THE CLARE WOMAN who was jailed for six years for soliciting a man to kill her partner and his sons, in what became known as the ‘Lying Eyes’ case, has lost an appeal against her conviction.
The Court of Criminal Appeal today rejected all 23 grounds of Sharon Collins’ appeal against the three charges of soliciting Essam Eid to kill her partner and his sons.
Collins, 47, of Ballybeg House, Kildysary Road, Ennis, was jailed for six years in November 28 after being found guilty both of soliciting Eid to kill her partner PJ Howard and his two sons, and of conspiracy to kill the three men.
Court had previously acknowledged the conspiracy charge could not be upheld, PA reports, because Eid had been acquitted of his own solicitation charge.
Eid, a Las Vegas poker dealer who also went by the alias Tony Luciano, had been found guilty of handling stolen property and for demanding money with menace, after the court heard he had tried to blackmail Robert Howard into paying him off.
His six-year sentence was backdated to 2005 and he was released earlier this year, after which he was extradited to the United States.
RTÉ News reports that the appeals put to the court had been heard in early last year, when the court acknowledged it could be “some time” before a verdict would be issued.
Collins only briefly appeared in court for today’s proceedings, and appeared to miss the ruling being read out. She was returned to the Dóchas centre at Mountjoy where she is scheduled to for release in March 2013.
Her original trial in 2008 became well-known as the ‘Lying Eyes’ case because of the ‘lyingeyes98′ email alias used to contact and hire Eid for the attempted killings.
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