Booze ban for 'Lying Eyes' after jail release

Charlie Mallon and Barry Duggan

LYING Eyes Sharon Collins must obey an alcohol ban while on temporary release.

If she followed the terms of her full temporary release since Monday, any celebrations would have been of the strict non- alcoholic kind.

She has had to give details of her new address to the Dochas Governor as well as sign on at a garda station of her choice, as agreed before her release.

Her reported plans to leave the country are also on hold until she is discharged from the temporary release order early in December.

Conspiracy

But her conviction on three counts of conspiracy to kill her millionaire lover PJ Howard and his two sons puts a halt to any travel plans to many countries including the USA and Canada.

Her son David is believed to have returned home to the Dublin address of his father from Canada to be reunited with his 49-year-old mother.

Life on the outside will be much different than that of sun and champagne lifestyle prior to her conviction in September 2008.

The doors to PJ's Spanish penthouse are firmly closed to her and her "savings", if any, from her €2 a day prison allowance will not go far.

He cut all ties with her in September 2009, when he made his last visit to her at the Dochas Women's prison.

Lacking youth and money and carrying a badly blotted CV, her job prospects are gloomy.

In 2008, Collins was found guilty of conspiracy to murder successful businessman PJ Howard and his two sons, Robert and Niall, on dates between August and September 2006.

Collins, who had denied she used the internet alias 'lyingeyes98', was also convicted of soliciting an Egyptian poker dealer to murder the three men and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Prior to her "full TR", she had previously been granted weekend release and was allowed to return to her mother's home in Ennis on weekends this year.

Last night, her solicitor Patrick Moylan said her release from prison this week was a "temporary, but long-term measure".

Mr Howard, who lived with Collins in his plush home on the outskirts of Ennis, is understood to spend a lot of time in Spain. At his Clare home yesterday the Herald was told that Mr Howard was not at the residence. There was no reply at the home of Sharon Collins.

hnews@herald.ie