Authors: Joanne Clancy
"I don't know what happened. I wish I did know. I can only comment on what happened to me which was dreadful and frightening. It has destroyed my life and my children's lives. I certainly didn't do any of this."
"Logically, it must have been either Penelope or Shona who sent the emails, considering the limited access to the computers."
"I
don't know.
"
"You insinuated that it could have been Penelope or Shona in your interviews with the police."
"That’s
not true."
Mark's handsome face was pale and drawn. The charisma and confidence which he had displayed throughout most of the trial had well and truly d
isappeared. It was obvious that
the pressure was getting to him. He coughed repeatedly and his forehead was creased with worry. The smiles from the previous day had faded and his misery was clearly emerging. His time in the witness box was coming to a sad and sorry end and he was not enjoying himself any longer. He accepted that he had done some wrong things but he contin
ued to fight to defend himself.
"It was s
tupid of me to write to Henry
about the problems I was having in my marriage. I should never have written to him, but I certainly did not intend to kill anyone."
Mark's calm veneer was wearing decidedly thin.
Mr. Clifford pushed on. “
Where are the emails
which would back up your story?”
“
As I've said before, my computer must have been hacked becaus
e most of my emails were wiped,”
Mark sighed. He continued to deny the truth in spite of the
mountain of
evidence stacked against him. His comp
osure was slowly being eroded. “
I'm a victim of blackmail, not a would-be murderer. I'm being accused of the most horrendous crimes; accused of trying to hurt people who I car
e about. I didn't do any of it!”
He slammed his fist down on the table in front of him. A moment
passed before he spoke again. “I admit I’ve done
some foolish, stupid things. I should never have written those emails to Henry about my marriage, but I certai
nly didn't plot to kill anyone.”
His voice cr
acked under the strain. Judge Enright
could see that he was struggling and asked if he would like a break. "I'll continue without a break," Mark replied. "Let's just get this over and done with."
The final phase of the cr
oss-examination proceeded and Mr. Clifford
accused Mark of only telling the truth under duress.
“
It also seems that your story became more elaborate as the evidence increased.
Your letters to the Director of
Public Prosecutions we
re emotional and manipulative; y
ou even suggested that your son or wife may die if charges were brought against you."
"There was a lot of emotion but there was no manipulation. Of c
ourse I was emotional. I was hau
led out of my home and all kinds of allegations were be
ing thrown at me. My family was
devastated and I was beyond shattered. I was trying to explain in my letters th
e damage
this was doing to me."
"You decided, in the arrogance which we've come to expect from you, that you would write to the Director of Public Prosecut
ions, even though
your own lawy
ers advised you against it. You came in here to this courtroom, trying to do what you've always done; smile and manipulate your way out of trouble."
"I'm not smiling at anyone."
"You were all smiles at the jury yesterday."
"I'm nervous and when I'm nervous sometimes I smile. I came here to tell the truth. I've always told the truth. I'm not here to mislead anyone. One of the detectives told me that in his fifteen
years of detective work he has
never seen so much evidence stacked against one person. His comment keeps playing o
n my mind. I feel there are
too many
convenient
paths leading to me. I know I did some stu
pid things; in trusting Henry Whitington-Smyth
or whoever he really is, in not mentioning him to Rebecca
sooner
, in divulging personal details of our lives together to Henry, in giving in to blackmail demands, in not telling the police and in sending that money to England. I am aware of how stupid some of my actions were and I will forever regret them, but I am not a stupid person. If I really was plotting such a dreadful crime, surely I would have tried to have covered my t
r
acks and not have left so many trails lea
ding back to me. It all seems
far-fetched. Anyone I speak to agrees with me. My own son has doubts
about my innocence
now, having been told so much by the police. I used to have a fa
ntastic relationship with Christopher
. He confided everything in me and was like a cross betwe
en a son and a good friend
. I love him dearly. He is a
n exceptional young man but
I doubt that our relationship will ever be rebuilt again. How's he suppo
sed to feel when he thinks
his own father wanted his mother dead?"
Shortly afterwards Mark stepped down
wearily
from the witness box and quietly made his way over to his seat beside his legal team.
H
is evidence had not been the triumphant opportunity to put his
story across that
he had expected. The prosecution had seen to that.
His change in mood captured ev
eryone's attention and he didn’t regain
his composure for the remainder of the trial.
Chapter 16
The beginning of the final phase of the tr
ial got underway
when the legal teams delivered their closing speeches.
Mr. Clifford
for the Prosecution got to his feet to present his
convincing speech which summarised the main points of the case.
"This trial has been extraordinary and bizarre with a mountain of evidence and it has been our job to pull it all together. Admittedly, from a distance, this may seem like a cheap thriller which Mark McNamara himself may have written, but this is a tragedy for everyone involved. It would be very wrong to dismiss this case as trivial. The
finding of poison in Savannnah Kingston
's cell lifted the matter out
of
fantasy and speculation. I urge you to look beneath the farcical elements t
o the much darker truth
because treachery lies in honeyed words. You may feel that you are dealing with fool
s but they are dangerous fools.
T
ruth can be stranger than
fiction
but this is a tragic situation. It may not have been a tragedy with dead bodies but it is a ridiculous plot between two people whose lives should never have intersected. Mr. McNamara p
oured poison into his emails and h
is shameful plan
has managed t
o destroy too many live
s
.
This case has displayed
an incredible amount of greed, callousness, deceit, manipulation and arrogance. Love degenerated and co
rrupted itself into hatred.
There were almost farcical events, plots and sub-plots to this case. Mr. McN
amara said to me that I was only
out to get a convic
tion but
that's not how the system works. Perhaps he was indulging in
too many television thrillers.
This case was tried on hard facts. The existence of so much evidence wipes out the possibility of reasonable doubt. There was a feeling at times that there was a triviality to this case because nobody was actually killed. However, ricin was found in th
e prison cell of Ms. Kingston w
hich takes this ca
se out of any idea of fantasy. Sh
e travelled
to Ireland with a
deadly poison and had every
intention of killing
Penelope Garrett and Shona Morgan and later Rebecca McNa
mara. Thankfully,
Ms. Kingston changed her mind which is the only reason why the plot did not proceed. Mr. McNamara sent vicious emails where he speculated about staying with his wife's body in France. This is the level of
callousness involved.
The State's case is that Ms. Kingston is "assassin_hire" and Mr. McNamara is "
devils-revenge
." Mr. McNamara accepts that many of the things which were searched for online would have been of interest
to him; travel plans, camera equipment
and financial advice. There was a lot of email activity between "
devils-revenge
" and "assassin_hire and there was even some disgusting flirtation which slipped into some of the emails between them. Look at the telephone records between Mr. McNamara and Ms. Kingston. How are they going to get out of that? They were o
bviously plotting together." Mr. Clifford
str
e
ssed the importance of the email and phone charts which were included among the exhibits in the case.
"I invite you to draw th
e inference that they were discussing their “Plan B
.
”
The first mission failed
because Mr. Williams
decid
ed not to go through with his side of the plan so
M
s. Kingston decided to
do the job herself. Mr. McNamara’s
hiring
of an assassin was done in a very
calculated and businesslike manner and the cold detail of the methods discussed was nauseating and callous beyond belief. There was a lot of haggling over the price of these three
lives. Mr. McNamara claimed
he was being set up but to do this, someone would
have had to have gotten into his
emails. Mr. McNamara sent the money to England. He claims it was in response to blackmail. The Prosecution says it was the deposit for the hit. The two conspirator
s
sitting across the court were discussing the deposit. It all hangs together perfectly.
Mr. McNamara was the only person who had the tracking number and "someone" is checking the
courier’s
website and the email "
devils-revenge
" and shortly
afterwards Mark McNamara’s personal email is accessed.
He can try to talk his way of it but the tracking number is unavoidable. Mr. McNamara was caught "red-handed" when he input the tracking number as he was the only person, apart from the
supposed
bl
ackmailer, to have that information
. It's ludicrous, bizarre and ridiculous in the extre
me.
The turning point came when Ms. Kingston lost her temper at Mr. McNamara's lack of contact with her. Her short fuse led her to attempt to sell the contract to the targets instead. Than
k God for Ms. Kingston's
tantrum, otherwise these three women would not be here today and this would be a murder trial and not a
conspiracy to murder trial." H
e turned brie
fly to acknowledge the three women who were sitting
in the courtroom.
"Penelope rang Rebecca to tell her about Ms. Kingston's contract offer and obviously Rebecca told Mark what was going on. It was then that Mark realised that his plot was begi
nning to unravel and so he told his wife about Henry Whitington-Smyth.
This is the start of him covering his tracks. Mr. McNamara
has uttered dark hints and
mutterings but he won't even come straight out and tell us who he might suspect
is tryi
ng to set him up. Why? The answer is simple; because
t
here is nobody else."
Mr. Clifford
paused for a brief moment before continuing. "The summary of the case against Ms. Kingston is briefer than in the case against Mr. McNamara. Her case is much simpler. It's o
verwhelming;
open and shut. The main evidence ag
ainst her is Daniel Williams’
testimony, the identification parade and the forensic findings
relating to the stolen computers.
The evidence presented during the trial points to Savannah Kingston as the assassin. It has been
proven that her
intention was to kill and not to extort. If this was a "shakedown" she would have come to Ireland without any ricin. She went to the trouble of actually manufacturing
the poison, so there was a
clear plan. There's an intention to kill in the emails too."
Mr. Clifford
urge
d the jury to take Mark's stories and examine them closely to see if they stood up. "There are a few different sto
ries going on at the same time and it’s obvious that Henry Whitington-Sm
yth
is a complete figment of Mr. McNamara’s
imagination."