A MAN ON trial for conspiring with an Ennis woman to murder her partner and his two sons was picked out at an identity parade, a court heard yesterday.
The Central Criminal Court was told that Robert and Niall Howard identified Essam Eid, an Egyptian national, as the man who called to their home in Ennis in 2006. However, Mr Eid’s counsel, Michael Collins, said that of the eight other men included in the identity parade, “there was no one remotely like him”.
The court heard an identification parade was set up the day after a man called to the home of Robert Howard, on September 26th, 2006, demanding €100,000 to cancel contracts on his life and those of his brother Niall and father PJ.
Sharon Collins (45), Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, and Mr Eid (52), with an address in Las Vegas in the US, deny conspiring to murder Ms Collins’s partner PJ Howard, along with his sons Robert and Niall Howard, between August 1st and September 26th, 2006.
Ms Collins denies soliciting Mr Eid to murder PJ, Robert and Niall Howard, on August 15th, 2006.
The trial continues today before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and a jury of eight men and four women.