Murder accused Eamonn Lillis has admitted he made up a story about a burglar killing his wife at their luxury home, his trial heard today.
The TV commercial producer, charged with murdering his wife and business partner Celine Cawley just over a year ago, has admitted that there was no third person present when she was injured before her death.
Mr Lillis (51) has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to Ms Cawley’s murder on December 15th, 2008 at their home, Rowan Hill, on Windgate Road, Howth, Dublin.
On the opening day of his trial, Mary Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, told the jury of six women and six men that the 46-year-old mother-of-one died from head injuries at 10.56am that day in Beaumont Hospital. Emergency services had found her unconscious in a pool of blood on her patio.
Ms Ring said Mr Lillis first told gardaí he came home from walking their dogs to find an intruder wearing a balaclava and gloves attacking his wife on the deck behind their house. He said that he tried to intervene but
the intruder attacked him before running away. He even nominated a suspect, who was investigated and forensically ruled out.
The following day he rang the garda station to add that he had blanked out for a while after being assaulted, but couldn’t remember for how long. He also added that while checking his wife for a pulse, he had put her hand to
his face.
However his barrister, Brendan Grehan SC, made nine admissions on his client’s behalf, including that he lied to emergency services about there being a burglary and intruder.
In her opening speech, Ms Ring said that Mr Lillis handed over the clothes he was wearing when the gardaí arrived, along with a mobile phone, which was tested and returned.
However she said that detectives found a black suitcase under some items in the attic. Inside it was a black refuse sack containing jeans, a black jumper and boxer shorts. All were stained with blood that matched Ms
Cawley’s. The shorts were of the same brand that Mr Lillis had handed to gardai.
She said a polo shirt was found in the wardrobe of the upstairs bedroom where Mr Lillis slept. This was heavily stained with blood that matched his wife’s. Runner boots found in the wardrobe were stained with the same blood.
She said a watch found on a bedside locker beside the defendant’s bed was stained with this blood also. An effort had been made to wipe it and there was tissue embedded in its clasp. The sink in the adjoining upstairs bathroom was also blood-stained.
Ms Ring said gardaí found significant phone traffic between Mr Lillis’s three mobile phones and two phone numbers belonging to another woman, Jean Tracey. Ms Tracey told gardaí that an intimate, sexual relationship had developed between her and Mr Lillis in the proceeding few months.
Mr Lillis was arrested in Howth five days after his wife’s death. He stuck to his original story and initially denied the relationship. He later admitted the relationship, but said it had nothing to do with the investigation. He was charged with his wife’s murder the day after his arrest.
Ms Ring said the jury would hear from the woman, who was in contact with the defendant some time after his being charged.
“Jean Tracey will say he told her of a row that took place between him and Ms Cawley in the kitchen, which continued onto the back patio. The row became physical and led to the injuries on both,” said Ms Ring. “They were both concerned about what they’d say to their daughter, and Ms Cawley suggested saying there was a burglary.”
Ms Ring said the couple’s daughter would give evidence that her father told her that her mother had slipped on a brick that morning. He said she took the brick into the kitchen and when he asked if she was ok, she turned
on him. He said there was a scuffle, which moved outside, where she slipped again.
For the first time in such a case, all present in the packed courtroom saw pictures of the blood-stained decking area where emergency personnel found Ms Cawley as well as photographs of the blood-stained clothes, sink, blood on the kitchen door and blood on the wall by a window.
The unusual step was also taken to play the tape of the emergency call Mr Lillis made at 10.04 that morning.
Kevin Moran of Tara Street fire station identified himself as the call taker on the audio. Mr Lillis was heard breathlessly telling him that he and his 42-year-old wife had been assaulted by an intruder. He checked and said that she was neither breathing nor conscious.
Mr Moran was heard giving him instructions in CPR while emergency teams were dispatched.
Garda Colm Murray and Sergeant Brian Clune said they arrived at the house about 10.10am, after being alerted by the fire services. They had to jump the six-feet high electric gates as they were operated by a code, which they later learned was simply 1962, the year Ms Cawley was born.
Sergeant Clune took over chest compressions while Mr Lillis continued the breath of life, being corrected on two occasions by the sergeant. A fire brigade and ambulance then arrived with paramedics and specialist equipment.
Ms Ring said that Ms Cawley and Mr Lillis married in July 1991 and their daughter was born at the end of the following year.
She said the couple began producing television commercials in the early 1990s. They were successful with their company, Toytown Commercials, based on Windmill Lane in the city
They became wealthy, she said, and became the owners of Rowan Hill, the detached house on a about an acre, where the family of three lived. The house was entered by electric gates and had high fences and hedges to the front and rear.
A house plan and aerial photographs shown to the courtroom illustrated the size of the house and its position near the sea, while the photographs showed the large garden, stables, hot tub and ornamental cow.
The murder trial, the first to take place in the new Courts of Criminal Justice, will continue before Mr Justice Barry White, who warned the jury that this trial was likely to receive a lot of media and other attention and they were not to discuss it with anyone.