THE FORMER Las Vegas poker dealer accused of offering his services as a hitman to kill a Clare man and his two sons, told gardaí he had an affair with the woman accused of hiring him, the Central Criminal Court jury heard yesterday.
Essam Eid (52), an Egyptian man with a Las Vegas address, and Sharon Collins (45), Ballybeg House, Kildysart Road, Ennis, Co Clare, have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to kill PJ, Robert and Niall Howard between August 1st, 2006, and September 26th, 2006. Ms Collins also denies hiring Mr Eid to shoot the three men.
Mr Eid denies demanding €100,000 from Robert Howard to cancel the contracts.
He also denies breaking into the Howard family business at Westgate Business Park and stealing two computers, some computer cables, a digital clock and a poster of old Irish money and then handling the stolen items.
Det Garda Jarlath Fahy told Tom O'Connell SC, prosecuting, that Mr Eid was interviewed by gardaí after his arrest on September 27th, 2006. Gardaí arrested him and his wife, Teresa Engle, after Robert Howard was told to meet a woman in the Queen Hotel in Ennis to exchange €100,000 for a stolen laptop.
Mr Eid told gardaí he had been having an affair with Ms Collins for "two, three years" and identified her in a photograph shown to him by gardaí.
He said he had visited her about a month before his arrest on her partner's boat in Malaga, staying there for about a week and visiting the boat daily while he stayed in a nearby hotel.
He said they talked often on the phone and he had been supposed to travel to Malaga on his current visit but his wife had insisted on accompanying him.
He told gardaí that Ms Collins had booked flights for him and his wife. "She think she friend of mine or co-worker." He said that Ms Collins had called him several times and calls had been put through to his room at the Two Mile Inn in Limerick.
He said he had no idea how computer cables fitting the Toshiba laptop stolen from the offices of the Howard family's property business on September 25th, had come to be in his hotel room and said he had never seen a poster of old Irish money and a digital clock, which were also taken from the office and were also found.
He said he would have no reason to have the poster. "Why leave it like this? I can't cash it," and said that the digital clock was "cool" but he had never seen it before. He suggested to gardaí that someone had got into his room through an open window and put the stolen items in his luggage.
Mr Eid denied phoning Robert Howard before arriving at his house with the stolen Toshiba laptop and offering him the chance to buy his family out of the contract on their lives.
He said he had never called himself "Tony". "I always introduce myself as Sam or Essam. Why I use Tony?" He strongly denied being hired to kill Mr Howard and his two sons. "I used to be a fighter. I used to be black belt. I think my daughter has seen me hit someone. I big, big heart, you no idea."
The jury also heard further evidence from Det Garda Peter Keenan who had told them yesterday about a letter sent from Ms Collins personal e-mail account to the Gerry Ryan Show.
He told Una Ní Raifeartaigh, prosecuting, that the e-mail was sent to the show from an Iridium laptop seized from the house Ms Collins shared with PJ Howard and had received an automatic confirmation of its receipt from the RTÉ server.
He said there was a second e-mail to the show with the subject "Sleeping with the enemy" although the text had been lost.
He agreed with Michael Bowman, defending Ms Collins, that portions of the letter to the Gerry Ryan Show read to the jury which contained sexual allegations about Ms Collins partner Mr Howard, had been missing.
He said it was impossible to know what information had been lost or had not been found by gardaí.
The trial before Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and a jury continues.