have sex, I

15:29

have to describe to him in detail

15:31

what I would do if there was another man

15:33

and I had to be inventive. This

15:35

it seems is necessary for him to keep

15:37

an erection. If I

15:39

don't do this, he'll blame me for losing

15:41

his erection and there would be another

15:43

black mood. but she had sent

15:45

those sent

15:46

those emails about Hitman the time

15:48

they were sent anonymously, but all of that

15:50

was uncover when the guards went through

15:52

her computer. So Again, this

15:54

all this was really, really

15:56

difficult for PJ Howard. But

15:58

despite all of that, despite all

15:59

of the allegations that he sat in court

16:02

every day, and his sons

16:04

have found this particularly difficult.

16:06

He still stood by her during the

16:08

trial. there was a second email

16:10

then with

16:10

similar details that had been sent

16:13

from lying eyes to

16:15

the Hitman email. I

16:17

suppose

16:17

you think I want to be rid of my husband

16:19

so I can get what he has. Well, I

16:21

do want to inherit. I want my home

16:23

and an income, of

16:23

course, but there's

16:25

a lot more to it. The

16:26

main reason I'm doing this is

16:28

because he's continuously trying to force me

16:30

to go out and pick up a stranger for

16:33

sex. He

16:33

finds the idea of it exciting and

16:36

insists I must do it or I'm out.

16:38

and he will make sure that I have absolutely nothing.

16:41

Well, I will not do that. No way.

16:43

The mother of my boys is not

16:45

a slot.

16:46

Frankly, I don't care what he does. I

16:48

don't mind if he has sex with hookers or transvestites

16:50

every day, but leave me out

16:52

of it.

16:54

So that was where the connection was made that, you know, she

16:56

she said, well, hold on. I didn't send those

16:58

emails, but then, you know, the guards

16:59

drew their conclusions well, similar

17:02

content. You sent these to Jerry Ryan. Show

17:04

you've accepted that,

17:04

but you're not accepting that you were the person. But

17:06

again, this was all part of. Wasn't he? Wasn't

17:09

he with

17:09

blackmails? I'm not sure

17:11

who had access to the office, and she was

17:14

pushed on that a few times. Very

17:16

few people had access to the office, but

17:18

certainly, I didn't send any of those. So this

17:20

was all part of her her her concoction of

17:22

lies. And then at another point

17:24

in the trial, Essamid claimed

17:26

that he had actually been having an

17:28

affair Aaron

17:29

Collins himself, and that that was actually

17:31

what was going on here.

17:32

Yeah. That was that was a line that he

17:34

used. And again, she was asked about that

17:36

and absolutely absolutely no. This was not the

17:38

case. But at that point, it was so difficult

17:40

to believe because there was so much

17:43

lies who was telling the

17:45

truth? What was going on? Because there were so

17:47

many different layers to it, and and so

17:49

many of them were bizarre. And I think

17:51

particularly for those who knew PJ Howard on

17:53

the local scale, genuinely could not believe that this

17:55

was going on. And even what

17:57

happened in

17:57

the end? So in the

17:59

india end, Shurgh

18:01

Collins was convicted of conspiracy to murder the

18:03

tree, and that was later set

18:06

aside because Ed was not convicted

18:08

of conspiring with her. She was

18:10

also convicted of soliciting aid

18:12

to murder the tree. He

18:14

was convicted of extortion and six

18:16

year sentences. And again, after what

18:19

was a was over three years or so she

18:21

was she was freed.

18:23

He was freed, expedited

18:25

at home, hasn't

18:27

been seen since She has has

18:30

said, I suppose, taken taken

18:32

on her her own

18:34

life. She's resumed her life afterwards, moved

18:36

up north moved to Limbach

18:38

initially, moved up north and

18:40

involved in dog grooming instance,

18:42

again, low profile, very little

18:44

known about either herself or PJ

18:47

Howard at this stage.

18:49

He he assumed the

18:52

relative anonymacy that he had enjoyed prior to this

18:54

trial pretty quickly afterwards.

18:56

Even though he did stand by her in

18:58

in the court case and gave her a case on the lip

19:00

after he gave evidence as a

19:03

prosecution witness. He

19:05

he the relationship departed ways essentially

19:07

after afterwards. and and

19:10

he moved on and she moved

19:12

on as well.

19:15

But essentially, while it still talked about

19:17

on the streets of Venice, The trade

19:19

factor Kevin has certainly set in

19:21

no question about the impact on P.

19:23

J. who has had a quadruple bypass

19:26

before this. and she'd looked after his medicine. They always said,

19:28

I'm still happy for her to do

19:30

that. Certainly, his

19:32

life, certainly, was

19:34

was hugely imp implications

19:36

by all of this. Do we know

19:38

if he ever accepted the verdict

19:40

of the jury? The idea that

19:42

she conspired to murder. Now,

19:45

ultimately, because Eve wasn't convicted,

19:47

there was nobody to conspire away, and you can't conspire on

19:49

your own. But does he accept the narrative that

19:51

the jury accepted? We

19:53

don't know initially as

19:56

as he he remained loyal

19:59

and visited her and Chris know that the

19:59

the sense was that he

20:02

didn't because she she certainly never

20:04

did and she always

20:06

maintained, I'm not lying eyes and still

20:08

maintains that. as far as I'm

20:10

aware. And Bolsh afterwards,

20:12

and he did he did park company

20:14

with her. So one wonders what he's

20:17

his views were afterwards, but,

20:18

you know, difficult to imagine, but

20:21

certainly, he had all the appearance

20:22

throughout the trial. Indo

20:24

in the immediate aftermath of the trial that he very much believed

20:27

her and supported her in

20:29

every way.

20:33

Indo

20:33

my thanks to Mark Connolly for telling

20:36

us the story of lying eyes,

20:38

also thanks to Margaret Connolly as the

20:40

voice of Sharon Indo Collins. I'm

20:42

Kevin Doyle, and today's episode was

20:44

produced by Mary Carol, researched

20:46

by Garrett Mulholl, with sound by

20:48

Gavin Hennessy, archive clips from OrTE

20:50

News, Scanlon, OrTE, Virgin

20:53

Media News, News Talk, and

20:55

Independent Independentie you enjoy the

20:57

indoor daily, don't forget to

20:59

like, follow, leave

21:01

us a review.