30 - Sharon Collins: Lying Eyes, Hitman4Hire, & attempted murder

Mens Rea: A true crime podcast

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True Crime, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2018

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2006, Sharon Collins decided that what she had wasn’t enough. She was a divorced mother of two, living with a long term partner, PJ Howard, who also had two sons. He also owned a multi-million euro property business, which he wanted to pass to his sons. So much so that he wouldn’t marry Sharon in order to ensure this. But despite the lavish lifestyle Sharon lived – nice houses, a penthouse apartment in Spain, a boat, basically anything she wanted – Sharon wanted more. So, she got on her computer and between searches for weight loss and diet tips, she looked for a hitman. And she found one. Our podcast Promo this week is from our friends at Pretend Radio. This season is all about a strange and secretive Christian sect that Javier managed to get unprecedented access to. It’s fascinating! Find us on Facebook or Twitter! With thanks to our supporters on Patreon! If you would like to support the podcast, head on over to Patreon.com. Theme Music: Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Sources: Abigail Rieley, Devil in the Red Dress (Dublin: Maverick House, 2015) Buy Here Emer Connolly, Lying Eyes and the hitman for hire(Dublin: Gill and McMillan, 2008) Buy here Conor Lally, “Prison alert over ricin traces find” in The Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/news/prison-alert-over-ricin-traces-find-1.1295221( 27 April 2007) “Man defends partner in hitman hiring case” in The Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/news/man-defends-partner-in-hitman-hiring-case-1.1217055 (6 June 2008) Aoife Finneran “Hitman planned to use Ricin: Witness” in The Evening Herald https://www.herald.ie/news/courts/hitman-planned-to-use-ricin-witness-27875615.html (12 June 2008) Aoife Finneran “Incompetent wife of hitman’s takes stand” in The Evening Herald https://www.herald.ie/news/courts/incompetent-wife-of-hitman-takes-stand-27875683.html(13 June 2008) Abigail Rieley “’Hitman target’ kisses his accused partner” in The Evening Herald https://www.herald.ie/news/courts/hitman-target-kisses-his-accused-partner-27874870.html (6 June 2008) “Sentenced by court, acquitted by partner” in The Irish Examiner https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/icrime/sentenced-by-court-acquitted-by-partner-76527.html(4 November 2008) Niamh Horan, “Everyone deserves a second chance says newly single Sharon Collins as she begins a new life in Belfast” in The Irish Independent https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/everyone-deserves-a-second-chance-says-newly-single-sharon-collins-as-she-begins-a-new-life-in-belfast-31580164.html (4 October 2015) “’For her there should be no second chance’ ‘ Hitman-for-hire slams Sharon ‘Lying Eyes’ Collins” in The Irish Independent https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/for-her-there-should-be-no-second-chance-hitmanforhire-slams-sharon-lying-eyes-collins-34675173.html (1 May 2016) “Judgment reserved in ‘lying eyes’ appeal” from RTE.ie https://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0312/128701-collinss/ (12 March 2010) Kevin Doyle, “PJ: ‘Why I’ve spent €200K trying to clear Lying Eyes name” in The Evening Herald https://www.herald.ie/news/pj-why-ive-spent-200k-trying-to-clear-lying-eyes-name-27891765.html (10 November 2008) Abigail Goldman, “Would-be Vegas hitmans’ story ends in an Irish jail” in The Las Vegas Sunhttps://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/20/would-be-vegas-hitmans-story-ends-irish-jail/(20 July 2008) Denise Calnan, “’I regret not doing the job, I wish I’d done it’ LyingEyes hitman on murder contract from Sharon Collins to kill her partner businessman and his sons” in The Irish Independent https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/i-regret-not-doing-the-job-i-wish-id-done-it-lying-eyes-hitman-on-murder-contract-from-sharon-collins-to-kill-her-partner-businessman-and-his-sons-30912311.html (16 January 2015) “Woman convicted of hiring a hitman to kill partner released from jail” from Newstalk.ie https://www.newstalk.com/woman-convicted-of-hiring-hitman-to-kill-partner-released-from-jail (11 September 2012)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Men's Ray podcast and this is the story of Sharon Collins. Oh, On the 26th of September, 2006, Gardi in the local station at Ennis County Claire, received a call about a burglary at an office in Westgate Business Park.
0:49.0	The office belonged to a building company, Downs and Howard, which mainly dealt in property investments.
0:54.7	The company was owned by a local man, PJ Howard, and his sons, and it was well known
1:00.9	that he had amassed a small fortune in property.
1:03.7	And the idea that there might have been a sum of money in the premises
1:07.2	wasn't beyond belief. The call was not at all unusual.
1:11.4	Burglary in rural Ireland is unfortunately commonplace. not at
1:14.1	usual burglary in rural Ireland is unfortunately commonplace.
1:15.8	But when Detective Garda Jarlath Fahi arrived,
1:18.8	he noticed that the crime scene was unusual.
1:22.3	There were none of the common scene was unusual.
1:22.8	There were none of the common signs of burglary, no smashed in doors or popped locks or broken
1:28.7	windows.
1:30.2	The locks to the office had been opened with keys and the alarm had been deactivated by code the night before at 924 p.m.
1:39.4	Reported stolen from the office were a laptop, a CPU of a desktop computer, and some odds and ends
1:46.4	including computer cables and a poster of old Irish money.
1:51.0	There had been a safe in the office, but it was untouched. Very strange indeed.
1:57.0	The only CCTV of the business park had shown a car entering at around the time that the alarm had been disabled, but it didn't show who had been in the car, or where they had gone.
2:08.0	The only people who had keys to the office were those who worked there, PJ, his sons, his long-term partner Sharon Collins,
2:16.5	a handyman and a cleaner, and PJ and Sharon had been off in Spain on holidays where PJ spent the majority of his time.
2:24.0	Weirder still, later that evening, Detective Fahi received a phone call from Robert Howard,
2:30.0	seeing that a strange man had turned up at his doorstep demanding money.
	...

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